exposure compensation in manual mode

[Spinnerette]

Ok, so I did my research and read this post here in DPS a thousand times, then this nikontech answer a thousand more (actually, just one time, since it's so clear).

What I don't get is: why, if exposure compensation makes no difference in manual mode, do people use it?

All the time I see pictures taken on manual mode with compensated exposure (absolutely random flickr examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Should I assume people had it programmed when using aperture priority for instance, and forgot about it?

Am I missing something here?

[teaking]

The only exposure compensation in manual is the shutter and aperture dials, maybe the EV showing in the picture information is to do with the meetering and it is how far off zero it is. They may have used matrix and decided it was too bright and manual adjusted to it was -1 on the meter reading. Just a guess though.

[zona5101]

exposure compensation does make a difference in the exposure. The question really is why? If you're in manual mode, why use exposure comp when you can just change your aperture or shutter.

So why use exposure comp in manual? 1) sure they could have forgotten 2) some people may think and react more quickly when they think in terms of +/- exposure rather than 1/60->1/125->1/30 3) their camera may be set up so dialing in exposure comp is easier to do than changing aperture or shutter. My bet is mostly number 2 - easier for people to make corrections in terms of exposure comp.

[LoveDSLR]

I agreed with you regarding those examples. However, EV +/- can be used to correct the metering bias of the camera.