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finally cracked the d7100 nut

Author	Post

Posted by blackfox: Fri Aug 23rd, 2013 16:44

1^st Post

no not broken the camera ,my lad has figured out why the camera is driving me and a lot of other people mad ,probably as he's a canon man and i have said all along this camera performs more like a canon than a nikon .
not sure if the higher end nikons do it but heres whats going on ,the camera is actually takings its meter reading off the CHOSEN FOCUS POINT .and is giving completely different readings as illustrated below

d7100 focus on black top by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr

focus on black top iso800,f5.6. 1/640th sec

focus on green of bottle by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr

focus point moved half a inch down now focus point on the green plastic
iso 800 f5.6 .1/2000th of a sec .

i think this now puts it to bed as when shooting b.i.f if your focus point is not on the bird and takes in the sky etc the whole pic is out of kilter .
i,m afraid for the way i work as well in constantly changing conditions and light that matrix metering is the only one that works .at least now i know what to do and why i,m doing it .and this might help others

and now i suppose someones gonna pop there head up and say i already knew that ,!!±!!

Posted by Eric: Fri Aug 23rd, 2013 17:21

2^nd Post

blackfox wrote:
no not broken the camera ,my lad has figured out why the camera is driving me and a lot of other people mad ,probably as he's a canon man and i have said all along this camera performs more like a canon than a nikon .
not sure if the higher end nikons do it but heres whats going on ,the camera is actually takings its meter reading off the CHOSEN FOCUS POINT .and is giving completely different readings as illustrated below

d7100 focus on black top by blackfox wildlife & nature imaging, on Flickr

focus on black top iso800,f5.6. 1/640th sec

But to be honest ...I thought it only applied to spot metering mode. I have always assumed centre weighted and especially matrix did their own thing!

Better go and RTFM.

BTW... Can you not adjust the diameter of the focus point...and therefore the area of the metering?

____________________
Eric

Posted by jk: Fri Aug 23rd, 2013 18:21

3^rd Post

Matrix metering is what I use 99.9% of the time. I use spot metering for very special conditions.

My understanding from when I first had my Nikkormat in 1973 is that the metering was either Spot or Average until Matrix Metering was introduced in 1983 in the Nikon FA.

Matrix metering is meant to read the whole screen but bias towards the centre or notional target.
Spot metering measures off the spot whose size is defined in the Menu where Spot Metering is controlled.
Average Metering does just that and provides no centre bias like in Matrix Metering.

More info here.
https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13774/~/what-is-the-difference-between-spot,-center-weighted-and-matrix-metering%3F

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Posted by blackfox: Fri Aug 23rd, 2013 18:48

4^th Post

i have always used matrix on previous nikons ,on this one as you have probably realised its not performing the same ,either new processor or new sensor ??? its taken all this time to work out why .hopefully now it can be applied to get better shots don't really want to change to canon .but time will tell

Posted by jk: Sat Aug 24th, 2013 05:20

5^th Post

Well I find this very interesting as either there is a bug in the firmware making the metering behave differently or Nikon have subtly and silently changed its design functionality or we have discovered something new in the way the matrix metering behaves.

I am not sure it is the third element as I am sure that I would have noticed this before as I tend to use Matrix Metering and centre spot AF focus so this should have given me problems and it would have been discussed before.
Maybe there is some other subtle change that has been implemented. Since I dont live in UK and so dont attend the NPS days it will be down to a telephone call to Nikon to try and work this out. I'll see if I can find the opportunity and time when I am in UK in September to ask the question.

Any which way it is interesting and very useful knowledge to have.

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Posted by blackfox: Sat Aug 24th, 2013 07:35

6^th Post

i haven't used other pics but he took a batch of nearly 200 jonathon ,obviously the two shown are close ups ,but he took one from a few hundred feet away of his girlfriends car first using the car as a focus point then the side fence next to it as a focus point ,exactly the same response as the bottles above ,completely varied exposures .most of the other shots showed it up to in one form or another .as i have stated before its not just me thats having these problems with it ,a p.m received this from a friend this morning states, "i shoot a burst lots of them are o.k then odd shots are over or under exposed .out of the burst" that was in a thank you message for trying to find out the cause .
my sons general view was that overall its a spot on super sensitive camera and sensor and is possibly to finely tuned ,leading to operator induced errors ,a statement i fully go along with .

the only thing that is bothering me now is ,is it taking the fun out of the photography that i do .i think the answer is possibly yes .and then is it worth sticking with such a complex piece of machinery or just take a step back and enjoy what i do instead with another brand or model o.O

Posted by jk: Sat Aug 24th, 2013 07:51

7^th Post

blackfox wrote: i haven't used other pics but he took a batch of nearly 200 jonathon ,obviously the two shown are close ups ,but he took one from a few hundred feet away of his girlfriends car first using the car as a focus point then the side fence next to it as a focus point ,exactly the same response as the bottles above ,completely varied exposures .most of the other shots showed it up to in one form or another .as i have stated before its not just me thats having these problems with it ,a p.m received this from a friend this morning states, "i shoot a burst lots of them are o.k then odd shots are over or under exposed .out of the burst" that was in a thank you message for trying to find out the cause .
my sons general view was that overall its a spot on super sensitive camera and sensor and is possibly to finely tuned ,leading to operator induced errors ,a statement i fully go along with .

the only thing that is bothering me now is ,is it taking the fun out of the photography that i do .i think the answer is possibly yes .and then is it worth sticking with such a complex piece of machinery or just take a step back and enjoy what i do instead with another brand or model o.O

Problem is what would you go to if not a D7100 ?
Back to a D7000 or D300.
I guess you need DX for the extra reach for the birds.
If Nikon pull their finger out we should get information on the D400 this year!.

I'll bring you a low use D300 (<10000 actuations) with battery pack if you want to swap in September. ;-)

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https://nikondslr.uk/gallery_view.php?user=2&folderid=none

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