MtnMan Loc: ID

There are quite a few of us who grew up with manual everything...including manual focus...because there was no other option. Some of us have learned and appreciate what the new technology provides...some not.

I admit to having owned a Z4 with manual transmission and wouldn't have considered one with an automatic. So I can appreciate the Luddite view.

My D800 doesn't have an Auto mode so that isn't an option with it. My D5300 has an Auto mode and a bunch of scene modes. I don't choose to use them any more but did find them useful to check into what the camera engineers thought might work best while I was learning with it's predecessor...a D5100.

I used P most of the time on my first DSLR. I liked the fact that it first gave me a recommendation...which I could change with the thumbwheel if I wanted. I now more often start with one of the other modes as I described in an earlier post...and will use P mode when out and about with no specific images in mind. I rarely leave it at what the camera first offers for exposure but find it a good starting point.

I have the function button set to ISO on the D5300 so I can get to whatever I want while looking through the viewfinder and not having to search for buttons. I have my D800 set to "Easy ISO" so the thumbwheel does ISO and the front wheel the other thing...depending on the exposure mode. And, as I also mentioned in the earlier post there are occasions when I'll automate exposure by using M mode and auto ISO.

Mikeazz Loc: I live in Northport, NY

Program mode can be useful, especially in street photography. Scott Kelby recommends P mode when doing street photography because it offers 'Instant' response, which is often needed to capture quick and unexpected action. That doesn't mean you can't use A mode for street photography; he prefers to use P mode. Since Kelby is more famous than anyone of us Hogs-it's probably good advice.

MtnMan Loc: ID

Famous National Geographic photographer Joel Sartori makes the same recommendation in his Great Course videos.

ecar Loc: Oregon, USA

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

RJM Loc: Cardiff, S Wales, UK

Well said.

The camera is a tool to capture the scene and the 'P' mode is another way to do it.

I use it occasionally. I use Auto Iso too. It all depends what I'm doing. If it's Astro or landscape or studio it's a fixed ISO.

It doesn't make you less of a 'proper' photographer because you sometimes use Program mode!!!

The original poster asked what it was and why he would need it - only to be told that if he did he was no better than a point and shooter! Unebelievable.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

What I'm being stunned by here is the number of people ADMITTING they use P, A, S, auto focus, auto ISO, etc. In previous threads that I've been involved in over the last couple years, there was a complete barrage of minimalists with vile attitudes calling us point and shooters with no skill sets because we didn't work in full manual with charts and even hand held light meters.

Either most of the old timers have left, don't know this thread is happening, or have finally realized they're a minority. I have nothing against using manual if you want to, and as I said in the past, I did so from 1974 until my last two 35mm Nikons when I started kind of staying in aperture mode most of the time. But as soon as I saw how semi and sometimes full automation could help me shoot faster, and many times better than my own decision making, I rook advantage of technology which has done nothing but benefit me.

I could do what I do today as an occupation and spend twice as much time per day doing it, but why? I have better things to do with my time than try to egotistically prove throughout the rest of my life that I'm superior to a piece of technology that has had multi-millions of dollars invested in it to give it artificial intelligence that sometimes amazing me to watch.

For example, although I don't use it, how in the hell does facial recognition and smile recognition do what it does and rather accurately to get perfect exposure and depth of field when there are a half dozen faces at somewhat different distances from the lens? I think that's amazing. It even knows when there are NO human faces in the screen and doesn't make a mistake by choosing a dog or cat.

I'm just glad to see the floodgates open and people admitting they use technology instead of trying to use a pair of diagonal cutters and needle nose pliers to yank all the buttons and switches off their camera bodies which manual purists would like to do - with some even angry with manufacturers that all the buttons and switches are on their camera.

My mission is to take the very best photos I can, use semi manual or manual only when I have a specialty need, take advantage of any tool that helps me, edit to improve even more, use HDR when it helps represent what I saw in person, and be as proud as possible with photos I complete.

AZ Dog Loc: Peoria, AZ

I could not have said it any better!!! Now, let this subject die.

Grandpa Pete Loc: Western Finger Lakes (NY)

I' m not sure they are old-timers. I'm 75 and got my first camera (Brownie 620) when I was six. By the time I got my FE2 with ttl match needle metering, I though it was the height of automation. On to af and now digital each time I thought I was in fat city. In short I love to use P as noted in a prior post on this subject on Page 6 of this thread.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

I made an assumptive comment there because "old timers" are many times the last to want to, or be able to, switch to newer technologies.

My grandfather used a big coil spring button on the floor next to the gas pedal to start his pickup truck in 1958 and when he bought a 1967 Ford F100 he would just sit there and look at the floor for a while then finally turn the key and grind the starter almost every time for years.

My X's mother and father had a black and white 12" round tube TV on a shelf on a wall for 20 years. When the father died, the mother went so far as to buy a black and white floor model, although they were just about extinct by that time too. Then paid $15 for a set of rabbit ears instead of $24 for an outside antenna that I offered to install because if it was good enough for "Dad" it was good enough for her.

Old timers ordered cars without power steering or air conditioning until they were forced not to. Crank windows instead of electric until they didn't exist anymore.

No answering machine for their rotory phone then finally being forced into a tape answering machine but refuse to switch to digital when the tape broke and there weren't any more to buy.

Andy Rooney using a typewriter and refusing a word processor until his fingers stopped working and even then dictated and wouldn't use a computer.

Refusing to have a TV in the house because of a biased opinion that it "only shows idiotic crap" when it's actually filled with educational programming up the ying-yang and factual documentaries so numerous you can't even watch them all.

The list is endless of "old timers" doing it their old way and refusing to budge an inch forward in time. We all have biases and opinions that hold us back from more fulfillment in life but it seems that "old timers" are more prone to standing their ground or even pulling back from anything they don't understand and won't put the effort out to understand. I'm not young, I'll be 65 in February, but I try to pride myself in learning something new every day, trying new things, being bold and stepping up to the plate on things that won't harm me, etc. I read about technology and go to stores to play with the technology while building new opinions about what's the best on the market at this moment although I may not be actually buying at the moment. I like to keep up with cutting edge within my budgetary limits and slightly beyond so that when it's time that I DO want to buy new, I've kept up.

Rangefinder instead of viewfinder. TLR instead of SLR. All manual instead of priority anything. Hand meter instead of in-camera meter. Every step of the way there are those who drag their feet, claim their way is better than the new way, and then defend themselves and lack of desire to learn with comments like "shooting manual is for a real photographer and anything else is snapshooting."

Wood maybe "stick in the mud" be a better phrase than "old timer?"