Next question - which mode for holiday snaps and underwater?

louthmpson wrote:

I keep seeing a lot about P mode... what is this in comparison to auto mode?

It gives you access to more controls/settings. Auto mode handles many controls/settings automatically.

If you look at page 111 of the user manual, you'll see a list of the different settings that are available (or not) in each shooting mode.

I'll level with you - most of my photos in the near future are going to be holiday snaps and stills of my kids in the pool, so I don't need anything too technical, but I don't necessarily want to always be a slave to auto mode.

I get that. In my experience, I really learned Program mode by trying to rely on it for almost everything. I made a fair number of mistakes, which I also learned from.

I know the manual explains the differences in a technical way, but if anyone can give a more human and simplified explanation I would really appreciate it eg when P mode is better and when Auto is better.

P mode is better than Auto in every situation where you don't trust the camera to make the right decision regarding settings.

I usually shoot in Program or Aperture modes. These are the settings that I most frequently adjust (which wouldn't be adjustable in Auto mode):

exposure compensation

• ISO
• white balance
• flash

And there are other settings (not available in Auto) that I adjust less frequently:

• face priority
• flash compensation
• image stabilization
• accessory

Also, for mucking about underwater pics in the pool, does anyone have experience of which underwater mode is most suitable?

Given that you're in a pool, the snorkeling mode will probably produce the best results, but that may vary ... particularly if you're in a large or deep pool.

And does it HAVE to be in the underwater (fish symbol) mode to use it underwater, or can you pick anything you like?

You can certainly use Program or Aperture mode instead. You'll probably want to set your white balance to "underwater," though.

I'd be a little concerned about using Auto mode ... because this is one of those circumstances where I'd be skeptical about the camera's ability to make the right decision regarding settings.

In general, I recommend eventually learning how to choose the correct settings in any circumstance.  It will give you more control and flexibility with your photography.  And the more you get out and practice, the more you'll learn about how those settings work.

When asking a question can you put which camera the question is about in the question? You also want to put your camera in your profile so it appears under every post you make.

Now from context I'd say you're asking about the TG-5.

P vs Auto mode

Auto mode is designed for casual use, such as when picking up someone else's camera and you don't know what unusual settings they may have. Auto just forces all settings to their defaults for most "hidden" settings - on the quick menu only some options will be enabled and these should be easy to see quickly.

P is a program mode and allows you to set any camera options, and they'll be remembered next time.

Note: On this camera Auto uses i-Enhance picture mode whereas P lets you choose your picture mode (including i-Enhance), but defaults to the Natural picture mode. So out of the box, Auto mode pictures are going to have brighter colours. The i-Enhance picture mode on Auto is arguably too saturated and disappointingly this reduces the usefulness of Auto mode at least for me.

I set my own "quick use" mode by setting all my options in P or A mode to what I want, then saving that into a custom mode - C1 or C2. Thus you get the benefit of having every setting how you want it, but also if you make any changes to settings while shooting the changes are thrown away next time you turn the camera on or go back to your C1 or C2 mode, so you can depend on them being set to what you want.

Underwater mode

You can use whichever mode you like underwater - you don't need to use an underwater scene mode. A skilled photographer may choose to just use A or P and shoot RAW to apply their own colour corrections later.

There are some unique challenges when shooting underwater that the underwater modes attempt to automate for you. Firstly, the colours will be tinted and washed out, so all the underwater modes set the colour balance to try and correct this.

The "underwater snapshot" basically just does this - it's a normal camera mode but it puts the picture mode on "vivid" and adjusts the white balance to compensate for the colour tint.

In deeper water autofocus can be difficult due to low light. The "underwater wide" mode disposes with autofocus altogether. It does this by narrowing the aperture and focusing to a moderate distance where most things will be in focus (technically, I think it's a little closer than "hyperfocal"). This will eliminate focus hunting but anything closer than 2 or 3 feet to the camera *will* be out of focus.

All the above can still be done in P or A mode instead using settings such as picture mode, white balance, and more - remember the camera supports choosing aperture and focusing manually so you can even replicate the underwater wide mode. It's just that the underwater modes attempt to make this much quicker.

The other underwater modes are more specialised and hopefully you can figure out their purpose.