What does the "spotlight" function on my camcorder do?
Camcorders have different types of exposure modes and one of them is called spotlight. Spotlight's really handy whenever you're shooting, say, a stage environment. You could shoot in spotlight, let's say you were shooting it in just an automatic. The way an automatic function works is really the camera has to take two readings. Typically, but not always, they're weighted this way; 70% to center, 30% to percent to the outside, meaning that it's giving 70% of its exposure to the center of the image, and then averaging it with the outside to give you an average exposure. Well in spotlight mode, it's no longer averaged anymore, it's 100% from whatever the brightest image in your viewfinder is. So, let me give you an example. You're shooting a stage show and you have a performer in front of a black curtain, and that performer is in a spotlight. Really, the ideal exposure is for that spotlight to recieve 100% of the exposure, meaning the correct exposure would be for the light that that person is standing in. If you're in auto, it really would be trying to average something that didn't need to be average, it would be trying to brighten up the curtains when you didn't want them bright and it would be trying to darken up the spotlight when you don't want them dark. So spotlight is really handy anytime there's a spotlight, or anytime that you have an exposure that really is no longer center weighted.
