Advanced Metering Battery Usage

[Nick Bedford]

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I prefer shooting with the shutter in its normal state, but the metering in Classic mode is really wildly inaccurate sometimes (especially with light sources in the frame).

 

I don't mind the Advanced mode (assuming the latency is not considerable) but I'm concerned it will eat battery by using the sensor to meter.

 

It's quite a lot better at accurately metering tough lighting so I'd prefer it.

 

Has anyone got any information on how much battery it uses over the classic metering?

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[jaapv]

Given the high capacity of the battery I do not think this is an issue at all.

The main drawback is that it slows the camera down.

 

Btw, classic mode is quite accurate, centreweighed has been the preferred method of photographers for many decades, but it does require some user input.

[plewislambert]

I am using advanced metering on my M240 and it works better than my M9 in difficult lighting situations. However, one does need to be watchful. I photographed some purple crocuses in a pot against a black mounting board background and the result was overexposed flower highlights, maybe by more than one stop. Fortunately much could be recovered from the raw image but I am more thoughtful now.

 

As an aside, using CV wide-angle lenses that give vignetting and noisy corners when brightened up, I find that one or two extra stops exposure reduces noise.

 

Noise is less than in my M9, which I expect to sell, as the M240 gives better results, notably hand held inside the British Museum at slow speeds and over 1250 iso.

 

Philip

[bocaburger]

In my 4+ decades of shooting I have used every form of metering from Sunny-16 to ancient extinction meters to handheld seleniums and CdS. Reflective and incident. TTL meters from the full-field averaging type in Pentax Spotmatics to centerweighted to various generations of evaulative/matrix. All of them can be fooled if relied upon blindly. All of them can produce perfect exposures consistently if the photographer makes the effort to learn how they "see" and remains mindful of it. What I dislike about the M240's implementation of "advanced" metering, and why I don't use it, is that it is slower, and puts twice the wear and tear on the shutter. YMMV. Use what works best for you.

[Mornnb]

In my 4+ decades of shooting I have used every form of metering from Sunny-16 to ancient extinction meters to handheld seleniums and CdS. Reflective and incident. TTL meters from the full-field averaging type in Pentax Spotmatics to centerweighted to various generations of evaulative/matrix. All of them can be fooled if relied upon blindly. All of them can produce perfect exposures consistently if the photographer makes the effort to learn how they "see" and remains mindful of it. What I dislike about the M240's implementation of "advanced" metering, and why I don't use it, is that it is slower, and puts twice the wear and tear on the shutter. YMMV. Use what works best for you.

 

I use classic mode it is faster.

With digital there is a lot of leeway, you can recover shots that are 1-2 stops out of proper exposure. And there is always the exposure simulation on live view so you can check if the metering is getting it wrong before you take the shot.

[Nick Bedford]

In my recent use of Advanced Metering, I've found the following:

 

• It is significantly better at handling tricky lighting.
  
• It chews through the battery noticeably quicker.
  
• You can be caught out and miss a shot when the camera goes to sleep and closes the shutter.

 

That being said, you are still going to be able to take a lot of photos before it's dead, but you can definitely notice the battery draining over the course of a day or two.

[jaapv]

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Well, I always check the battery and usually put in a fresh one before leaving home. A habit picked up with the M8/9, so running out over a day or two is not my experience.