I recently (2 months ago) bought a Nikon D5200 as my first DSLR. All was well until a few days ago, but now it seems every daytime shot I take in auto-mode (including the various modes like Landscape/Portrait etc) is completely over-exposed and washed out. The only way I can get a regular shot is to switch to "A" or "S" mode and manually set the exposure compensation to something large and negative (e.g. -5.00).
In auto-mode the ISO is set to auto, the WB is set to auto, as indeed are most things, so I'm baffled at what is causing the over exposure, and why this problem has suddenly arisen. Even in say aperture priority mode, "A", when I manually set the ISO to 100, and set the WB to "Direct Sunlight", the shots still come out too white/washed out unless I mess with setting exposure compensation.
I've tried doing the factory reset by pressing and holding the two buttons , and I've also reset the shooting menu, and anything else I could find to reset, but still the shots are overexposed in "Auto" mode.
Does this mean my camera has been bashed and needs servicing or is there something else I could try?
Here is a pic of the camera lens attachment area: