W1 metering I am fairly new to this camera and I was wondering which settings most of you use. The multipoint AF or the Center AF for focus ? The multi-pattern metering or the spot metering ? Most common ISO rating ? The image size 5M or 3.2M ? Also I found that you can't have the camera set one way for the M mode and another way for the P mode. Sorryto ask so much. Richard

Put your camera in auto mode and look at the menu. You don't have much choice of anything. Essentially, I believe Program is like auto, except you have so many more choices to make. Naturally if you change the ISO, for example, in Program mode, you will have a different speed. I also keep mine in sharp focus mode and leave red eye setting to off, as I find most people move after they see the light and you end up with a no-good photo. Easier to fix in editing. Love that camera and get great results almost every time.

The camera tends to use the AF illuminator when it's turned to auto because it makes focusing faster but without it you'll get a logic speed of focusing as well ... so since it disturbs people to put an orange light in their faces :) so I usually turn it off unless you are so desperate and light is so dim , then your only chance will be to use it The red eye is tricky to people, they tend to believe that you have already taken your pic once the flash goes ... but since it needs to work for a while then you end up taking a pic with somebody who is not in place ... it also makes the shot to shot time longer, so I turn it off by default. I only use it on ocasions when I know that I am indoors with somebody turned in my direction.

Hi Richard I'm sure that after playing with the camera for a while you'll start having your own preferences but as a start.......... I use Centre AF most of the time so that I know where I am focusing. Multipoint AF for groups of people who are all at practically the same dist. from where I stand The opposite for metering I found that centre metering gets fooled by say the colour of the shirt that's in the middle. If it's black the camera will assume that the whole situation is dark, so multi-pattern is my usual unless of course you are very keen on a central subject and want it to be perfect diregarding the rest of the background My usual Iso is 100 outdoor and in normal indoor situations sometimes I go to 200 if I need a faster shutter speed indoors ... I used 400 once and got terrible noise but again I was still learning my settings and so I might try to give it a second chance. Auto works fairly well for iso 5 M is my prefered shooting , One can crop and work on the pic later , you know you can reduce the size to 3.2 M even in the camera if you want to, so unless you are very tight on memory space why take a less resolution pic ? If you like the pic later there's no way of making it look like 5M again By the way dont forget the white ballance (WB) it's very important in the overall quality of the colours and although Auto is not bad .. indoors the manual setting is better IMO You are right about the P and M modes but usually you'll play with M for a while then you'll start to depend on P more. Actually P mode is better than Auto and suitable for most situations I hope this helps a bit