[PhotoDave1]

Maybe my naivete is showing here or maybe I am missing something that is right in front of me but I am baffled as to why I at times see a large difference between the settings my meter tells me and the settings I have to adjust my camera to in order to get a good in-camera Histogram.

With good light under shaded conditions (ie: in the shadow of a building) generally my meter is on target as far as a good in-camera Histogram. If the meter says F5.6 at 1/250 and I set the camera there I get a good in-camera Histogram but if I am photographing in direct or strong sunlight the meter reading and what I have to set my camera to in order to get a good in-camera Histogram differ greatly sometimes by 2 or 3 stops on the overexposed side.

My question is what in the heck is going on here? I have gotten better at guessing what my digital camera is going to do under these conditions and when I run into one of these situations and the test shot Histogram is blown out horrible I automatically stop down 3 stops and then if I need to I open up 1 stop to nail the Histogram but I would really like to know what is going on here? Anybody??