Center-Weighted - Nikon D300 Complete Manual

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exposure than the D200 produced. Where a D200 might have

placed a value at 122,122,122 the D300 is placing that same

value at something more like 128,128,128, which appears

visually brighter.

The reason for discussing this with the metering system is that

you need to be careful to assess exposure separately from

tonal placement when you're trying to figure out the metering

system. Those new Picture Control settings are a little tricky,

and interact with exposure settings a bit.

I have a couple of final comments about the matrix metering

system after having used it now in the field for awhile:

Watch the AF sensor! Especially in Single Point AF mode

the D300 is prone to compensate highly for what's under

the autofocus sensor you pick. If that's darker than middle

gray, your exposure will be "brightened," while if it's

brighter than middle gray, your exposure will be

"lowered." Most of the inconsistent metering complaints

I've heard can all be traced back to this.

Snow good! More so than any previous Nikon matrix

system, the new one in the D300 seems to capture snow

and very bright scenes more like we would using

traditional spot metering and compensation. If you're used

to dialing in compensation in bright situations, back away

from that control and let the camera do its thing if the

overall contrast range isn't too great. Having shot on

glaciers and in snow several times now, I'm impressed at

how much better the D300's meter is at getting it right (or

at least close) than previous matrix meters were.

Center-weighted

Nikon's center-weighted metering system measures the

entire frame, but effectively separates it into two zones, the

central area and the outer area. The exposure is based 75%

on the central area, 25% on the outer area. (Note that the

Thom Hogan's Complete Guide to the Nikon D300