How to know where spot metering is going to meter in different autofocus modes?

I have a Nikon D3100. If you select spot metering, where will it meter if dynamic-area AF, or 3-D tracking, or Single-point AF is selected? I know that with Auto-area AF mode, and spot metering, it always meters in the centre, but what about the other focus modes?

Newer nikons tend to use the active AF point. On older cameras it sometimes was the center AF point. That's why cameras comes with manuals.

Spot metering does NOT always use the center spot.

That is NOT my thumb down, though. Check back later and I'm sure I will have one, too.

From the manual:

"Spot: [The] camera meters the current focus point."

If you select an off-center focus point, the meter will read at the selected point.

In Auto-Area AF, the camera will use the center point for the spot meter. Since the AF area can change in Auto-Area AF and the spot meter does not change, I would GUESS that it remains in the center spot for dynamic area and 3-D tracking also.

You would probably be able to experiment and figure this out.

I'm going to check my D300 manual and see if it sheds more light on the subject.

~~~

I don't see any more info than already given. Experiment.

Personally, I use the spot meter to read a neutral tone (Zone V) in the overall scene and set that manually. When I'm tracking something here and there, I don't want the camera in some auto-exposure mode (anything but "M") that will be fooled by the changing background. I use this for birds and race cars rather successfully.

~~~

Jeroen, that's not my thumb on your factual answer, either. (The first answer has been deleted.) I read over the related sections in the D5100 manual (on-line) and my D300 manual and I don't see the answer to this question. This is the sort of thing that Nikon would put in a footnote (seriously) under some seemingly unrelated topic, but I don't find it under "spot metering" or various topics about "auto-focus."

In playing with my D300, I learned that you can select the meter spot withthe multi-function switch. It appears that the meter remains in the center point of the active zone. This makes sense, as the zones off from the center are only used when the subject moves away from the selected (active) focus point anyhow.

In the 3-D setting, it seems like it's the center point, even though it does not "light up" the way the focus spot usually does.