Stop-down metering.

Really, “stopped-down” metering. Reading the light metering through the camera lens with the aperture set at the position that it’ll be at when the photo is taken.

Modern SLRs don’t work this way. Because the viewfinder gets really dark if the aperture is stopped down, modern SLRs meter with the aperture wide open, compensating internally for the aperture setting that you have specified. When you push the shutter release to take the photo the camera rapidly stops down the aperture to the pre-specified setting, takes the photo and then opens the lens aperture back up to wide open again.

However, if you adapt a lens meant for another system to your camera you may need to meter in stop-down mode since the lens will not have the ability to have its aperture controlled by the camera body.

cf. depth of field preview.

Entry last updated 2002-04-03. Term 1184 of 1487.

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