Metering Mode
0x9207Also: MeteringMode
How the camera measured the light.
Metering mode records how the camera evaluated brightness to set exposure — average, center-weighted, spot or multi-segment (matrix). It explains why a scene was exposed the way it was.
What the stored number means
Metering Mode is an enumeration: the file holds a bare integer and the reader looks it up. These are the values, and the wording is the wording the viewer on this site will print.
| Value | Shown as |
|---|---|
| 0 | Unknown |
| 1 | Average |
| 2 | CenterWeightedAverage |
| 3 | Spot |
| 4 | MultiSpot |
| 5 | Pattern |
| 6 | Partial |
| 255 | Other |
Value 5 is where the confusion is. The spec calls it Pattern, but every manufacturer sells it under a different name: Matrix on Nikon, Evaluative on Canon, Multi-segment on Sony. One number, four vocabularies, and readers pick whichever one their table was built from.
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