Light measuring device for camera

Claim 1

A light measuring device for a camera, the camera being settable in a fill-in flash mode in which a flash is set and used to illuminate the subject being photographed, the fill-in flash mode being useable where there is a difference between the brightness of the subject being photographed in the center of the field of view of the camera and the background of the subject outside such central area of the field of view, the light measuring device comprising: (a) light receiving means having a plurality of light receiving portions for receiving the light from and developing a brightness value for each of at least two areas into which the field of view of the camera is divided, including a central area located at the center of the field of view and an outer area located outside said central area; (b) discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the camera has been set in the fill-in flash mode; and (c) computing means including a measuring light value computing circuit for developing a light value in accordance with a computation formula which includes at least one of the plurality of brightness values developed by said light receiving means, said computing means performing the light value computation without the brightness value developed by said light receiving means for at least said central area when the setting of the camera in the fill-in flash mode has been discriminated by said discriminating means.