New member help please!

Hi just joined up and wondered if anyone could help me.

I have been told by someone that my camera (canon 350 rebel) does not have a true spot meter...is this true and can anyone explain what is meant by this please:)

Hi and welcome. I'm not a Canon expert but from what I know there aren't many Canon DSLR's that have true spot meters. The new D30 has one, but it's a relatively "big" spot compared to some others.

A spot meter only measures light at one very small spot within the viewfinder. I use mine fairly often (more common on Nikon cameras) with manual exposure. It can take some time to really learn how to use it, and I use it in situations where I think the matrix or evaluative metering pattern might not give me the exposure that I want. I don't think a lot of people use them, but for me it's important. One downfall is that when using it you have to make sure that you switch back into a regular metering mode when you're done or your exposure can be really off!

If you do want to try out a spot meter, you could get a handheld meter like a Sekonic L358 with a spot metering attachment. I have one of those with the one degree attachment which is the tightest they make - think there's a five degree as well, but to me a spot meter needs to be very narrow. This meter also measures incident light, which is the light falling onto a subject instead of reflected light so it's not fooled by dark or light colors, and also measures flash for studio work.