Sony Please Fix: Metering Throws Away as Much as 2.33 Stops of Dynamic Range
Related: Canon, digital sensor, dynamic range, Expose Somewhat To Right, Expose To The Right, exposure, Fujifilm, Hasselblad, histogram, Leica, Nikon, please fix this, please fix this camera, please fix this Canon, please fix this Fujifilm, please fix this Hasselblad, please fix this Leica, please fix this Nikon, please fix this Sony, Sony, Sony A7R, Sony A7R II, Sony A7R III, Sony A7R IV, Sony A7R V, Sony mirrorless
re: post processing and Adobe Camera Raw
re: ETTR
ETTR = Expose To The Right: increasing exposure for RAW capture so as to minimize sensor noise, maximize dynamic range. The term refers to a histogram pushed right.
ESTR = Expose Somewhat To Right: increase exposure but don’t get greedy!
All forms of metering in all of today’s digital cameras are spectacularly bad. Meaning they grossly underutilize the sensor capability most of the time.
Metering is designed to produce a “middle gray” with the goal of producing a JPG. It is not designed to use the sensor to its potential. T
Here in 2024 in the age of AI, cameras are still operating on 'stone age' digital exposure algorithms. Detuning the camera potential to a level far below its potential. A digital race car with the engine intentionally detuned from 500 HP to 100 HP.
This is digital. Fully programmable, not bound to what film could do. Camera designers are in a mental prison, locked into thinking that no longer applies.
Below, compare these two camera histograms. The +0 one is as metered by the Sony A7R V. It is obviously underexposed, even by a perceptual standard.
As it turns out, the sensor can accept up to 2.33 stops more exposure with no visible difference, no clipping, no blow-out. A full exposé on that coming soon. No, not with camera JPEGs of course. But from the RAW certainly.
That’s like shooting at ISO 500 vs ISO 100. That’s what these 'stone age' metering systems are doing for you: delivering grossly inferior capture cquality in order to target a “middle gray” for final-image JPG production. Conflating capture exposure with output brightness. It’s just stupid.
This is 2024 and the age of the AI and that is the shit sandwich we are gagging down.
Sony please fix: there should be an “expose for maximum quality in RAW” metering and exposure mode. The camera knows exactly how much exposure the sensor can accept; it is seeing the data at least 60 times a second while generating Live View. But it’s not just Sony, it’s every camera company. To call out 1/6 stop or at most 1/3 stop improvement in sensor technology while literally throwing away 2.33 stops of dynamic range makes a mockery of judgment and common sense.
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