No DRO+ is used, no raw processing. Load the first pic, load the second, then flick between them. The exposure is THE SAME and these are in-camera JPEGs, taken in succession. All I did was place my hand in front of the lens for one shot, and take it away for the other. See the EXIF data. I'm baffled because DRO was turned off. How can this possibly happen?

This was not a deliberate test, I put my finger there to mark the start of a sequence using all the different picture modes (Standard, Vivid, Sunset, BW etc) in order. This was just a marker shot.