D300 Camera Out performing the Metering System in both A and S Modes

Well I have had my D300 for a day now and I am really getting the hang
of it. One question however for the experts. I am using an 18-200 mm
lens and with the ISO set to 200 and the Camera in "A" (Aperture
Priority Mode) I pointed the Camera at my leather sofa (away from the
light source) and with the F stop set at 3.5 (The shutter read "Lo"
and the analog meter in the view finder was blinking) OK I understand
not enough light for the meter to give me a reading.

I took the picture anyway and it looked good and the histogram was a
little left but acceptable. Next I dialed the ISO to 3200 and then
again to HI-1 and all three of the pictures look OK. Yes the
histogram is to the left but actually the shadows dont look clipped.
Then in Playback I took a look for the shutter speeds and as you would
expect it read, 2, 1/10, 1/20 respectively. So as the ISO when up,
the camera did increase the shutter speed as you would expect.

My conclusion is that the meter could not give me a reading and did
not like the lighting conditions but the camera did its job and took
the picture. I tried this in S Shutter Priority mode and the meter
while still blinking actually showed me how far underexposed I was I
started to adjust until it hit "0" and took the shot. I tried
changing the aperture and it took the pictured but it was all out of
focus since the shutter was open for a very long time.

Is this why people buy separate and really expensive seperate light
meters ? Again it appears to me that the Camera and the Lens can
outperform the meter easily ?

Am I missing something here, I am new at this ?

Thanks to all of you masters.



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