What is this in my viewfinder

[jaeros]

Hello ladies and gents.

I have a very dumb question to ask and hopefully someone can help me.

I have a nikon 3000 and in the viewfinder there is a scale looking thing. I don't know what is for so, it has a zero in the middle a negative and a positive side... oh and it also blinks. I can't, for the life of me, find the users manual.
Does the little scale has anything to do with light meter, although, i do know where the meter modes are at. I need to know what that thing is for. HELP please!!!



Thanks you.

[Chip]

Yep. It's the read out for the meter. If it reads on the "-" side, then the meter is telling you it thinks the photo is underexposed. If it reads on the "+" side, then the meter is telling you it thinks the photo is overexposed. In the middle means proper exposure, according to the meter.

By paying attention to the meter and by analyzing your photos, you'll be able to predict - before you press the shutter - whether any givien shot should be overexposed, underexposed, or set right in the middle, so that you get the results you want.

Nikon has the user's manual available on line, if that is something you're interested in reviewing.

[jaeros]

Originally Posted by Chip

Yep. It's the read out for the meter. If it reads on the "-" side, then the meter is telling you it thinks the photo is underexposed. If it reads on the "+" side, then the meter is telling you it thinks the photo is overexposed. In the middle means proper exposure, according to the meter.

By paying attention to the meter and by analyzing your photos, you'll be able to predict - before you press the shutter - whether any giving shot should be overexposed, underexposed, or set right in the middle, so that you get the results you want.

Nikon has the user's manual available on line, if that is something you're interested in reviewing.

I hope i quote you correctly.

Ah, that makes more sense now. Thank you so much for helping me.

[Vagebond]

Yes, it has something to do with the light meter. You can download a manual here:
User's Manual - D3000 - Guide to Digital Photography

[jaeros]

Originally Posted by Vagebond

Yes, it has something to do with the light meter. You can download a manual here:
User's Manual - D3000 - Guide to Digital Photography

Thank you!

[Mike367]

It's your exposure indicator. The + side indicates over exposure, the - side indicates under exposure. Flashing indicates the limits of the exposure meter are exceeded under current settings.

You can download the manual in .pdf format from the Nikon website.

[jaeros]

Originally Posted by Mike367

It's your exposure indicator. The + side indicates over exposure, the - side indicates under exposure. Flashing indicates the limits of the exposure meter are exceeded under current settings.

You can download the manual in .pdf format from the Nikon website.

Thanks Mike!

[inkista]

Small addendum. In full Manual mode, that's your meter. In an auto exposure mode, like S or A, it's going to be your exposure compensation scale--the camera will automatically shift your settings so that you'll be in the center of the scale, and you can move off it if you want to adjust.

The over/under/correct information of the scale is only according to the auto-exposure system in the camera. It may not be 100% correct--which is why we like to use exposure compensation and full Manual mode upon occasion.

The metering mode you choose (spot, center, average, etc.) will also affect the readout on the scale.

Most auto-exposure schemes do some form of averaging, and assumes that the scene you're trying to capture is going to hold as many light values as it does dark, and that averaging is going to be somewhere in the middle of the light/dark scale (aka, "middle gray"). How the auto-exposure system works (grossly oversimplified) is that the values on the sensor are all gathered (the mode you pick chooses which areas of the sensor selected, and how much they count towards the average), and then average/evaluated to find a "middle" value. That value is then assumed to be "middle gray" and the exposure settings are adjusted to make it sit there.

And for most scenes this gives you a good exposure.

But for a few scenes, it won't be. Taking a picture of a snow scene, for instance, or a night sky shot, or a picture at the beach. In each of those cases, where the "average" sits on the light/dark scale is going to be off. With the snow shot, your average is likely to be at the lighter end of the scale (and you'll be underexposed, since the AE system will try and make it middle gray), for the night scene, closer to the dark one (and you'll be overexposed, since the AE system will try and make it middle gray).

In these cases, you don't want to be at the center of the scale. You want to be about where your average should sit.

So, use the meter before you shoot. Use the histogram afterwards.

[cbndrv]

I just bought a D3100 and am very new to DSLRs and photography in general.

I am starting to understand how the exposure indicator works but something is still puzzling me. Occasionally the indicator just vanishes. This is usually in one of the priority modes (I think, if memory serves, it always stays on in manual mode, although I realize in this mode it's working as a light meter, yes?).

Why does it disappear and then reappear sometimes?

Thanks

[Chip]

Originally Posted by cbndrv

I just bought a D3100 and am very new to DSLRs and photography in general.

I am starting to understand how the exposure indicator works but something is still puzzling me. Occasionally the indicator just vanishes. This is usually in one of the priority modes (I think, if memory serves, it always stays on in manual mode, although I realize in this mode it's working as a light meter, yes?).

Why does it disappear and then reappear sometimes?

Thanks

Hi, and Welcome -

My guess is that in auto modes (such as protrait or landscape), the camera won't let you control the exposure (or, won't let you control it to nearly the same extent as you can in manual, aperture or shutter priority). So, if the camera is exclusively in charge of exposure in these auto modes, I suppose Nikon doesn't let the expoure meter show up in the viewfinder. Why put something there if the user can't control it?

Friendly suggestion: people tend to get more repsonses if they start a new thread whenever they ask a new question.

Hope this helps.