18% vs. 0%

The Canon 10D arrived yesterday and I only got to play with it this afternoon (Leah and I went out to comedy show with a friend last night). Within couple of hours, I’ve already learnt many things about new digital photography.

The most important one concerns exposure. All the initial test shots came out underexposed by at least 1 stop. I was puzzled as the metering in the 10D is (or should be) very similar to my EOS 30 film SLR, and I have no problem getting good and accurate exposure from that camera using slide film.

After playing with pre-set white balance settings for awhile, I went online to read some more. There I found out that with digital sensor I should be basing my exposure off white (0%) instead of the 18% grey! And the most accurate way to achieve this is to shoot a white card in the correct lighting then based apply a custom white balance off that white image. As it was getting dark by that time, I will have to test this out tomorrow.

The battery grip, the 512MB CF card and the Firewire CF card reader should arrive on Monday. Can’t wait to have all the gear in my camera bag! Leah and I are planning to visit the Bronx Zoo at the end of this month when the weather improves.

[Posted with ecto]