You absolutely can shoot fully-manual (just click the mode dial to M). However, the only ways to meter exposure are either to take a still and examine the results (as @Granjow suggests), or to flick to shutter-priority with auto-ISO on. If you're doing the latter you might as well do the exposure-lock-hold thing - it may sound like a 'crazy bunch of paragraphs' in my first post, but most of that's menu settings. When you're shooting it's very quick... you just have to keep a close eye on highlights.
@dfreerider I'm not sure why the ISO/aperture shuffle isn't working for you. Only two things I can think of: could be it was plain too dark when you were testing, and the camera had nowhere to go with exposure with 1/50th shutter. Also, I only have G lenses - no aperture rings. I've no idea how the camera behaves with other sorts of lens.
@dfreerider I'm not sure why the ISO/aperture shuffle isn't working for you. Only two things I can think of: could be it was plain too dark when you were testing, and the camera had nowhere to go with exposure with 1/50th shutter. Also, I only have G lenses - no aperture rings. I've no idea how the camera behaves with other sorts of lens.
