No, quite the opposite really. Metering is metering, no more, no less, but Matrix metering is doing something Unknown when it calculates whatever it calculates, according to its algorithms.

No metering can be taken at face value, which is why I have set the front wheel on my K20D to exposure compensation.

However, at least with centre weighted and spot metering we are just getting a reading and we know what it means. Therefore, we can apply our practice to the situation and compensate accordingly. With digital this can also easily be checked and immediately corrected if necessary.

With centre weighted metering, such as we have in the ME Super and MX cameras, I never, ever got over-exposed slides. Bright skies could fool the camera into under-exposing if uncorrected, but that's better than burnt out skies.

The whole argument can get over complicated.

It may well be that every digital image is "manipulated" in some way, but then so is every film image. We choose the film, choose the developer, choose the paper to print on. None of this is any more natural than digital, it's just as manipulated.

The question is about photography and art. Is it art? Yes, it's created by human being who have a desire to express themselves in some medium. Be it a cave painting, a photograph, a sculpture, it is all art.

Is it good art? Some of it undoubtably is.

I have used them once to repair an FA lens and the process was entirely satisfactory.

If you change the settings to AF-S and Centre weighted metering you should have no problems.

Do give it a try and let us know how it works out.

If it seems to over-expose, why not dial in some exposure compensation? Try -0.5 stop to start with and see if that does the trick.

My 12-24mm focuses just fine in any reasonable light, but without seeing what sort of images are causing the problems it's very difficult to comment beyond that.

Perhaps you could post a problem scene, with some indication of what focusing point you used?

X90? Very tempting! Or is that not compact enough?

Spammers get picked up fairly quickly, but if one is missed for any length of time a PM does the trick.

So far, we appear to be speechless in response to that....

The nearest anything ever came to the universal bayonet mount was the Pentax K mount.

In the 1970s Asahi licensed its use to a wide variety of manufacturers, but of course Canon, Nikon and Minolta would never have taken it up.

The "so" is that some types of work cannot be fully appreciated in the electronic medium.

Digital display has advantages too, but it's a different experience to a masterful black and white print.

Another example might be David Hockney's work - you need to be stood in front of it to appreciate the awesome scale.