Seventy Bucks is better than Thirteen HUNDRED bucks. Sometimes.

With the recent purchase of my OM-4T, with it's renowned multi-spot metering, I have been focused on the spot meters on my various cameras. The subject of my experimentation was an ornament hanging in the front window of our flat (sorry, watching some BBC). The first shot was taken with the first metering from my Canon Powershot SX150IS. You know, the 150, the old version of the base model. Seventy bucks (on sale).

Next up was my brand spankin' new, eleven HUNDRED dollar Canon 60D. This is the Big Brother to the SX150. If the little point and shoot did that well on the very first go, the 60D should blow it away, right? Nope. It took some tweaking and this is the best of them. 

Then I dug out my Olympus E-600 that I had on hand. I picked it up used for three hundred bucks. The first try:

This is the camera that I want desperately to love. I tried two more times and got this slightly overexposed result:

 Back to the drawing board. I messed with the settings for a fourth and then fifth time and finally go this result.

So, all in all, it took me well over a half a dozen attempts on expensive DSLRs to get the same results spot-metering a subject that I got "spot on" (pun intended) the very first shot on my out-of date, discount point and shoot! Save your pennies kids. You don't need a top-shelf DSLR to get good shots.