Dave is nuts

Okay, on RRF, Dave is spouting off how hard it is to meter for a scene prior to a train showing up. He shows us a photo of an NS train slightly backlit in a 3/4 view, with shadows across the tracks and some of the adjacent scene. He's alleging that when the train wasn't in the shot, he wasn't able to "pre-meter" and avoid the affects of the headlights screwing up his exposure.

1.) He's shooting a Nikon D2h. It has Matrix metering. As does my N80. I have yet to have even one shot exposed wrong due to oncoming headlight glare screwing the meter in Matrix mode. Just shoot in Matrix, damnit Dave!

2.) He's suggesting that, if Matrix were not available, pre-metering (like us MF bitches HAD NO OTHER CHOICE than to use) wouldn't work, as if the presence of the train changes the exposure. But it doesn't, Dave! Yes, the train is a big black dark blob of backlighting, but follow the logic. He's suggesting that without the train, the exposure would be set brighter -- lets say 1/125 at f/8.0 -- while the presence of the train would need an exposure of 1/125 at f/5.6. But this is wrong, the exposures would need to be the same. If they weren't then that means that the first shot (sans train) is going to have no shadow detail, or that the second will have blown out highlights.

How about just using a grey card, Dave???