>>4172392>If i want to recover and flatten the shadows, beyond a low ISO, I need to have as much of the photo within the clean ±3EV range ( if i have to go beyond i tend to clip the ±5EV to pure white/black and minimize noise )I have no idea what you mean by this.
>the Dynamic Range option reduces the contrast of a img making the highlight and shadows closer together by underexposing some of the pixelsThe dynamic range underexposes (all pixels) at capture and then corrects it in-camera. 1 stop for DR200, 2 for DR400. The DR modes don't give you any more or less dynamic range. They trade 1-2 stops from the shadows for 1-2 stops in the highlights, simply from underexposing.
If you shoot at DR100, always underexpose by 1 stop, then always correct the exposure in post, you're just doing by hand what DR200 does in-camera.
If you shoot at DR100, and ETTR/avoid clipping highlights, you'll get the best possible result in terms of dynamic range/noise. DR Auto is purely so I can be lazy.
If your highlights aren't clipping at DR100, going to DR200/400 will only make your image worse.
If you want more total dynamic range, bracketing is the only way.
