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by 06Honda on Sat Feb 26, 2022 2:57 pm
06Honda
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Joined: 11 Feb 2013
I do mainly bird photography and would like to know a little more about the setting noted  in bold below:

Custom Setting Menu
a Autofocus
b5 Center-weighted area
6mm
8mm
10mm
13mm
Average

Mine is set to 8 mm. This setting is when choosing the size of the area given the most weight in center-weighted metering. Is one setting or selection in the list make any real difference for the photography that I do. Basically is there say a big difference between each of these for the overall outcome of a photo.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Sat Feb 26, 2022 5:24 pm
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E.J. Peiker
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Location: Arizona
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Are you using the center weighted meter or matrix metering?  In matrix it makes no difference whatsoever.  That setting only applies if you select center weighted metering.  The vast majority of Nikon shooters use the matrix meter.  If you are using center weighted metering, whether or not it makes a difference is how much of the center of the frame is the subject in.  So for example a bird in the distance against a bright sky, the larger sizes will bias the exposure towards the sky more since much more of the center area is sky where the smaller setting, assuming you can keep the bird perfectly in the center, will bias the exposure more towards the subject.  As I said, people using center wighted metering is pretty rare these days. 
 

by 06Honda on Sun Feb 27, 2022 7:38 am
06Honda
Forum Contributor
Posts: 143
Joined: 11 Feb 2013
I use center weighted most of the time for an individual bird shot perched. Being rare :) I will give matrix a try, but thanks the explanation on the center weighted metering most helpful.
 

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