Question about Exposure

anon(5841099)

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I'm looking to buy a 950XL Dual Sim this coming week, but I just have a quick question about exposure and HDR Modes.
I currently own a Lumia 930 which I use with a work SIM and an iPhone 6s with a personal SIM. Therefore the Dual Sim to replace them :p. But on the L930 with W10M latest Insider build installed, I notice that Windows Camera does not adjust the exposure anymore if you focus on a bright area in your viewfinder. For those more familiar with photography, Lumia Camera basically allows you to spot meter, while the new Windows Camera forces some form of averaged exposure. At least on my L930.

This is really annoying, because HDR mode can't save the image if the normal exposed image already has huge overexposed areas. So I'm used to Lumia Camera being able to tap on the overexposed area to basically reset the auto exposure, and then let HDR handle the rest.

But the thing is, I read some 950 users saying online that on their phone you can tap a bright area and exposure will adjust. So I'm just trying to find out what the deal is here? Also, does Lumia Camera Beta work on the 950XL?

Examples:

Windows Camera:

Note the overexposed clouds even though it's focusing there.

Lumia Camera (Beta):

In this one I also put the focus on the sky, and Lumia Camera Beta adjusted the exposure to have the clouds correctly exposed.

Result example:

Windows Camera:


Lumia Camera:
 

John D Griffith

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Hi Intrance,

I have a 950XL (production, no insider software). I tried some quick experiments with the windows camera app and I do not see an exposure adjustment for a small bright region when you tap that region with your finger during composition. So I don't think that there is any spot metering available, at least with a finger tap. I looked around in the settings and also found nothing that seemed relevant.

So I think that you will have to go into the manual exposure mode set the desired exposure yourself unless Microsoft adds this feature to the camera app. I think that the ideal situation would be a setting to toggle between spot and average metering. Probably good feedback to the development team.

John
 

anon(5841099)

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Thanks for taking the effort to check it out. It's too bad that they remove functionality often instead of building upon what is already there. I've written some feedback already, I will check if I can post the link sometime later from my phone if anyone wants to upvote.

Any chance you (or anyone else) have Lumia Camera Beta in your apps library to see if it works with the 950XL?
 
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Not only that, but in manual mode the screen does not preview the photo with your settings. The only way to review your settings is to actually take the photo and then review it. Wonder who MS used to build the camera app?
 

TK2011

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Yes, I also noticed this after I bought my 950. It could have been less important if there was auto exposure lock toggle but I don't think we ever had it on WP/WM. I think the best way around is to use manual exposure as mentioned above or AE with exposure bias control.

But one thing I noticed is that it may always use HDR processing in one form or another automatically in the background for optimum results. (And this may be why they removed spot metering.) I say that because even when I set HDR-off and see blown highlights on the screen before taking a shot, I often end up seeing well preserved highlights (and overall very well exposed shot) in the end result after it does it's "processing..." thing. And we already know enabling HDR/Rich doesn't always kick in HDR/Rich processing depending on the scene dynamic range. As I wrote in another thread, they have a very complex algorithm underneath for HDR/Rich and how it all works is not clear to me. Try shooting RAW and you will see a number of different file names for DNGs under different scenes and settings. At this point, being a hardcore shutterbug, I would normally complain about lack of more information, but I keep getting great results in just about all settings so I find myself quite content.
 
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anthonyng

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Hi OP,

I like spot metering too on my 930 before but honestly, now that I think about it, I haven't missed it at all on the 950XL, the camera produces good even results!

Wouldn't complain if spot metering is back though
 

anon(5841099)

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I've been out on a few day trips recently where I encountered some high contrast situations that the metering of Windows Camera could not handle. Interestingly enough my iPhone 6s exposed just fine and did a better job in HDR mode than the Lumia. I was used to it being the other way around :p. So yeah, I'd really prefer they re-introduce this kind of tap to spot-meter or better yet, add a setting to pick between Average/Matrix, Center-weighted Average and Spot. Would put the Lumia's above any other platform once again.
 

TK2011

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I've been out on a few day trips recently where I encountered some high contrast situations that the metering of Windows Camera could not handle. Interestingly enough my iPhone 6s exposed just fine and did a better job in HDR mode than the Lumia. I was used to it being the other way around :p. So yeah, I'd really prefer they re-introduce this kind of tap to spot-meter or better yet, add a setting to pick between Average/Matrix, Center-weighted Average and Spot. Would put the Lumia's above any other platform once again.

Were you using 930 or 950? 950 handles high contrast scenes generally very well for me. One quibble i have with AE is once in a while people's face under daylight is overexposed so you get orangish skin tone (ymmv depending on your subject's skin tone). I don't know about 6s but previous iPhones also had this problem, I believe. Shooting HDR+RAW and PP'ing in LR helps a lot.
 

Werentuckl

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For a while there you had me going. I thought it was an add about radiation exposure, and about the 950XL. Comprehension failure. Obviously.

-- W
 

anon(5841099)

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Hi guys, I just noticed an update for Camera that rolled out yesterday or the day before. This fixed the metering on my 930, allowing the auto exposure to be locked to the autofocus point, so I am confident that the 950XL will do it properly as well. Good times ahead!
 

TK2011

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Hi guys, I just noticed an update for Camera that rolled out yesterday or the day before. This fixed the metering on my 930, allowing the auto exposure to be locked to the autofocus point, so I am confident that the 950XL will do it properly as well. Good times ahead!
I can confirm this change on my 950 running 14393.5 build.
 

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