Not a Number:
As I had noted I set the ISO at a fixed 800 as a compromise between speed and noise. Kypfer:
You are correct, there is no Ev adjustment in Manual mode; I was conflating it with the Av mode.
In addition I had apparently failed to set correctly one of the menus in the Custom menu. I have now changed the "AE-L bttn on M expr" to "Tv Shift". According to the instructions on Pg. 146 of the manual, "The aperture is locked and the shutters speed is adjusted automatically."
Following your recipe with just a couple of slight modifications as noted below:
Set the Mode Dial to M
Choose an appropriate (Add: ...fixed, not AUTO...) ISO setting.
Set the A/M switch on the lens to M. (Change: Set the A/M switch on the lens to "A" for wide-open focusing.)
Focus the lens with the aperture wide open.
Close down the aperture to the required setting (Add: ...by pushing the A/M switch to "M") … the viewfinder will go darker.
(Add: Push the shutter button halfway to get an initial reading.)
Press the AE-L button to set the shutter speed.
Press the shutter button to take the picture.
I use the A/M switch to flip between wide-open and stopped-down just because it's very convenient to my hand on the lens. Unless I'm really going for a small depth-of-field, I usually leave the f-stop between 5.6 and 8 to compensate for focusing errors.
I've just taken a bunch of shots in sunshine and shade, and this seems to work very well in different lighting conditions.
I also did some direct comparison of shutter speed for a given scene in the "Av" mode and immediately taking another one using the above recipe in the "M" mode, at the same f-stop. With this lens its is VERY consistent that the shutter speed drops by 2 steps...if the Av shutter was 1/1000th, the M shutter goes to 1/250th. That's essentially the +2.0 Ev I was adjusting the Av setting for.
It looks like you were completely correct in that the exposure in Av mode "should" work, but apparently this lens/camera combination just didn't much like each other. For the other lenses I can use the Av mode, but for this one I'll just keep it on full-manual mode and use the AE-L button.
I give my sincere thanks to everybody who tried to help me here, and a special callout to Kypfer for recommending a work-around that is simple and easy to remember.
This was my first exposure (pun intended) to the folks here at the forum(s), and want to express my appreciation for the kindness shown to a complete newbie.
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