Rebel XT meters "wrong" on anything but manual

[beatle]

I picked up a refurbed XT from my local camera shop and I've been playing around with it for a few days. I cannot get any decent pics out of it on anything but full manual mode. They are all overexposed. On M, I let the camera meter the shot and then I adjust the aperture and/or shutter speed to bring the exposure into the center. When I adjust the aperture in Av or shutter in Tv (or nothing in P) the meter is always pegged at the 2+ and it adjusts the picture to be overexposed. I can check the metering by putting the camera back into M and if I use the settings it recommended in another mode, it will always show overexposed. I've checked the AEB setting and it's set in the middle. I'm a bit unfamiliar with the camera, but this just seems wrong. Any opinions? I can't just take it back to the store right now as I'm on travel for work.

 

[Mark R]

When I adjust the aperture in Av or shutter in Tv (or nothing in P) the meter is always pegged at the 2+ and it adjusts the picture to be overexposed.

That's not the meter - that's the exposure compensation setting. +2 is telling you that the camera is set to overexpose by 2 stops.

In the P/Av/Tv modes hold the Av button and scroll the wheel so that the bar goes into the middle.

 

[beatle]

Ah ha, that makes sense. I couldn't figure out how to move the setting back into the middle.

I'm still getting a lot of blurry, washed out images with the camera. I'm using a Tamron 18-200mm lens. I've never really gotten a very crisp picture with this camera unless shooting in macro. My A70, A80 and S2 IS that preceded the XT all had great color and sharpness, even when I knew next to nothing about cameras (though I still feel that way sometimes 😱).