OK, I haven't made the D200 plunge yet, so maybe I'm not really
understanding all of you. But this sounds very much like early D100
discussions revisited. The D100 underexposes on average if you use
the default settings - and the consequences are probably worse than
with the D200, given the D200's greater dynamic range. There are
several fixes with the D100, all of which are probably also
applicable to the D200:
1) Use +.7 or +.3 EV of exposure compensation all the time. This
will make more of your shots look "right" in exposure, but you run
more risk of blown highlights (which is why the default setting
underexposes in the first place)
2) Load a custom curve from Nikon Capture, typically boosting the
shadows and midtones, but compressing the highlights so that you're
still biased to underexpose in the most vulnerable part of the range
3) Leave the defaults as they are and shoot in RAW, then compensate
for the underexposure with levels/curves adjustments in
post-processing. You can do this in JPEG mode, too, of course, but
the reason to recommend RAW for this alternative is that you will
have less noise in the shadows if you need to boost the exposure -
JPEG shows shadow noise very quickly if you boost the levels in
post.
4) Just check the histogram after each shot (you can set the camera
up to automatically display the histogram), and if it looks badly
underexposed (or overexposed), use some exposure compensation and
re-shoot. This is my preferred mode, but it may not work for you in
situations where you're firing off lots of frames quickly.
You should choose one of these "fixes" according to what fits your
needs and work flow inclinations. I'm sure there are others as well
- maybe someone else wants to add to the list. But just remember
that the default "underexposure" of the camera was designed that
way for a reason, and if you try to apply a single fix blindly to
all of your shots, you'll probably just introduce a different
problem, such as blown highlights.
Ray
At this point, though, I only use the 