In the late 70’s to early 80’s, camera technology had started to move towards computer aided functionality. Camera companies, who used to rely solely on mechanical ingenuity, now had to invest in the research and development of microprocessors capable of reacting and working in the same way a professional photographer shooting manually would do. It was no small task, but this period saw the development and introduction of many technologies we take for granted today, one of these is that of exposure metering.
Now if you aren’t familiar with what Exposure metering means, the job of ‘metering’ in a camera is to evaluate what you’re shooting and determine the correct exposure settings for your image.
In 1983, Nikon and Olympus, two Japanese powerhouses for innovation, were fiercely fighting it out in a neck and neck battle to produce an intelligent system for exposure metering, which would greatly aid the amateur and professional photographer alike. While both carried out technical innovations of exposure control, their ideas were quite contrary to one another.
Olympus’s technology, ‘Multi-spot metering’, introduced in the OM-4, took a sample of multiple ‘spots’ on the image and then set the exposure accordingly. This still required manual input from users as it was a somewhat basic idea and sometimes inaccurate, as it only took small samples and didn’t account for the whole image.
Matrix metering on the other hand, the technology developed by Nikon and implemented in the FA, aimed to minimise user's judgment of the exposure compensation entirely, by breaking the entire image up into grid like segments and taking an average, it could determine precisely the exposure compensation required without the need for manual input. The technology was such an advancement for cameras, that the Nikon FA went onto win not one, but two of the camera industries most coveted awards - The Camera Grand Prix and the European camera of the year, specifically for this development. |
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