Nikon TTL on spot metering - am I getting behind?

[Davince]

Just wanted to clear something up here - it used to be the case that the flash on TTL used to take its measurement from the centre weighted zone, is that still the case with SB910 or SB900 on D700 or D800? Had a few issues with it seeming to measure from elsewhere, giving under exposure when there is high contrast areas, even if I place them well outside the centre metering area?

 

[HoppyUK]

Check handbook. With Canons at least, the default metering pattern with flash is evaluative/matrix, and on E-TTL it can do some funny things when the subject has large areas of light and dark, which is very common with flash. It can be fine one minute, then a slight change of framing will throw it out. It's the camera's 'smart' thinking in evaluative/matrix getting too clever for its own good.

I normally use evaluative, but switch to centre-weighted for flash - it's more predictable and less prone to unexpected exposure shifts.

 

[Davince]

Yeah just been looking for it. I'm always in manual and use spot metering to measure a few points for the exposure, but can't find in manual how ttl is affected with spot metering. Exactly as you say, throws out some oddities for larger areas of dark and light, even when I'm trying to adjust framing to ensure it doesn't.