Whistle-blow on faux manual control that has ONLY TWO aperture settings - in auto it has only ONE
I bought this camera because I carry one everywhere everyday. This means that the camera has to be small to make this requirement viable. I ideally wanted a camera with an aperture priority option because it gives me manual control with automatic shutter speed, making it quick to take an accurately exposed image and I can always tweak with +/- exposure. This camera does not offer aperture priority, so I reluctantly settled for the 'manual' option, which means it is slow to set-up a shot. BUT THE SHOCK CAME THE FIRST TIME I USED THE MANUAL MODE it gave me lots of choice of ISO and shutter speed, but when it came to setting the aperture there were ONLY TWO OPTIONS spaced well apart. These depend on zoom position, zoomed full out you get f3 or f8.7 zoomed fully in you get f6.9 or f20. It turns out that the camera does not have a proper diaphragm, instead there is simply a cheap and cheerful hole in a bit of metal or plastic. To get the second aperture setting a mechanism slips an additional plate across the first hole, this plate has a smaller hole. Two simple holes in two simple plates is all you get. Even worse is in P mode where you only get the option of the larger hole.
Of course when you are in the shop and it is in P mode and you zoom in and out you see an impressive range of apertures f this and f that. It looks pretty impressive. But it is not a fancy computer algorithm working out the best f stop option. It is simply a single hole and the numbers change as you zoom in and out purely because the maths dictates they must because the ratio between lens and hole size alters. The one sized hole just gets a different f number.
Do I feel cheated, you bet. But it was a lesson in not asking the right questions in the shop. But this is not the sort of question you might typically think to ask, hence the whistle-blow.
Apparently many compact cameras at this price point with aperture priority or full manual modes do the same.
See this article for a helpful explanation of the maths: http://www.dpreview.com/glossary/exposure/aperture