GFX50s - Exposure Compensation Question

My Exposure Compensation button is driving me crazy!  It seems to have a mind of its own,

I shoot in Manual Mode, setting aperture with the aperture ring, setting shutter speed with shutter speed dial on top, then fine tuning it with Rear Command Dial, if any of that matters.

In the Set-Up menu, in the Function Settings, I have my Exposure Compensation button set to "On/Off Switch", so that I should be able to set my chosen Exp. Comp. by pushing the Exp. Comp. button once, change the setting, and then push the Exp. Comp. button a second time to exit out of the Change mode.

That doesn't seem to work at all.  My Exposure Compensation seems to continuously change itself depending on where the lens is pointed (e.g., how light or dark the scene is where the lens is pointing).  This is driving me NUTS!

I assume I've made some little mistake with some setting somewhere, but I haven't been able to figure it out.  Searched the manual over and I doing exactly what it says to do for Exp. Comp. setting, but to no avail.

Is there some related setting I also have to set in a particular fashion to get the Exp. Comp Button to act correctly?  Ihaven't found anything in the manual or on Google so far that helps.

If I read what you wrote correctly then the flaw is in the term exposure compensation while shooting the camera in manual exposure mode.  Exposure compensation is something you do to override a camera's exposure calculations when shooting in an automatic mode such as Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Auto ISO, or Program mode.  There is no compensation in manual mode since you are picking everything manually.  So called compensation is done by changing either shutter speed, aperture, or to deviate from what the exposure meter says - there is no compensation, you just change one of the variables to give a different result than the meter.  

Your confusion, again if I read what you wrote right, is that the meter indicator changes as you move the camera around.  When in manual mode, that scale is an exposure scale, not a scale that tells you how much you have compensated.  For example, in an automatic mode, if you dial in, say, -2/3 compensation, the scale always shows to be at -2/3 but the exposure values in the camera, based on which automatic mode you are using, are changing as you move the camera around to maintain that -2/3 based on it's evaluation of the luminosity of the scene.  But in manual mode, you are not utilizing that automation so the indicator jumps around to tell you how it is evaluating the exposure you have chosen manually based on its evaluation of the scene - it is a light meter and it moves around to give you an indication of whether it thinks you are under or overexposing the scene based on which meter pattern you are using.

So in an auto mode, it is simply an indicator of the amount of compensation you have dialed in where in manual mode it is a light meter - if you want the actual exposure to be -2/3 you will have to manually adjust one of the variables until the indicator on the meter scale shows -2/3.  Another example - let's say you are set-up on a tripod and dial in a certain exposure in manual mode, now all the sudden a cloud goes in front of the sun.  All of the sudden the indicator on the scale will go off scale to the negative side and you will have to change one of the exposure variable to bring it back to where you want it.  In an automatic mode, the indicator will stay in exactly the same place but your exposure values will have been adjusted significantly by the camera's automation.

Hope that explains it - this is the case pretty much with any camera in manual mode.  Some cameras do allow you to dial in compensation even in manual mode but all that is doing is utilizing a different way to change one of the variables and biasing the meter in the direction that you compensated in.

Thanks E.J.. Yes, I did a poor job of explaining my frustration. My frustration is with the reading of the Exposure Compensation in Manual mode. In my mind, the exposure compensation reading should never move unless I set it, but it reads + or - as I move the camera around. I realize the exposure values will (& should change} as I point the camera in different directions, but I DO NOT want any exposure compensation to automatically occur if I choose to shoot a scene intentionally over or under exposed.

I guess my real question should be, when the exposure compensation is reading -2/3 (on the top LCD) while in manual, is the camera actually trying to compensate to that extent, or is it just letting me know the scene is not properly exposed (according to camera's brain)?

If I read E.J. correctly, I think he is right. To find out if the camera actually compensate the exposure regardless of your manual settings, I think all you need to do is to look at the resulting photo. Take a photo of the same scene with another camera (or even a cell phone)
 in real manual mode and compare the photos if you like.

Bill, you should be able to answer your question by noting the exposure settings (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) when you fire the shutter and then comparing them to the EXIF info. for the shot.

I've never used this particular camera, but I should full manual 99.99% of the time and with every camera I've used over the years, when shooting in M, any sort of meter display is a reflection of the camera's attempt to reflect "appropriate" exposure, depending on the metering mode used.  (I use spot pretty much exclusive, but the analogy holds even if you're using center-weighted or evaluative as well.)

So, I suspect that what you're seeing on your LCD screen is analogous to what I laid out in the paragraph immediately above, but to be sure, run the full test as explained in the first paragraph.

Are you referring to the scale on the top LCD, that is a duplicate of the meter reading inside the camera?  It's not exposure compensation (which as I wrote earlier is something that is used to override a camera's automation in an automatic exposure mode).  In manual mode that simply tells you its evaluation of the exposure settings you have chosen in manual mode vs what it thinks it should be.  So if the scale is at +2/3, for example, it is simply telling you that it thinks you are overexposing by 2/3 of a stop.

Personally I don't use these scales at all and rely on highlight and lowlight blinkies in the viewfinder or on the rear LCD to fine tune my exposure.

Excellent, thank you.  The reason I was concerned is that in Capture One's metadata it lists the camera's evaluation or "suggestion" of what it thinks the exposure should be as Exposure Compensation actually being applied.

Example - I shot one image, in Manual mode, and it was properly exposed and looked properly exposed in Capture One.  The Exposure Evaluation tool in C1 shows a proper exposure (picture 1 below).  The metadata for that image shows an Exposure Compensation of +2.0 (picture 2 below).  Can you think of a reason why this occurs like this?  As always, thanks for your help!

It may just mean that the camera is set to +2 for automatic exposures.  Put the camera into Aperture priority and see if it is set to +2.  Manual exposure mode would ignore that setting.

I will try changing the mode and will see what effect, if any, that has. Thanks again, E.J.