Sony Alpha 5000 review – Metering
Image: This image was shot in the 16:9 aspect ratio, at ISO 400 with multi-pattern metering. As you can see, the camera has balanced the exposure well and maintained some detail in the shadows without blowing out the church building’s highlights
The intelligent 1,200-zone evaluative multi-segment metering system from Sony’s most advanced SLT camera, the Alpha 77, is found in the Alpha 5000. Centreweighted and spot-metering modes are also included.
Even under challenging bright conditions, the Alpha 5000 isn’t afraid to push highlights to the edge for the sake of rendering some good detail in the shadows. The metering is well balanced when faced with a high-contrast scene, and highlights in key areas are maintained by using effective exposure compensation to resolve valuable image information.
Under overcast or cloudy skies, the evaluative system does a good job of recognising subjects in the foreground, reproducing an evenly lit subject with details intact, even in JPEGs. In the Alpha 5000’s raw files, I was also able to recover enough useful information to increase the contrast and saturation to combat the flatness associated with overcast conditions, as well as tweaking white balance.
As the autofocus is linked to the exposure setting, I found that I could get consistent results if I stuck with evaluative metering, focused on the darker areas of the scene by half-pressing the shutter and then recomposed the frame. Centre and spot metering functioned well for portraits and specifically chosen subjects.
