Originally posted by tangcy
Any use of it?
Also what's the AEL button for? I know it locks the exposure but why do you need to lock it?
I am using uzi lah, so need Jayan's help
I am not Jayan, but maybe I can help.
Bracketing is used when you are not sure of the correct exposure, i.e., in funny lighting conditions when you think the camera's metering may be fooled. So when you use bracketing, you can set the camera to take 3 or 5 shots of the same scene while varying the exposure by an EV amount that you specifiy. For e.g., if you think the uncertainty of exposure is 1/3 EV, you can set bracketing of 3 shots at +-1/3EV, and the camera will take 1 shot at the metered exposure, one shot at -1/3EV of the metered exposure, and one shot at +1/3EV of the metered exposure.
Bracketing is more useful for film cameras, cos for digital cameras, you can adjust exposure at once if it is not right cos you can review your shots immediately. For film cameras, in order to be assured of a properly exposed shot, bracketing is used sometimes.
As for AEL, you usually lock exposure during difficult lighting conditions too. For e.g. the scene is strongly backlit, but you don't want your foreground subjects to be underexposed, so you can frame your subjects first, then lock exposure, then reframe your shot to include the background. But note that you can also lock exposure by half-pressing the shutter and hold it there.
Another occasion for AEL is when you are taking panorama shots. Usually you would want the exposure to be consistent for all your shots so that they will be coherent when you stitch them up. For the 2100, I think when you go into panorama mode, exposure is automatically locked.
Personally, I don't use AEL much. Usually just do a half-shutter.