Nikon 8700 - Manual (Page 89)

79
Menu Guide
—
The Shooting Menu
Using the shooting menu: 74
Metering
Choose a metering method suited to the composition
and lighting conditions.
METERING
Matrix
Spot
Center-weighted
Spot AF area
Option
Matrix
Camera compares mea-
surements from 256 areas
of frame with library of
typical compositions to set
exposure for entire frame.
How it works
Spot AF
area
Links spot metering to ac-
tive focus area when auto
or manual focus area se-
lection is in effect (
93).
Use instead of autoexposure lock to me-
ter off-center subjects. Matrix metering is
used when focus-area selection is off.
Recommended for most situations.
Spot
Camera meters area
shown by square in center
of monitor. Only about
1 /
32
of frame is metered.
Ensures that subject in metering target
is correctly exposed even if background
is much brighter or darker. Can be used
with autoexposure lock (
20) to meter
off-center subjects.
Center-
weighted
Camera meters entire
frame but assigns weight
of 80% to area in center
of frame occupying rough-
ly ¼ of total. Classic meter for portraits; preserves back-
ground details while letting lighting con-
ditions at center of frame determine ex-
posure. Can be used with autoexposure
lock (
20) to meter off-center subjects.
When to use it
Metering
Metering is shown by icons in the control panel and shooting display. No icon appears
in the shooting display when
(Matrix) is selected. When spot AF-area metering is
selected, a icon appears in the control panel.
Control panel
Shooting
display
Spot metering
target
F5.6 F5.6 F5.6 1/125 125 1/125 15 15 15
8M 8M 8M