Why no multi-spot metering for Olympus DSLRs ?


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The camera will, at the end of the day, always arrive at ONE reading/estimate of exposure.

There will always remain areas over and under exposed. It is the camera man to decide whether the areas "correctly" exposed is "correct" for the picture's purposes.

And the most straightforward way to do that is spot metering - you tell the camera exactly where you want it exposed "correctly" and you can ignore all the algorithms and databases and blackboxes the dumb camera uses to decide on exposure, if in the first place these are unsatisfactory to you, the cameraman.

But if there is more than one area that are differently lighted and that you want correctly exposed, then it cannot be done in the camera. No camera ever could.

But with digital photograph, you can do local processing off the camera.

Then the question is a different one now, namely what is the best compromise exposure, derived in some ways from the to-be-correctly exposed areas, that best facilitate post processing?

I do not know what this answer is.

The best exposure for me is one that allows maximal data capture with my sensor, the rationale being that I have also maximal flexibility in data manipulation - no data no manipulation - to make that correct picture, which may include multiple correctly and differently exposed areas.
 

So that brings me to another question.

What is the the dynamic range or exposure latitude of a typical CCD sensor ?
 

So that brings me to another question.

What is the the dynamic range or exposure latitude of a typical CCD sensor ?

From reviews, it's usually about 7-8 stops, depending on ISO used.
 

In the past, Olympus flagship camera OM-4 has the most advance multi-spot metering built into the camera with both hilight and shadow control.

Why can't they build those functions into their DSLRs ?

According to the manual for E500, there is such a function built into this DSLR (pag 76). Is this the one you're refering to (spot metering - highlight control, sport metering - shadow control) ? :

http://www.olympus.co.jp/en/support/imsg/digicamera/download/manual/esystem/man_e500_en.pdf

However, I wonder what metering the camera uses to evaluate (obviously can't be using only the photosites in the spot metering area) and then determines how much changes to be made (in highlight or shadow control) and what auto changes in settings (aperture, shutter speed and ISO) are made to achieve the desired change in exposure.

I presume that the settings the camera changes depend on the shooting mode (aperture priority, shutter priority or auto) and what ISO mode (auto or ?) it is in.

However, we don't know exactly how the camera meters and then decides. So the photoghaper has no control and it's left to the camera.
 

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