Canon 550D problem with light meter

[bakosboti]

Hello guys.

I am new here, and new to photography as well, so I might not be that precise on terminology.

I have a problem with a Canon 550D and the symptoms are the following:
-ON auto it is overexposing and poping the flash even at sunny daylight
-on AV it is exposing long for even a few seconds in dailight
-on P the same
-on Manual it is taking perfect pictures(when set right) but the time meter is always on -2 unless I put in a 30" f1.8 setting
...I think you get the point
The interesting thing is, that when I open the shutter(switch to view from the screen) it takes good pictures on auto and the other modes as well.

My questions are:
Might this be a setting problem?
Since it works with the screen I'm thinking maybe software problem?
Anyway let me know if some of you had similar problems and how much would it cost to fix?
Is it a big deal if I can't fix it, can I use the camera like this(setting up everything myself on manual mode)?

Thanks for the help

 

[weepete]

Try and look and see if you've accidentally set the exposure compensation. That's probably the most common issue.

 

[bakosboti]

Hey, Thanks for the reply.
But it's not that it is set in the middle, on 0

 

[TCampbell]

Do you happen to know which metering mode you are using (e.g. "evaluative", vs. "center weighted", vs "spot"?)

Normally you would use "evaluative" (that would be the factory default mode and works best in most situations).