Thanks TV, good to know I'm not the only one with this shortcoming. However, since I wrote this, I figured out a way to use the camera as a light meter... which has always been available (DUH!!!). I take a pic in the auto setting, review it and check the settings the camera chose for the pic... which is usually a bit brighter than I prefer. Then I can use those as a base point to begin tweaking shutter speed, aperture and iso settings to suit what I'm going for. Maybe someday we rookies will become proficient enough to do this on the fly... but until then, any crutch will do.