mel Loc: Jacksonville, Florida

Manual, shmanual, I just want to concentrate on good composition, take my time and enjoy. Done it for a long time now!!!

sandheinrichc Loc: Illinois

the only time my camera goes into auto mode is when I hand my camera off to someone else take a picture of me and my family, I dont always have it in full manual but it is generally my camera is in at least a semi manual mode.

musickna Loc: St. Louis

I, too, like many others here, migrated through fully automatic, to aperture priority to manual mode. That where I'm staying for the majority of photographs. It does force me to think more carefully about what shooting conditions I am using for any given scenario and as a result, I tend to get better pictures.

Ernie Misner Loc: Lakewood, WA

Manual for landscapes, A mode (aperture preferred) for people and/or moving objects. Both force you to pick an aperture appropriate to the DOF you desire.

mel Loc: Jacksonville, Florida

I cant see the point of spending money on a camera and not letting it do what you spent the money on it for.

lighthouse Loc: No Fixed Abode

Mel, I don't mean to be horrible but - your comment is spoken with the naivety of a true snapshooter.
I didn't spend the money on a camera because it has an auto setting.
I spent the money on it because I can fully override those settings.
Bugfan had a really good post in another thread.
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-145553-9.html#2468123
Yes, you can adjust the ISO and other stuff while still being in an automatic mode. But you're being a bit simplistic. Sometimes you don't want a perfect or proper exposure. Sometimes you want the image under exposed or over exposed. Sometimes you're more interested in hue and contrast rather than accurate exposure. Sometimes you're interested in mood. These things are not created by tweaking the ISO or the EV. These things are created by taking control of aperture and shutter speed, selecting an appropriate internal meter or using a hand held one to evaluate the light, and ignoring the camera when it tells you that your exposure is way out of line.

Perfect images are not always exposed perfectly. Sometimes they're deliberately over or under exposed in addition to being composed. That's what manual is all about, exercising your creativity by doing the thinking yourself instead of abrogating that responsibility to the camera.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Automation is great but it seems like you're assuming the camera knows more about what you want then you do. For those that believe that, they have included various auto modes. For the rest of us who want control of the shutter, aperture, ISO, white balance, metering, focus points and everything else in order to get the pictures we want, there are modes to suit that purpose. I wouldn't assume that because automated features exist that they result in the best photos. They in fact usually do not. Composition is critical to get a great image, but so is the correct exposure that meets the intended goals and mood of the photographer. We're not just talking about weekend snapshots of the kids in the pool, although even there the difference between controlling the camera and having the camera control you, can be striking!

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Do not condemn that which you don't understand. I'm glad your happy doing it your way. And if you're pleased with the results all the better.

Ernie Misner Loc: Lakewood, WA

Don't confuse "auto" mode with "A" mode. In A mode you pick the aperture and the camera picks the shutter speed. The reason this is such a popular form of auto mode is that most every picture you'll ever take can benefit from selecting the exact amount of depth of field you want right from the start. There is a place for full automatic, and that is the guys making grab shots for news coverage, and yes, spending money for a camera that can do that well is a good idea. What is the difference between Auto and Program mode? Program lets you select the ISO and WB, the camera does the rest. Full auto, you don't get to select anything. What's so great about full manual for landscape shots? Your exposure is locked in, and when you slightly change the composition the camera is not trying to change the exposure on you. That is totally maddening and counter productive because the light on the subject is not changing.

ohallboyz Loc: Boston, MA

some cameras don't have automatic mode, so then what.....you're screwed?

I would never tell someone to flip it into auto and let the camera make the decisions. Good for you to be determined to learn manual and continue to shoot that way!

MtnMan Loc: ID

Having shot with my SLR for 30 years in full manual mode (i.e. including manual focus) I don't get the fascination with using it on a DSLR. You spend all that money for sophisticated hardware and then choose not to use it? I liken it to hooking a horse up to your Lexus.

There are times when using manual is your only option and I agree you should learn how to do so properly. But most of the time you are better off using one of the autoexposure modes and learning how to set the ISO and metering mode to get what you want while using the camera metering system that you paid for.

It doesn't make much difference if you use A, S, or P on a Nikon...all have the same basic effect.

BTW I also always use auto white balance.

MagicMark

My mom complains that all she wants is a camera that takes good pictures without having to learn photography. But she keeps on hitting a wall with this point of view. The best way to get the photo she wants is to learn what the camera can do and use that to her advantage. But she doesn't want to learn.

But in her defense she does have a camera that has "better than average" white balance capabilities (I wish all cameras were this good with Auto White Balance).