Canon R5 II R5 Mk2: when and how metering is taken

[thegios]

This is a question specific to the R5 Mk2 that has one (probably two) new capabilities that other Rx do not have.

Let's start with the easiest to answer.

WHEN IS METERING LOCKED?

• ONE SHOT
  • EVALUATIVE: when focus is achieved
  • SPOT: when shot is taken (unless this is overriden in "AE lock meter. mode after focus " (this was introduced with R6 MK2 so is present also in R5Mk2 but probably not in R5 and R3)
• SERVO
  • ALL: when shot is taken

Now to the hard one.

WHERE IS METERING TAKEN?

• EVALUATIVE: Canon says it considers the whole scene but most say tehre's a bias towards the points on focus. I have no idea where the truth is but on R5Mk2 Canon has introduced "Detect priority AE while AF " valid only for EVALUATIVE: when on, metering is based on subject in focus, whe off, on the entire screen. So what does this really mean? If "Detect priority AE while AF" is ON is the metering taken considering the whole scene but with bias on subject in focus OR it means that metering is taken only on subject. In addition Canon says that "metering is also based on the entire screen when Subject to detect is set to None". Funny thing is that if Subject to detect is set to none, it is still possible to turn "Detect priority AE while AF" on or off, this means that we have the following combinations, for which it is not clear at all where metering is taken:
  • EVALUATIVE + "Detect priority AE while AF" ON + "Subject to detect" ON
  • EVALUATIVE + "Detect priority AE while AF" ON + "Subject to detect" OFF
  • EVALUATIVE + "Detect priority AE while AF" OFF + "Subject to detect" OFF
• SPOT: at the center. This means that if you are in SPOT and you are tracking a subject (regardless of the AF area chosen), if you put center spot on subject and lock focus and meter, the metering is taken on the subject, but if the subject moves off-center the focusing follows the subject but the metering changes because it is taken always at the center.