Originally posted by mc5 (snip) or is just my camera broken?
I don't believe there is anything wrong with your camera, my friend. No camera in existance was designed to take images with the lens cap on, so by all means
take that lens cap off and shoot some images in normal light. If you see problems there, then perhaps you have something truly worthy of your concern. But, quite honestly, worrying about camera/metering behavior with the lens cap attached is just plain silly.
Quote: edit: if it's the sensor noise affecting the metering - why is that sensor noise not seen in the picture in the meaning of 'exposure' then?
Read the owners manual (pages 34 & 159). The K10D, like virtually every other DSLR, has noise reduction software built-in to reduce image noise. That software works best at removing noise from images containing little or no detail (the type of images one might get with the lens cap on) and less so with images containing considerable detail (designed that way to lessen impact on wanted image detail).
stewart