Originally posted by Parallax That depends on the camera they were using. Some cameras had spot metering capability, some did not have built in meters.
Handheld meters were usually either incident light meters (which is the most accurate way to meter), or spot meters.
Spot metering and also matrix metering with Pentax was first available in 1991 (Z10/PZ10); not switchable by the user, but dependend on lens type and exposure mode. With this model, center weighted measurement was not possible.
With later (and more expensive) models of the Z/PZ series there was more flexibility, and the old center weighted method was added ("re-introduced").
I seem to remember the prototype of the Spotmatic introduced spot metering (at Photokina?), but this was skipped with the production model.
EDIT:
It is a long time since I sold my Z10.
But if I remember correctly, with this otherwise P&S like camera you could press a button to access full "M" (or was it Av?) mode for the next shot instead of the standard "P", and this would automatically also force the exposure metering from matrix to spot.