Does anyone else have issues with the automatic backlighting on their 8700. Mine seems to be overly senstive (or it has a mind of its own) with respect to dimming and brightening of the backlight. I can be stationary and the backlight will dim or brighten without any apparent change in ambient lighting.

Any ideas?

Mine is perfect - have not heard of any other issues like yours. May be faulty unit???

It happens sometimes. Jsut the nature of the beast. It seems to be pretty good most of the time, but ocassionally i does appear to change settings that aren't consistent with lighting changes. Have experienced this with two handsets, so i think it is normal.

Happens on mines sometimes as well. I just turn a blind eye to it as it is not a big hassel

I agree. The automatic backlighting is primarily a battery saving device. It is not perfect but it is pretty good.
An alternative is to turn Automatic Backlighting off (Options, Screen/Keyboard) and set the strength to about 60. You can then bump the lighting to full strength when desired with the power key (as you can also in Automatic Backlighting).
One nice thing about Automatic Backlighting set to off is that the keyboard backlight is then always on. (I find the Automatic system a bit stingy in this regard.) However you will burn more battery juice.
I use the Auto feature. Pretty good is good enough in this case.

Unit could be defective. It's also possible that you're not noticing light sources (or lack of) that the Blackberry 8700 happens to pick up.

How you hold the device could be an issue also. I noticed when I have my fingers near the top of the case the backlight will be a bit more sensitive as I may be blocking the automatic sensor.

The auto backlight doesn't really bother me, I just wanted to confirm that mine wasn't defective in this regard.