Armchair engineering -- why do cameras allow overexposure, anyhow?

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ThrillaMozilla Veteran Member • Posts: 8,141
Armchair engineering -- why do cameras allow overexposure, anyhow?

I routinely see pictures with large white areas that are overexposed.  Snow and ice on mountains are very often problems.  Even the sky is a problem.  If you take a picture in a forest or canyon, it's very common to have a blue sky turn out white.

My Canons do that.  I was comparing notes with a friend, and he even has that problem with his Sony A7x.  I see pictures all the time from amateurs whose pictures suffer seriously from that.

My impression is that a lot of phones get this right.  Is my impression correct?  And why can't cameras meter the scene to get this right?  I'm not talking about composite exposures.  This often happens even if the camera can easily handle the dynamic range.  Also, this isn't about a few pixels overexposed.  I'm talking about large areas.  Any thoughts?

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