Okay, here's the addendum. Haha.
Harald: Yup, there is a willingness to learn on my part. This isn't my first DSLR, though, just my first Pentax, so I do have to re-learn the quirks of the system. Just wanna see if I did get a lemon. The original pictures are at home, I'll try to post the un-cropped ones later tonight.
Beej80: I threw out the evaluative metering on these ones and used spot metering. In well-lighted scenes, the K10D works great. But I was trying to see how it does in low-light, since there will be times when I take my photography there. It's just weird how the K10D doesn't want to suggest to me a shutter speed lower than 1/4th, and switching over to M mode, the meter seems to be content (EV bar at 0.0) with the 1/4th shutter speed and f/5.6 (which resulted in a dark photo at the 55mm setting of the kit lens). Also, while everyone else seems to get overexposed pictures using their manual lenses, mine starts overexposed at higher apertures and progressively gets underexposed as I switch to lower apertures. Thoughts?
Salty: Spot metering was used in both pictures. I'll see if I can find another lens to try out later tonight (other lenses I have are manual ones, and I'm getting opposite behavior to the norm here using those lenses - underexposure as opposed to overexposure).
TaoMaas: Well, I took a picture zoomed out, then re-pressed the shutter button halfway when I zoomed in. Is that the correct way to do re-metering?
It's also curious that while I zoomed in, as expected, the aperture went up, but also, the shutter speed went faster instead of slower. Thoughts?
Gimbal: Hmm, maybe you have something there. I was more focused on the EV bar on the lower right. Perhaps user error may be at fault here.
I can't really recall fully how my old 300D did when faced with low-light scenes, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't scared to suggest a shutter speed lower than 1/4, something the K10D seems to be wary to do (both using their respective 3.5-5.6 kit lenses). Hmm...
AndrewG NY: The brighter scene was cropped, though my judgment in cropping got skewed. Haha. I can assure you that the spot meter was smack dab in the panda's belly in the two shots. Your other comments are well thought-out and are much appreciated.
Personally, I use evaluative metering mostly, and used spot metering only to see if I should have the camera fixed. No, I'm not returning the camera and switching to another brand, but I also don't want a lemon, just like any other forum member here. As a disclosure, I'm happy about my K10D and I'm not bashing here.
khardur: I guess you're right. Maybe I really have to bump up EV in low-light scenes. It's just crazy that the K10D doesn't wanna attempt to suggest a shutter speed lower than 1/4. I just wanna ascertain first if I got a lemon or not. If you guys knew what I was saying while doing the tests, you would hear me rooting for the K10 to suggest a longer shutter speed at 55mm. Haha.
pschlute: Noted. I'll try again later this evening.
little laker: I did this using purely artificial light (tests were done at midnight in my room).
Again, thanks for the thoughts and comments. Much appreciated.
I think I'll have to post in the Photos section from now on so you'll see that I actually use my camera and not just whine about it. LOL.