What the hell is ESP metering mode?

[i_luv_ph0tos]

I have this ESP mode on my cam (which i read is common to OLYs)

What is its difference to other meterings?

[djc1026]

It's Oly's equivalent to evaluative metering, taking into consideration lighting of the entire photo. Next you have center weighted, which places emphasis for the reading on the light in the center area of the photo. Next is spot metering which is like it says and operates much like a light meter. Oly also lets you choose from highlight or shadow metering, emphasizing readings from those areas of the photo. Hope that helps and maybe others with more knowledge will jump in and correct me or explain further.

[bushman46]

I believe ESP stands for Electro Selective Pattern, which Olympus have had for quite a while, even in the OM days. The digital Olympus cameras use what they call Digital ESP. IIRC, it is similar to matrix metering, but with some differences. Intensity in a largish centre area is measured as well as at the edges. If there is a big difference between the two, the exposure selected compensates to make the centre area near middle gray. However, if the exposure is average all over, the selected exposure is more like a centre weighted average.

[mattdm]

For what it's worth, I found the "ESP" metering on my olympus C-5060 P&S to be quite good. Much better than the equivalent on my wife's Fujifilm F30, or, I hate to say it, my Pentax dSLRs.

On the later point, though, of course the P&S has the full sensor to work with rather than just a smaller metering sensor. I'm curious, though — how well does it work on Olympus's dSLRs?

[djc1026]

Matt, I find the ESP to be generally good, however, I like the pinpoint accuracy of spot metering 90% of the time.

[bushman46]

I have a C-5060WZ as well as an E-510. On the P&S, I used (and still do) ESP all the time and it gives great photographs (within its limitations). On the E-510, however, I change metering as required, very often switching to spot metering, especially when bright parts of the image would overall make the camera choose the wrong exposure (backlit subjects, sunsets, etc).

[i_luv_ph0tos]

I always use spot on my Oly SW 790... thanks for you're suggestions guys...

[Carlos]

Matrix metering is just one tool that you can use selectively. It's good in some situations, not in many others. It's probably over-used because most of the time you are trying to capture a much smaller area. If you have sky or other bright items in your field, you will generally end up under-exposing people or other darker foreground objects. However it may prevent blowing out the highlights.