[kmladeno]

Greetings,
I am still new to my k-x. I prefer MF mode for shooting but I'm not sure it functions always right. Since some time I am trying to make the jump from A and S mode to M. Just tried to make different exposures of some stuff in my house using spot meter in M mode in MF. I focus with half-presiing the shutter and lock the exposure using the AEL/AF button. A star (sign for AEL) appears but EV continues to change while I am recomposing the scene. Is that normal? As I said I am not used to M yet and although I read some books about exposure, there are many things which are still blurry to me.
Thanks,
Kiril

[Adam]

In M mode the exposure depends on the shutter speed and aperture you've selected (and also the ISO of course), so as long as you don't change the settings, your exposure will inherently be locked. However, ambient light levels will of course change, so you need to adjust your parameters accordingly if you want to maintain proper lighting.

[pschlute]

As Adam said, in M exposure mode the exposure meter itself will change as you move the camera from a light to dark scene, but the exposure value (Tv and Av) you have selected wont change.

The AEL button (exposure lock) when used in M exposure mode has a different function. It allows you to move the shutter speed (or aperture value) and the camera will shift aperture value (or shutter speed) to keep your selected exposure constant. For example you manually meter a scene as 1/60 and f5.6 but then decide you want a two stop faster shutter speed. Just press AEL and change the shutter speed to 1/250....you will notice the aperture will automatically move to 2.8 as long as you have AEL enabled

[Fogel70]

The EV-scale in manual mode show how much your exposure settings differs from what the camera think is "correct" exposure. If you are using spot metering in manual mode and want to use the exposure value the camera suggest, you have to manually dial in the exposure until the EV-scale is centered. There is no point in using Auto Exposure-lock in manual mode as there is no "Auto Exposure" to lock.

You can also use green button for metering in manual mode (if your camera has green button) as green button turn on auto exposure in manual mode. By default green button is set to P-priority, but can be changed to Shutter- or Aperture-priority in custom settings. This works similar to using AE-lock in auto exposure modes, but with the advantage of not changing exposure until you press the green button again. Which is a reason why I prefer M-mode for spot metering.

[photoptimist]

I focus with half-presiing the shutter and lock the exposure using the AEL/AF button. A star (sign for AEL) appears but EV continues to change while I am recomposing the scene. Is that normal?

Yes, it is normal.

In M mode, the camera will use whatever shutter, aperture, and ISO setting you have chosen regardless of what's happening with the changing EV bar graph.

The best way to think about the EV bar display is that it always shows you the difference between the current camera exposure settings and the current light meter reading.

If you use the spot meter and AE-L but then recompose, the EV display will change to show how many stops over or under the current object under the spot meter is relative to the locked settings. It's actually a great way to double-check dynamic range such as checking that bright clouds aren't going to clip or that shadows aren't going to be too dark. When I use the sport meter, I lock the exposure settings and then take a quick tour of the scene just to get a feel for the range of tonality in it.

Overall, when you are in M mode or in any of the auto modes with AE-L, the EV display fluctuates because the camera settings are fixed but the meter reading might change as you recompose or your scene changes. In the auto modes (before you push the AE-L button), the EV display is fixed and set to the EV compensation value because the camera settings move up and down to track changes in the meter reading.

[paulh]

You can also use green button for metering in manual mode (if your camera has green button) as green button turn on auto exposure in manual mode

If I'm not mistaken, on the K-x, the AE-L button serves as the "green button" if you assign it as such.

[kmladeno]

Thanks for the very informative answers!

p.s. Yep, k-x has a green button, usually I assign it optical or digital preview