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The color Matrix meter of the F5 ought to be extraordinary. This is why Canon contract
photographer Arthur Morris has said that the world's best camera is the Nikon F5. I have
not tried it, because if I did I'm sure I wind up having to haul an F5 all over the place. I'm
being obstinate by not trying the F5, you don't have to be. Meter accuracy is the most
important aspect of image quality contributed by the camera, and why I shoot with Nikon.
This article refers to the conventional Matrix meter introduced in the FA in 1983 and
continues to this day in all Nikon AF SLRs.
BASIC EXPLANATION
see full original documentation here>>
Guessing your subject type
The Matrix meter first tries to guess what you are photographing (the hard part) and then
makes the appropriate exposure calculation (the easy part.)
You may have read that the Matrix meter compares the light reading to "over 30 million
billion zillion onboard stored images" or some other baloney. Those images aren't in the
camera. What the camera does do is use the experience gained from professional
photographers and analyzing many, many photos (that's your 30,000 number) in order to
help program the camera's firmware to recognize what sort of photo you are trying to
make. Once it has classified your image it then can make the best calculations for your
exposure.
The camera classifies images as shown on page 5 of the documentation.
Sunlit white values
These meters all also make use of a very important observation: the sun is always about
as bright on a clear day as is it is every other clear day. If a camera sees something above
the brightness of a gray card in sunlight (LV15), it knows that it is seeing something lighter
than gray. It knows this because it is smart enough to know that the sun didn't just get twice
as bright.
When it sees something that needs to be made lighter it deliberately "overexposes"
compared to a dumb meter so that the light items look light.
This is simple zone system application; if the meter sees something two stops above
where a gray card in daylight would be (LV15 + 2 stops = LV17, page A 33) then it knows to
"overexpose" this section two stops, in order to make it look white instead of gray.
If the Matrix meter sees segments that are really bright, say anything above LV 16-1/3, it
just ignores them. It knows that they represent bright highlights or direct sunlight, and
should not use them to calculate exposure. It instead puts more weight on the other
segments.
Absolute light levels
© 2007 KenRockwell.com 62 converted by Sándor Nagy