# EOS R exposure issue?



## Random Orbits (Dec 11, 2018)

I was taking pictures during a kids indoor performance with the EOS R and the 300mm f/2.8 IS II. The camera was set to Av with auto ISO and a min shutter speed set to 1/250s. For a while, it was working fine, but then a spotlight (I think) turned on, and the electronic viewfinder was overexposed by 3 stops or more. However, it never adjusted, and the viewfinder remained overexposed. I took a picture and reviewed it on the back of the camera, and it was overexposed like the EVF. I then set the ISO to 3200, and the viewfinder/pictures were back to normal. I wish I had saved that picture... Has anyone else have a similar experience?


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## Act444 (Dec 12, 2018)

Was the metering set to evaluative?


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## Viggo (Dec 12, 2018)

I’ve had that happen one or two times, I write it off as a bug, it happened a few times with the 1dx2 also...


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## Jethro (Dec 12, 2018)

I've had it happen too - always in Fv mode. Is that other people's experience? I've tended to go back to M to get the picture.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 13, 2018)

The spotlight turning on will create a problem unless you set the metering to spot and place the center focus point on the subject or zoom so that only the subject in the spotlight is in the frame. The camera does not meter on a chosen AF point, just the center when its in spot. This is the case for any Canon camera except the 1 series where they meter on the selected AF point. If its set to the default evaluative, it will average over the whole scene. If your lens is zoomed in so that only the area in the spotlight was in the photo, it should have been OK with evaluative.

I photographer lots of stage events, when they turn a spotlight on, I use spot metering, or zoom in so that only the lighted subject is in the frame, the latter works best with my 5D MK IV.


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## dak723 (Dec 13, 2018)

I have had it happen a cople times with various cameras (not the R) and it always turned out to be explainable. One time I inadvertantly pressed the exposure lock button. Another time I put the camera in maual mode by mistake. I could see this happening in the new Fv mode if one of the three exposure settings was wrongly set.


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## deleteme (Dec 13, 2018)

I used to have a similar problem with several 5D models mkI, mkII,and mkIII. When shooting in AV mode and changing the ISO or exp comp (I forget which) I would get one very overexposed frame and then normal operation. This only happened indoors with fairly evenly lit theater/stage presentations. Very annoying but I never found out the cause. I put it down to a bug in FW.


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## Viggo (Dec 13, 2018)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> The spotlight turning on will create a problem unless you set the metering to spot and place the center focus point on the subject or zoom so that only the subject in the spotlight is in the frame. The camera does not meter on a chosen AF point, just the center when its in spot. This is the case for any Canon camera except the 1 series where they meter on the selected AF point. If its set to the default evaluative, it will average over the whole scene. If your lens is zoomed in so that only the area in the spotlight was in the photo, it should have been OK with evaluative.
> 
> I photographer lots of stage events, when they turn a spotlight on, I use spot metering, or zoom in so that only the lighted subject is in the frame, the latter works best with my 5D MK IV.


It’s not the issue here, if you turn on a bright light in a dark room the exposure will change UNLESS you use spot if the light is no in center. This issue just blows out the entire scene and only adjusts if I take a shot or turn the camera off/on.


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## Random Orbits (Dec 13, 2018)

Viggo said:


> It’s not the issue here, if you turn on a bright light in a dark room the exposure will change UNLESS you use spot if the light is no in center. This issue just blows out the entire scene and only adjusts if I take a shot or turn the camera off/on.



Yes, this is the issue that I ran into with the R. Didn't happen on the 5D4 + 70-200 that I was using next to yet though (and it was similarly set to auto ISO with min shutte speed at 1/250s). I've never encountered the issue on my 5D4 or my previous 5D3, but then I rarely use auto ISO. I know the 5D cameras much better so I change ISO manually on the fly. Not knowing the R as well and having to deal with two bodies, I gave auto ISO a try.


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## Viggo (Dec 13, 2018)

Then there are two different issues related to exposure failure...


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 13, 2018)

Viggo said:


> It’s not the issue here, if you turn on a bright light in a dark room the exposure will change UNLESS you use spot if the light is no in center. This issue just blows out the entire scene and only adjusts if I take a shot or turn the camera off/on.



I am saying spot metering, not spot autofocus.

If its important to have the subject in the spot properly exposed, thats one solution, I've done it countless times over the years when I could not zoom in on the subject to get a proper exposure. Sure, the area outside the spotlight gets very dark, but thats usually not a issue.

You can manually expose for the bright area, you get the same results, lowering the exposure so that the bright area in the spot does not get blown out.

A 1 series camera exposes on the selected AF point, so wherever you set it while in spot mode, it tries to expose that spot perfectly.


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## Viggo (Dec 13, 2018)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I am saying spot metering, not spot autofocus.
> 
> If its important to have the subject in the spot properly exposed, thats one solution, I've done it countless times over the years when I could not zoom in on the subject to get a proper exposure. Sure, the area outside the spotlight gets very dark, but thats usually not a issue.
> 
> ...


Maybe I’m not explaining it the way I mean.

But, spot meter on a black wall and you get one type of exposure, if you turn on a bright light and it doesn’t light the wall, the exposure will not change when using spot metering. But since the R only spot meters in the center this could easily be the case. Now, if you use evaluative metering on a black wall it will give basically the same exposure as spot metering, but turn on that light again and the exposure changes a lot.

So when shooting a show with black backdrop in evaluative metering and the exposure doesn’t change when the bright light comes on, something is wrong. As was the case with me, the light stayed constant with the picture blown out, turn the camera on/off and it suddenly metered perfectly normal.


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## Kit Lens Jockey (Dec 13, 2018)

I think the fact that the exposure changes just by taking a shot or turning off and on the camera shows this is a bug. I feel like the EOS R has a lot more bugs than people want to actually admit. Hopefully Canon is taking notes and will give us some good fixes in a firmware update.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 13, 2018)

Viggo said:


> Maybe I’m not explaining it the way I mean.
> 
> But, spot meter on a black wall and you get one type of exposure, if you turn on a bright light and it doesn’t light the wall, the exposure will not change when using spot metering. But since the R only spot meters in the center this could easily be the case. Now, if you use evaluative metering on a black wall it will give basically the same exposure as spot metering, but turn on that light again and the exposure changes a lot.
> 
> So when shooting a show with black backdrop in evaluative metering and the exposure doesn’t change when the bright light comes on, something is wrong. As was the case with me, the light stayed constant with the picture blown out, turn the camera on/off and it suddenly metered perfectly normal.



Yes, but if you put the spot meter on the subject (who is in the spotlighted area), it will adjust exposure for that area. Thats what I was suggesting. You can also use evaluative and zoom in on the subject so that the area outside the spotlight is not in the photo.

I doubt that anyone would be trying to focus on the datk area away from the subject in the spotlight, and moving the AF point will not work for the R, the center point must be on the subject in the spotlight when metering using spot.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 13, 2018)

Kit Lens Jockey said:


> I think the fact that the exposure changes just by taking a shot or turning off and on the camera shows this is a bug. I feel like the EOS R has a lot more bugs than people want to actually admit. Hopefully Canon is taking notes and will give us some good fixes in a firmware update.


It does not do that for my camera, I have tested the exposure under different situations, noting the shutter speed, ISO, and aperture and its always consistent. 

However, turning the camera off and then back on may cancel some temporary settings and that results in a different exposure.

If your R changes exposure using the same lighting and camera location with no change to the settings, it is defective.

The OP did not mention a issue like that.


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## Viggo (Dec 13, 2018)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Yes, but if you put the spot meter on the subject (who is in the spotlighted area), it will adjust exposure for that area. Thats what I was suggesting. You can also use evaluative and zoom in on the subject so that the area outside the spotlight is not in the photo.
> 
> I doubt that anyone would be trying to focus on the datk area away from the subject in the spotlight, and moving the AF point will not work for the R, the center point must be on the subject in the spotlight when metering using spot.


Well yeah, so I wouldn’t use spot or anything else than evaluative metering with the R, I mean you can see the exposure in the VF and adjust, besides the R weighs the exposure quite heavily towards the AF point, best of both worlds if you ask me


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 13, 2018)

Viggo said:


> Well yeah, so I wouldn’t use spot or anything else than evaluative metering with the R, I mean you can see the exposure in the VF and adjust, besides the R weighs the exposure quite heavily towards the AF point, best of both worlds if you ask me



I use it except for extreme cases like a dark stage with spotlight, where you must either zoom in, adjust manually, or use spot.


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## Viggo (Dec 13, 2018)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> I use it except for extreme cases like a dark stage with spotlight, where you must either zoom in, adjust manually, or use spot.


Histogram, control ring, done


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## Random Orbits (Dec 13, 2018)

Kit Lens Jockey said:


> I think the fact that the exposure changes just by taking a shot or turning off and on the camera shows this is a bug. I feel like the EOS R has a lot more bugs than people want to actually admit. Hopefully Canon is taking notes and will give us some good fixes in a firmware update.



Yes, I also think it is bug, and I got it out of the loop when I changed the ISO manually. This was the first time this happened so I was purplexed. After the viewfinder became overexposed, I panned the camera across several targets and it still remained overexposed. Which was when I took a picture, reviewed it on the back of the camera, and the picture was as overexposed as the viewfinder. And after taking the picture, the viewfinder was still overexposed. I don't remember how long it was in this state but it seemed at least 10 seconds until i changed the ISO.

The good news is I didn't have any issues with the adapted EF 300mm lens on the R. I didn't notice any speed/accuracy difference compared to the 5D4. Granted, there wasn't to much foreward/aft subject movement.


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