Just reading my camera's manual and some posts here. It seems to be a fairly common metering mode, but the explanation my camera gives is unclear (to me).

"For typical shooting conditions, including backlit shots.
Automatically adjusts exposure to match the shooting conditions."

How does it manage to do this? Does it measuring different parts of the frame, depending on what type of photo it guesses you might be trying to take? How reliable is it likely to be - or should I switch to something else, like centre weighted, for safety?