Ques 1. How can I use the build-in flash to take a photograph of a low toned person against a mid tone wall WITHOUT letting the flash washing out all the details on the wall? (will it be a miracle to do this?)

Ques 2. How does the EOS A2 16-segment metering system works. In what situation will it works better than the center-weight metering mode?

Thanks a lot.

-- Bernard T. (andromede@hotmail.com), July 30, 1998

Answers

1. With slide film, this will probably be a miracle. With print film, it can probably be done. It also depends on what you mean by low toned. If you mean a dark skinned person, it will be harder to do. If you mean a light skin person, it shouldn't be too hard. Bracket the flash exposure compensation +/- 1 stop in half stops would be the best advice I could give.

2. I don't have any experience with the A2, and my Elan IIe only has a 6 segment meter. Matrix metering seems to work better than centerweighted most of the time though. Especially with flash. The A2 doesn't have E-TTL flash metering though, so I don't know if it matters with flash photography for it. For backlit subjects without flash, spot metering will work best. Other than that, I can't really say which is best for what.

-- Brad (reloader@webtv.net), July 30, 1998.

Brad answered your first question. Now, 6 or 16 zone metering- all goes the same way. Camera measures 16 zones of the picture, evaluates the data and gives you AVERAGE as your exposure values. It does put more weight on the focus point area, though. Evaluative metering works just like center-weighted, only it's more sophisticated. In most conditions you'll get the same or almost the same exposure value. It was left on modern cameras mostly for those, who"ate their teeth" on center-weighted and can easy compensate for difficult light conditions.

Hope it helps a little.

-- Darek (dszpunar@flash.net), July 31, 1998.

Someone I tend to believe sent me an email in the last couple of days asking me to correct the posting about matrix meters averaging the scene. It is difficult to explain, (even for him) but regardless of the number of segments they use a computer program to try to determine proper exposure. This of course goes beyond simple averaging.

The reason I said I wasn't sure how my 6 segment meter would relate to a 16 segment meter is because I tend to think there would be a bigger difference between centerweighted and matrix meters with more segments. I could be wrong, but if I am, why would anyone bother to make more and more complex meters?

-- Brad (reloader@webtv.net), August 03, 1998.

Thank you for "moderation", but if someone has better explanation or just wants to elaborate on the subject, why not doing it right here instead sending special requests to Brad? OK, its not just simple averaging, but didn't I say "more sophisticated"?! If your 6, 14 or 16 zone meter detects bright foreground and dark background, what does it do?- well, it tries to give you nicely exposed picture by averaging EVs so everything would come out nice. Sometimes the difference is too big and the picture comes over- or under-exposed anyway. If I worked for some camera manufacturer, I could say Evaluative meter finds the OPTIMUM exposure...since I don't, I say it averages it :) Now the Evaluative metering works best if connected to a focusing point(Canon), gets the subject distance info(Nikon) or camera has Expert Program(Minolta). This way it knows which part of the picture has to be exposed corectly and concentrates on it. That's something Center-weighted cannot do, unless all your pictures have their point of focus and attention always right in the center. If I'm wrong(15+ years with Center-weighted,1 year only with evaluative) corect me, I really dont mind and as long as its nothing rude,I don't take it personally...:)

-- Darek (dszpunar@flash.net), August 04, 1998.