On May 17, 2006, at 11:46 AM, Doug Brewer wrote:
Turning the camera to AF does not automatically make it independent of your input, and setting it on manual does not guarantee success. When you are shooting for money, you're supposed to know what you're doing, and part of that is knowing when to use AF and when to use manual.
More to the point, you should know the strengths and limitations of your camera -- when to trust it to do its thing, and when to micromanage.
F'rinstance, I've never met a multi-pattern meter that I'd trust over a simple incident reading. There are probably some out there. Hell, the one in my DS2 might be really good, but I haven't given it much of a chance. If I find myself using the camera in more varied situations than I am now, I may end up spending a lot of time learning its foibles, but for now I just leave the thing on manual, the meter set to centre-weight to check against, and use my Sekonic. And actually, because the light never changes I haven't even brought my Sekonic out this year -- I just point the camera at the grass and make sure I'm getting the reading I expect.
-Aaron
