Pentax K-50 review – Metering
Images: Although the 12-bit raw files don’t have quite the same detail as the 14-bit files from the K-5 II, there is still a tremendous amount of latitude in the shadow detail of images
One of the best reasons for using Pentax cameras is that the metering systems behave exactly as you would expect them to. The 77-segment metering system of the K-50 is no different, with the metering generally producing an exposure that is fairly average throughout the scene.
This does of course mean that the metering can sometimes be fooled by large bright highlights or areas of shadow detail, but most enthusiast photographers, particularly those with a background in film photography, will find the metering system very familiar, and easy to predict how it will respond to the light in certain scenes.
As you would expect, spot and centreweighted metering are also available, although I generally found that the evaluative metering and the exposure-compensation dial were fast enough to produce the exposure that I wanted.
One of the great advantages of the K-50’s impressive dynamic range is that you can underexposed images by 2-3EV and still recover shadow detail without introducing too much noise. This means that spot metering and exposing to preserve an image’s highlight detail is possible. While using the K-50, there were a few times that I set the camera to spot metering, the exposure compensation to +1EV and then took the exposure reading from the highlight in the scene. This meant that highlight detail was retained, and quick adjustments to the raw file were all that was needed to reveal the shadow detail.
