JPL

Shooting in full auto lets the camera decide the ISO, the shutter speed and the aperture and the focus according to your settings. If you shoot in manual you have to decide those 4 things. Sometimes it is just easier and faster to do that in manual. When you are in auto you may have to fiddle with exposure compensation setting, the metering mode setting and the focus point/system settings to prepare for the shot to get it exactly as you want. That actually makes it more complicated to take the photograph. Using manual instead, expecially on a mirrorless camera, is often much easier and faster and helps you get better shots because you are controlling the basic settings directly instead of using EV, metering modes and focus modes settings as another layer of manual control on top of the auto settings. It is just sometimes so complicated to set all the automatic settings right for the shot that using manual settings is easier.

But to get successful with manual shooting the photographer needs to learn the basics about ISO, aperture and shutter speed and have a complete understanding about those 3 things. Someone who can not do that should keep shooting in auto for better results.

When it is all about speed and action you will get much more keepers when using the auto focus, the fourth manual setting. Auto focus is in my mind the only frequently used auto setting that is really needed, but only in those situations when things are moving so fast in front of the camera that you can not keep up with the processor that controls the focus according to the auto settings choosen.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

The simplest, easiest, method for me is to use “P” mode; on my Pentax, an easily-reached dial allows me to over-ride that choice if I want to.

Nightski

Wish I would have had this when I started .. would've made it easy as abc123 ..