Originally posted by mattdm I'm still puzzled by this idea anyway. Why have an automatic mode with the sole function of telling the other automatic mode "hey, do it right" — why not rather just have the automatic mode get it right in the first place. (That is, better matrix metering — one of the wishlist items that keeps getting kicked around.)
Here was my line of thinking:
Ned made the comment to notice a detail in the photo. I took this to mean a deatail of the camera GH was holding.
What was unique to both the SV and what I have seen of the K-7? I noticed the added on light meter on top of the SV. The light meter has a small round "eye". I started to think about the focus light on the K-7. What if it was not a focus light but a sensor? I don't think this thing on the K-7 is a white balence meter, or it would have a frosted lens, not a clear cover. What if the "eye" on the K-7 was a non-TTL meter like the meter on the SV?
My next thought was why would they do that? What would a non-TTL meter be doing on a camera that is expected to have a new 77 zone matrix metering system? What could an external light meter do that the internal one could not?
So then I thought about all of the modern cameras I am familiar with. All of them have exposure compensation, and non of them can adjust exposure comp automatically. I thought some on why I use exp comp. Generally I use it when lighting conditions are extreme. Bright snow, or dark backgrounds. I thought on how I know when I need to dial in some exposure comp. I know to use exposure comp by the brightness of the ambiant light. Or in other words, I know I am looking at a dark scene or a bright scene.
Of all the cameras I've used, the light meter can only be trusted to adjust the exposure to 18% on average. Even complex matrix systems do this. So a matrix metered snow scene will still under expose. How could the camera know that the scene was bright?
So I thought what if there was a photosensor that worked independently of the metering system. It could be used along withe the exposure meter to adjust the exposure up or down. Much in the same way I know when to dial in some comp.
In a way I felt all of this fit with Ned's "clues". I felt it fit the idea of old Pentax technology being used to make a new modern camera. It also fit the rumor that the K-7 had some feature that no other camera has. I don't know of any camera that has the ability to adjust exposure depending on the ambiant light of the scene. The closest would be Nikon's colour matrix system, that can "see" that there is allot of say yellow in the photo, and adjust the exposure up to prevent under exposure. So in a way I was thinking that the addition of a seperate external light meter was the way Pentax solved the metering restrictions found in all cameras.
I figured if my TV can tell when the room is dark, why not a camera?
But then I read Ned's addition to his blog. Now I think he is just talking about the tactile sense of using the K-7. I imagine the buttons and switches all have that precise feel that you used to get with the old cameras like the SV.
And that, in far too many words was my thought process.