A few folks have mentioned the lack of spot-metering in the 20D, and one person suggested that this is less of an issue with digital cameras in general. This got me thinking. One of the purposes of spot-metering is to make sure that the contrast range of a scene falls within the range of a given film, or that it is at least "placed" in relationship to that range in such a way that it can be then controlled further during development. Zone system and all that. In this respect, I understand why a SM would be less relevant for a digital camera. We also think of reversal film having an f/stop range of about 5 stops, and negative film about 7 stops.
So for me this brings up two questions: given that we still print from digital images, even though we can't really "expose for highlights, develop for shadows", isn't there still some benefit to being able to "place" values with a spot meter if for no other than reason than to make printing easier? And, what is the exposure range of a "typical" digital sensor? Is it closer to 5 or 7 stops?
(Note: all I own digitally so far is a G2, which has a sort of "spot meter." I use it a lot to do kind of an "exposure preview", placing that (I assume) 18% spot on different values and gauging the result in the LCD which i know you can't do with a DSLR except after the shot , but I do find it a very useful feature for that.)
A spot meter on the 20D would be nice, don't get me wrong. Or a multi spot meter, even better. But with digital one can bracket as much as you want and get instant feedback as a histogram. It's my understanding that one can, with some practice, tell from a histogram if you got the exposure right. Or you could always look at the actual picture. Also, there is partical metering of course, which may in many cases work good enough as a spot meter.
-- - Marius
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