Exposure Scale-Indicator? What's the Value of it?
 

. .. back again . .


1/- How do you use it? What benefits does it give you?

2/- How is this better/worse than zebra bars? Exposure gives a general value to ALL the frame - ZBs give you area-specific representations, yes I know, soooo... how do you use this Scale?


TIA,

Grazie

Well, it looks nice :-), anyway I trust to zebra stripes.

The exposure index in the viewfinder --the line with the floating triangular indicator-- can be very useful. In brief, it's the camera's back-seat driver. The position of the triangle indicates the camera's current exposure values as compared with the exposure that it would normally set under a programmatic mode (Tv, Av, P, green box). So if you know you wanted to, say, manually underexpose a scene by a stop (compared to the camera's default exposure) you can continuously see whether or not you're dong that.

Zebra bars only show areas of the image that have reached or exceeded the zebra's luminance settings. That is, zebras only warn of blow-outs. That's a very different indication than that of the exposure index.

Gee whiz, Ken. You're so much better than the operator's manual!

Oh yes Chris, Ken is - and he's ours! However, he DOES need the right question too y'know!

KEN ! THANK YOU! ! ! !

Grazie

Works the same way on the bigger XL series cameras also. Good explanation, Ken. I have always understood the difference but I had never been able to state it so eloquently!

-gb-