HMC150 have an exposure meter?

H

Humanoid Typhoon

Well-known member
HMC150 have an exposure meter ala XH-A1? To tell how under/over exposed you are? Didn't see it in some of the screenshots of LCD screens. Not an absolute deal breaker but I'd REALLY prefer to have it for quick reference of my exposure.

Thanks
 
I'm not sure what yo refer to on the XH-A1 exactly, but the HMC has, in addition to the great waveform monitor, very flexible zebras and a spot meter for exposure reading.
 
I know about the waveform monitor as well as the great zebras. I like the exposure meter the A1 has because its a great quick reference. I guess it's really important to me when I had the A1 because during peaking the zebras turned off. Just remembered the HMC150 doesn't lose zebras during that time.

Please explain the spot meter in more detail please ullanta. At a quick glance, it seems to me that the marker would just tell you how close to blowing out you are in the center of the frame with 99% and up being over exposed?

Here's a picture of the exposure meter on the top left hand corner :



Doesn't take up much room like the waveform monitor although it doesn't have close to the same info.
 
Ah, I remember that from my old GL2.

Well, the HMC (like the other Panny prosumer cams) has a spot meter that tells you the IRE level of the center of the image (which displays a marker framing the exposure area when in "marker" mode)... that is, it has a number from 0-99^ (where 99^ is "over 99", given that IRE levels go to 110). So, you know exactly what part of the image you're metering, unlike with the Canon, which IIRC reflects some overall level of exposure, which can be useless in many situations (e.g., spotlighting). The Panny spot meter is precise, and precisely defined.

The waveform monitor gives you the distribution of IRE values across the image... much more information available at one time. Gives you a great overal picture of exposure, but doesn't allow you to spot meter one precise small area.

There are two levels of zebras, which are available regardless of what else you are doing, which can each be set between 50 and 110 IRE. So you could, e.g., set one for skin tones, and one for blowouts, and switch between them at the press of a button.

So... a very wide and useful range of exposure tools. The Zebras I guess are similar (a bit better) than the Canon, but either the spot meter or the waveform blows the Canon exposure meter thing away....
 
Great if you are controlling lighting or have time to spot-check. Not so useful when recording continuous live events (e.g., theatrical productions), since you can't reframe to put what you want to meter in the marker - but that's the beauty of the three exposure tools; there's at least one that works well for every situation.
 
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