EOS 600d - Light metering, help!

[Andy_H]

Hi all,

Please forgive me if this has been asked before. I have read throught the forums and I am still not entirely sure I have the answer I am looking for.

I am trying to build up my knowledge in the Manual mode on my camera and I am clearly doing something wrong. I want to use the camer to take a meter reading, but I can't figure out how I am meant to view this. I am in manual mode and I have set the camera to the ISO and aperture that I want to use, and I want the camera to show me its recommendation for shutter speed.

I know this should be a case of hold down the shutter button halfway and look through the viewfinder and see the output there; however, when I am doing this, the screen seems to just show me the settings that I have already chosen on screen, I.E. it doesn't seem to be doing any kind of metering - just confirming the settings I have shown.

I'm sure it's me being really daft and missing something really obvious, but any help anyone can give would be awesome.

Thanks,

Andy

[jrhoffman75]

If you see an arrow on left (blue line) you are more than two stops underexposed - add more light.

If you see an arrow on the right your are more than two stops overexposed - cut back on light.

If you are between +/- 2 you will see a vertical bar - black line. Adjus exposure until the vertical bar is under the center marker.

[Andy_H]

Thanks.

That was exactly what I was looking for. I just couldn't remember exactly what I had to do (lost the manual)!! Thanks again 🙂

[ebiggs1]

If you are in manual mode it will do exactly what you are seeing.  That is what Manual mode is.  The settings are fixed until you change them.  The camera has nothing to do with it.  You can use a real hand held light meter.  Best choice, or you can watch the meter on the screen in the viewfinder.  You must move some control yourself to get it to adjust and indicate when the exposure is correct.

If the indicator (on my 1D Mk IV) is at the bottom, or I believe to the left on a T3i, of the screen, the exposure is under .  If at the top, or right for a T3i, it is over.  You need to change something until it centers.

[jrhoffman75]

You can download A PDF manual from the Canon website and even save it to a smartphone.