JayB Loc: Northeast US

Reading a customer review of the 7DII; said Canon had removed the light meter(??). Doesn't the exposure compensation scale still act as light meter in manual mode? Thanks.

JayB Loc: Northeast US

Mude=Mode. Oops.

BebuLamar

Canon doesn't not remove the light meter. If the light meter is removed the exposure compensation doesn't work either.

chaman

The light meter is still there but it was changed from its usual position when looking through the viewfinder. Its located to the right side instead of the bottom.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Maybe I just don't know what a light meter is, but I'm pretty sure I've been using one!! LoL
Maybe he's referring to a physical needle like in the old analog days?
You know, those old needles that would bounce around erratically as you move me the camera around from light to dark to light?!
SS

BebuLamar

Just read the manual. In manual mode the meter of course still work but the exposure compensation doesn't (which you don't need) unless Auto ISO is on then the exposure compensation still work in manual mode.

PaulR01 Loc: West Texas

With the 7Dii you can not manually change the exposure control in manual mode. Exposure is automatically adjusted for you.

JayB Loc: Northeast US

Hm.

JayB Loc: Northeast US

That makes sense.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

But the EC doesn't function in manual mode! Only the EC bracketing range to shoot an over/under sequence for HDR.
SS

JayB Loc: Northeast US

Let me try this again. In the old 7D and on the 5DIII, the exposure compensation scale is located at the bottom of the viewfinder. An semi-automatic modes (aperture and shutter preferred modes), it has a pointer that indicates how much, if any, exposure compensation you have dialed in. In Manual Mode, the pointer becomes active and acts as a light meter, indicating whether the camera thinks your Manual Settings will yield a balanced exposure. I didn't mean to imply that I thought the camera did not have a light meter at all, but according to this person's review possibly that the exposure compensation scale did not convert to an active light meter in Manual Mode. PaulR01 posted: With the 7Dii you can not manually change the exposure control in manual mode. Exposure is automatically adjusted for you. This makes no sense to me. Nothing is automatically adjusted for you in Manual Mode. Bebulamar suggested I read the manual. If I had the camera I'd read the manual. I could download the manual but I was out and about and just posting a quick question. Thanks Sharpshooter. Yes, it seemed weird to me too. I have no idea what he was talking about. I'll just go to the store and try it. Yeah, the exposure scale light meter is a sophisticated illuminated version of the old bouncy needles.

JayB Loc: Northeast US

Thanks, SS. I get that. EC doesn't function in manual because of course you would make changes directly to your SS or aperture. The EC scale still shows in bottom of the viewfinder though, and the pointer becomes an active light meter in Manual Mode, moving along the scale depending on the amount of light the camera detects that would hit your sensor, relative to your settings. This all sounds more complicated than it actually is. Ai!

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I don't know what you're reading... but, no, the light meter hasn't been "removed" from the 7DII.

I suspect they were referring to the 7DII using two different scales in the viewfinder.... One across the bottom of the screen that shows Exposure Compensation and the other vertically oriented on the right hand side that displays the meter readings OR Exposure Compensation, depending upon the exposure mode setting. This is actually a typical arrangement on the more pro-oriented Canon models. "Lesser" models share a single scale at the bottom of the viewfinder (also across the bottom of the top LCD display on the shoulder of many of the models... and shown on the "Q" screen on the rear LCD, when that's used).

When the 7DII is set to any of the AE modes, the bottom scale is displayed and shows the current Exposure Compensation setting.... and the vertical scale shows the same. But when switched to fully Manual mode, the scale across the bottom of the viewfinder is turned off... Only the vertical scale on the right is shown, showing the current setting. The scale on the LCD on top serves both purposes... So it remains on displaying E.C. in AE modes or meter readout when in Manual mode.

Just to clarify, Exposure Compensation is only a feature with an auto exposure mode: Av, Tv or P... as well as Manual with Auto ISO (which is really just fourth AE mode). E.C. is used to override the auto exposure settings that the camera wants to make, to "correct" for skewed results that might be caused by unusually bright or darker subjects/scenes, or to dial in some special effect (i.e., a "high key" or "low key" look).

There's no Exposure Compensation in Manual mode. It's not necessary or desirable when setting exposure fully manually. If you want to vary from the "recommended" meter reading (with the indicator "zeroed out" in the center), all you have to do is dial in whatever bias you want by adjusting shutter, aperture or ISO, or some combination of them.

A lot of people confuse this, perhaps because a lot of cameras share the same readout scale for both purposes. If you've used other Canon models, unless they were top-of-the-line pro-oriented models, they likely shared one scale in the viewfinder, across the bottom.

When the model was first introduced, there were some 7DII buyers who whined and pouted about the dual display scales, and the fact that the E.C. scale turns off when not in an AE mode. Those folks probably were steping up from another Canon model and were expecting to see the single scale, serving both purposes. But the 7DII's actually is a better arrangement, once accustomed to it. It makes easier changes to settings while keeping your eye to the viewfinder... and probably took me all of 24 hours to get used to, when I first got my 7DIIs (Note: a number of things displayed in the 7DII viewfinder are optional and user-selectable... but these scales are not).

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

That is only partially correct. On a 7D Mark II, if you are in Manual mode and are using Auto ISO you can use Exposure Compensation which allows you to tweak the ISO. Obviously, when using Auto ISO, manual mode becomes to some degree another semiautomatic mode. But other than ISO control, shutter speed and aperture are still fully manual.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

But I'm sure you know that EC works in manual mode if you've selected Auto ISO. I believe the 7D2 may have been the first Canon to have that feature although it's possible it was also on the 1Dx which predated it.