[Leica] Re: Best Hadow and Highlight Metering

[Doug Cooper <visigoth@echonyc.com>]

Now, Canon, on the other hand, got it right in their T90... They also had
highlight/shadow buttons, but their implementation was much smarter: press
the shadow button once, and the reading was adjusted -0.5 EV.  Press it
again, another -0.5 EV adjustment, and so on.  The highlight button
adjusted upwards in increments of 0.5 EV I believe.

>This puts control in the the hands of the photographer who is at the
>scene and knows what the camera meter is being pointed at, rather than in
>the hands of the designer who has no clue about this.  For quick yet fine
>control of exposure, I cannot imagine a system other than this
>spot-meter-and-nudge that can beat it.


This is fine, but it seems to defeat the purpose of having a one-button
zone fix.  I mean, if I want to adjust for a particular amount -- say, 2
stops for shadow -- I can always set the exposure compensation on the
Aria, and use the spot setting to meter the shadows.  That's *less* work
than the nudge system on the Canon.  What's nice about the Olympus is that
it's a one-touch Zone meter.  That said, you're right:  it would be nice
to be able to modify the settings.  The perfect meter would be a hybrid
between the OM4ti and the Canon T90:  one in which the shadow and
highlight buttons had variable settings, but remained one-touch.

Douglas Cooper