Posted by rick oleson on May 23, 2000 at 06:15:40:
In Reply to: SLR Camera posted by Anil Jangam on May 22, 2000 at 21:20:55:
In Manual mode, you set the lens aperture and the shutter speed, usually using a light meter in the viewfinder as a guide to tell you when the settings are correct.
In Auto mode, you set either the lens aperture or the shutter speed (depending on the model of camera), but not both: the camera automatically sets the other to provide a correct exposure. In general, this is faster and allows you to concentrate on your subject... it's good for fast moving subjects like sports. There is a down side: first, it encourages sloppiness, and you may not notice when the setting you've chosen is too far off for the camera to produce a correct exposure; second, the setting the camera's meter thinks is 'correct' is not always the one that produces the best picture. The manual mode allows you to use your own judgement, the auto mode does not.
Some models also have a Program Auto mode, in which the camera sets both the aperture and the shutter speed automatically, and you just focus and click. This is very forgiving of sloppiness, but gives you no control over depth of field or shutter speed; it's best left for really fast action situations, wildly unpredictable lighting, or days when you just feel too lazy to take a picture but you have to.
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