User ID

Amen from this corner.

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As to Nikon’s Color Matrix metering, my understanding is that the algorithms for the highly auto metering use color to identify certain reliable scene types, think “Caucasian head shot” or “Blue sky vista” etc etc. this would inform the matrix what brightness likely ought to be expected from what areas of the frame.

Obviously, distance data would further aid the algorithms in classifying the type of scene so it won’t choose “Blue sky vista” if the focus is at close range nor choose “Head shot” if focus is at great distance.

IOW someone such as yourself, knowing full well how to meter using your own knowledge, would never experience any magic from the Color Matrix metering concept cuz you’d do your own thinking.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Odd, how this would dove-tail with the Spelling/Grammar post also of today. If you saw it.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Yeah...I use matrix metering when I'm not using highlight weighted metering (when I'm shooting primarily for JPEGs vs. when I'm shooting for raw images). I know that's the pooper scooper rumor, but in my experience, it doesn't work anything like that...camera response would be too slow, for one thing. Instead, the algorithm just balances the EV levels in the center of the frame in a prescribed way against the EV levels at the edges when calculating the exposure level. There is no magic at all, just some arithmetic. It's actually explained in the manuals. This is at least how it works with the D500 (since the D200, actually, and I don't know before that), the D810, and the D850.

I don't know for certain about what happens with the entry level and consumer cameras that offer "scene modes." But from playing with those cameras a little bit, I believe those modes only make some adjustments to things like sharpness, contrast, saturation, and maybe white balance, which can actually be pretty useful.

Auto white balance doesn't work anything like what most folks think, either. It simply tries to move the color histograms around so that they are all on top of each other. That's all it can do. The camera has no clue about the color of the incident light or of what is supposed to be white or gray in the frame. Early versions of AWB involved capturing an image of a white test object and having the camera adjust to it. I haven't seen a camera that works like that in years, even though it is a pretty valid way to do AWB.

BebuLamar

I never see any good description of the matrix metering system.

nervous2 Loc: Provo, Utah

Thanks for providing this list. I've saved it and it will be nice to have in one place.

Robert Ley

As I have been a Nikon shooter for almost 50 years I have many wonderful Ai and AIS lenses and have used them on my D600 and D7100 and have a question for you as you seem pretty knowledgeable. I know how to use the lenses that have a single maximum aperture and single focal length but what if it has a variable aperture such as f:3.5-4.5 and it is a zoom lens, what focal length and f stop do you plug into the menu?

kb6kgx Loc: Simi Valley, CA

You enter in the “first” number. If the lens is a f4.5-6.3, you enter “4.5”.

Winslowe

https://www.google.com/search?
Some good explanations here:
q=nikon+matrix+metering&rlz=1C1SQJL_enUS873US873&oq=Nikon+Matrix+Metering&aqs=chrome.0.0i457j0l3j0i22i30l4.17462j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

BebuLamar

I found nothing that said matrix metering is like below:

"Instead, the algorithm just balances the EV levels in the center of the frame in a prescribed way against the EV levels at the edges when calculating the exposure level. There is no magic at all, just some arithmetic. It's actually explained in the manuals. This is at least how it works with the D500 (since the D200, actually, and I don't know before that), the D810, and the D850."

The matrix metering system if far more complex than what described above by Larry.

Robert Ley

[quote=kb6kgx]You enter in the “first” number. If the lens is a f4.5-6.3, you enter “4.5”.[/qu

That explains the f stop, what about the focal length. Say I want to use my 35-105 f:3.5-4.5 which by the way is a great lens.

User ID

Sometimes I enter the lens data, but not for every lens. The data doesn’t actually DO anything so you can enter whatever is meaningful for you, or nothing at all.

In my Nikon SLRs, the manually entered data does nothing operationally but in my LV cameras it controls the IBIS, so with those I assign a button for instant access.

kb6kgx Loc: Simi Valley, CA

[quote=Robert Ley][quote=kb6kgx]You enter in the “first” number. If the lens is a f4.5-6.3, you enter “4.5”.[/qu

That explains the f stop, what about the focal length. Say I want to use my 35-105 f:3.5-4.5 which by the way is a great lens.[/quote]

Can’t answer that. I just have a couple of older primes I have entered

BebuLamar

The aperture you enter affects the matrix metering but not much and only in some situations.