kvskpin said:
This is probably the most debated point about the D7000 and related to the metering aspect of it. Take it this way, the D7000 not just tends to, but, seriously blows the highlights. To get any detail out of brigher areas of the photograph, one would need to keep it atleast 1-1.5 stops below normal. At it's default settings, ideas to shoot on a bright sunny day need to be reconsidered. Not just on a bright sunny day, even indoors if there is any area of high contrast. While it is true that this can be adjusted to a fair degree and we can get good results, but, at the default settings, it is a really bad idea to shoot contrast. Get an ND4 filter by default on all your lenses !!
Cheers
Prasad
This is the typical "I've tried the camera in the store,and really do not know how to set the camera up, and it overexposed" line of crap that I expect from Canon users (paid schills? ad agency plants?) with three posts under their belt. Parroting something they might have read. Or, just being an uninformed camera shopper, with no clue as to how to set the camera.
Here, read some ACCURATE information from a person who actually has done more than stand at a sales counter five times and snap pictures with a store's D7000... from Thom Hogan's review of the D7000:
"Metering System
Another surprise. The matrix meter on the D7000 is good. Real good. The old "overemphasis on focus sensor being used" has been mitigated somewhat (and really only happens when you use AF S focus). Moreover, I was surprised to see that it isn't easily fooled by large expanses of white or black. When Nikon said they tweaked the color-consideration aspect of the matrix system, they weren't kidding. The pattern recognition seems better and more refined, too. Things that completely flummoxed the D90 meter were handled just fine by the D7000. But watch your focus setting: it impacts the metering, and you need to be aware of that. The patterns and tendencies are different for single servo AF versus continuous."
"I've noticed a bit of chatter on the net about "overexposure." But that's not what's really happening with the D7000 metering system. No, it's that color matching and pattern matching coming into play. And correctly, I think. Let's say, for example, that there's a skin tone in the foreground of your scene. Perhaps the person with that skin is even a bit backlit. Well, the D7000 certainly sees that skin tone and knows where to put it on the tonal scale. But in previous Nikon matrix meters, if the background was producing values that would blow out the histogram, the matrix meter tended (but not always and not completely) to preserve highlights. I don't see as much of that with the D7000 (except in single servo AF). It's not going to preserve those highlights at the expense of what it thinks is "subject." It certainly won't preserve them as much as previous Nikon matrix meters, even when it decides to do so. Two other things play into the "overexposure" issue. First, there's gamma. People coming from older (pre-D3) Nikon bodies and seeing Picture Controls for the first time are reacting to the mid-range boost that the default Picture Control applies compared to the old style image settings. Second is contrast. The defaults (and many of the other Picture Controls) push contrast a bit, and that has a tendency to make bright seem brighter."
"The corollary is that if you pop up the flash for some fill, the D7000 seems to get that exposure just a little more on target than previous consumer cameras. Nikon's obviously done a lot of tweaking, and for those of you coming from another Nikon DSLR, there's going to be a learning curve before you manage to fully grock the new matrix patterns and tendencies."
"However, all isn't perfect. Be aware of one very big caveat: when the scene you're metering hits 16.3 EV, the matrix metering system gives up and sets its value for 16.3 EV, no matter how much more light there may be. EV 16.3 at ISO 100 is f/11 at 1/500, which is barely beyond Sunny 16. This won't occur all that often in your shooting, but it does occur sometimes, so make note of that. In really bright light conditions (snow, beach, etc.) you probably need to be in centerweighted metering."
"Color
The D7000 uses the same Picture Control system that all the current Nikon DSLRs now use. As far as I can see, the results are very close to the same as those with other Nikon DSLRs, with only some modest differences. In general, every Nikon now tends to produce near accurate color with a bit too much saturation and contrast as the default. Indeed, so much so that if you leave the camera set at the default settings you'll slightly limit the dynamic range you can capture. I strongly suggest that you be careful to not put too much oomph into your JPEGs, as it's difficult to back out contrast and saturation, once recorded. My personal preference is to set my D7000 for a more accurate, bland look (Neutral, sometimes with -1 Contrast) and add in any contrast and saturation I might want in the final image. However, many D7000 customers are likely to be shoot-but-don't-post-process photographers, and probably won't take my advice. Just be aware that you'll have a tough time with high contrast scenes if you start dialing up the controls to get that punch you want. (This usually prompts them to turn on Active D-Lighting, but the combination of too much contrast and saturation with in-camera pull-up of shadow detail tends to bring up more noise.)" --end quoted passage from Thom Hogan's Nikon D7000 review----
Nikon D7000 Review by Thom Hogan
So, if you want good information, go to a good source for accurate information, and not somebody with three posts, advocating buying what he happened to buy...just sayin...
Nikon lets you map front buttons to whatever function you like, if standand button is not to your liking. As for light metering, I find D7k's best there is. My D700 sometimes overexposure in difficult situations (0,3-0.7), but D7k is always accurate. Zones IV and VI are where they were supposed to be. 
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