1. (Twice Amended) A method for generating an exposure setting, comprising: a) selecting one of a plurality of predetermined exposure settings as a current exposure setting for a solid state camera having a camera imager; b) generating a captured scene by the camera imager using the current exposure setting; c) selecting according to an automated search methodology another one of the exposure settings to be the current setting in response to the captured scene being underexposed or overexposed; and d) repeating b) and c) until the captured scene is neither underexposed or overexposed, wherein the search methodology performs a coarse granularity search so long as the captured scene is either grossly overexposed or grossly underexposed, and then changes to a fine granularity search if the captured scene is still overexposed or underexposed but not grossly so.