Has anyone tested medium to low DR scenes with Highlight Weighted Metering versus Matrix Metering? Does it place the brightest areas to the right side pulling everything with it?
During a presentation by a Nikon Technical representative, he was discussing the highlight weighted metering and it's intended function. He indicated that the meter evaluates some 96,000 'zones' and then ensures the highlights are preserved. As he was wrapping up the topic, he threw out that if you do ETTR, then highlight weighted metering will do it for you. I didn't get to ask any followups on this.
Obviously, there are not many scenes outside the DR of the D810, and the shadows are so good that it makes ETTR much less important than previous cameras. And this is not actually based on the sensor data which would require a test shot, but off the exposure meter. I've tested highlight weighted metering is extreme contrast situations and found it does exactly what is says; preserves exposure in the highlights. In scenes with large dynamic range you are going to get a darker exposure with highlight weighted than matrix metering. Question is what does it do when there is plenty of DR to play with? Does it set the brightest 'zone' to a specific set point or does it merely ensure the brightest 'zone' is at or below that set point?