WayneF - thanks a lot for your suggestion - I have learnt a valuable lesson as well - what was happening to me was the shutter speed was so high that the camera decided with the rest of auto adjustments it is going to be very underexposed - any amount of exposure compensation was not going to change the picture at all unless I altered the shutter speed to a better value . But my end result was misleading me to think that the compensation function is not working . Unfortunately Nikon tech support declared the camera faulty and asked me to return it - Im wondering if I should call them and give them your suggestion for future reference.
Thanks Woody as well - appreciate all your help
Nikon support surely knows how it works, but probably just didn't understand the problem description, and wanted to test the camera to be sure it was right. Sometimes the phone person is not the most knowledgeable. Or perhaps they were just impatient, but sounds like the camera is OK. But they do seem to like to say "Send it in".
I know I should mind my own business about unrequested suggestions, but frankly, the best I could tell from your picture, it didn't seem like a camera S mode situation that needed some specific shutter speed. I mean, not like fast sports or something. Because really, a wide open lens is the common thing for S mode in a dim situation. Because the aperture has a fairly limited range, only a few stops.
I would suggest camera A mode routinely, at least it is my style, and a very popular style. Then you set some reasonable aperture, like maybe f/5 (indoors, but it really depends on the situation, how bright or dim, etc.), and the camera adjusts the shutter speed to it. The advantage is, the aperture is not wide open (lenses are a little less sharp wide open), but mostly, if the aperture has to adjust, it only has a few stops of range to do it before it maxes out. But if you set the aperture you want, you can use it, and then shutter speed has a much wider range, like to one full second, or even to 30 seconds. It has a very wide range then. Of course, you likely would not use 1 or 30 seconds, but you would see it and realize other plans are necessary (more ISO probably).
Using the +/- Exposure Compensation control does not seem right for this use either. What it does is to tell the camera that instead of the proper exposure it meters, it should use some +/- goal from what it thinks is right instead. That will result in a dark or overly bright picture, but will be what you requested. You may have wanted that. There are times to use it. But you probably instead want it to routinely use what it meters... what it thinks right, instead of some new goal. The idea is to normally leave it at 0 EV, and then when and if final exposure is somehow not just right, then adjust its goal, just slightly in general, to be the result that you want. But the idea is that the camera does try to get it right at 0 EV.
I don't know if you are using Auto ISO or not, but many do (I prefer flash myself), and if so, one important thing to know about it. The Auto ISO menu has a Minimum Shutter Speed setting, which is technically not an actual real Minimum, but it is in fact the threshold when Auto ISO needs to kick in.
Works like this:
Say you are in indoor setting, like I see in your picture above, which of course, is nowhere near as bright as bright sun.
Say you set about f/5, or f/8, whatever (camera A mode, and Auto ISO).
The automated steps then are:
1. its relatively dim, so it starts dropping the shutter speed to try to find the proper exposure. It will use it if it can.
2. But if it can't, then it hits this Minimum Shutter Speed setting.
3. The shutter stops and holds there (Minimum in that sense), and THEN Auto ISO starts increasing up from the Minimum ISO.
If it can find the proper exposure that way, ISO stops there, and you can take a proper picture.
4. But if it is dim, and it hits Maximum ISO without yet finding a proper exposure, then the shutter speed necessarily starts dropping again. But it won't have to go far since it is at Maximum ISO then.
My point is... be aware that this ISO Minimum Shutter Speed setting is important for Auto ISO, because it will be THE shutter speed used any time Auto ISO is between Minimum and Maximum. Indoors, it probably should be at least 1/60 second, or maybe 1/125 second, fast enough you can hand hold it steady, and it can stop reasonable motion of your subject. It can be whatever you want, but it will be used anytime Auto ISO is between Minimum and Maximum ISO.
ISO 100 is great to use outdoors, but your D810 can do quite well at say ISO 1600, maybe even ISO 3200 sometimes. Certainly Not saying every picture ought to be ISO 3200 (some other plan would seem necessary then), but sometimes it can save the picture. Keep an eye on it in your viewfinder, know what it is doing. Routinely being around ISO 400 to 800 indoors would seem a real good thing (one opinion - but many situations may be more dim). You can adjust the ISO Minimum Shutter Speed, and/or the aperture setting, to control this. And flash is always an option too.
My objection is that if it were camera S mode, it means the lens hits wide open BEFORE Auto ISO begins increasing. Wide open is not the best routine situation. One or two stops stopped down is better.
I don't mean to be so pushy, but hope this could be of some interest.
