Difference between Auto Picture/Program Mode

Well, by now you have probably learned that the exposure of a picture is determined by aperture and shutter speed. For a correct exposure, there are a lot of combination of the two. For example, 1/250 sec and F8 equates 1/1000 sec and F4, or 1/4000 sec and F2. Shutter speed changes the motion blur; to stop a fast motion, you need faster shutter speed. Aperture changes the depth of field. For portrait, shallow DOF (small F number like 1.4, 2 or 2.8) is preferred to make the backgroud out of focus, for landscape, deep DOF is preferred to put everything in focus. With the picture program, the camera select all these depending on the scene you selected. With P, the camera set these, but you can adjust them to your like by turning the wheel. With Av and Tv modes, you actively select one of these values to suit your need (the camera sets the other value). One of the great advantage of the digital is that you can experiment all these and instantly see the results. Have fun!

On the *ist-DS: P = Program Mode. *ist-DS sets shutter and aperture. Smiley = MTF Program / Auto-all. *ist-DS sets shutter and aperture following MTF tables for FA, DA and D-FA lenses. Also forces "bright" mode for Jpegs, and disables manual white balance. AutoPict mode (green mode): *ist-DS picks the "pictograph" mode automagically. It will choose between Landscape (distant shots), Portrait (Midrange) and Macro (Close) shots, setting aperture, shutter, WB, and so on by following MTF and other specialized algorithms for each type of shot. This mode won't shift into sport mode automatically (at least I can't seem to force it to do so). I use P and Av most of the time. I *wish* that the Smiley mode would leave WB and "Bright"/"Natural" modes alone. If it did, I would use it more. I have no use for the auto-pict modes, but some people like them.

Auto Picture-selects on of the picture mode such as landscape(mountain), macro(flower), sport/action(running man) mode, etc. P-sets shutter and aperture. You set everything else. happy face- sets shutter, aperture and everything else.