Interesting Camera Setting Poll

[Harpo]

I was recently looking at postings on a couple photo forums and noticed quite a few newbies who just got DSLRs for the first time over christmas… taking real good sharp shots. I was getting down on myself because my keeper rate is not as high as I would like and I've been working on the manual settings since joining this forum.

Then I started wondering how many of those shots were done in the auto vs manual settings? The DPS photo forum coincidentally just posted a poll on this very question. This is the breakdown in a nutshell from over 61,000 respondents on which settings they normally use:

Auto/Program/Creative modes (landscape, portrait, etc): 30%
Manual: 30%
Aperture/Shutter Priority: 40% (actual breakdown is AP: 36%, SP: 4%)

Ok. I dont feel so bad. Im wondering how those numbers would be for CiC folks? ummmm….

[Steaphany]

Post the poll so you can get answers

[Glenn NK]

61,000 respondents?

That's a very large sample, and consequently it probably presents results that are as accurate as any.

Would another poll will reveal anything significantly different?

Glenn

[rpcrowe]

I would judge that I shoot P 40%, AV 40% and Manual 20%

I almost never shoot TV and I never shoot in Auto or Creative Auto

[kontrol]

85% AV, 10% TV, 5% M

Most of the time the effect I play most with, probably like most people, is the depth of field. Rarely I need TV, like when there is water in my scene. Manual for night photography.

I don't like the Full auto, or the Creatives modes on the camera, I find they "decide" too much for me.
I like AV, and mostly adjust with the Exposure compensation if anything. It's a one button and roll the dial. Fast enough for my needs (Not a professional, not even semi-pro )

[Inkanyezi]

I use A for about 90%, M for most of the rest. I occasionally use P, but T, Auto or "creative" modes never. And I really mean never for T and "creative", I haven't even tried any of them, although I have tried Auto a couple of times to test how it performs.

Among reasons for preferring A and M settings is that I often use old manual lenses with a diaphragm ring; I seldom use the lens that came with the camera.

[herbert]

If the auto mode on my camera read my mind then I would use it all the time. Unfortunately it doesn't.

The reason that non-auto modes are good is that you can tell the camera what you want to achieve. Things to tell the camera are what the main subject is, what time of day it is (i.e. how dark the picture should look), how fast the subject is moving, how small it is. All these things change how the camera should be set. In a lot of cases these can be summarised as Portrait, Landscape, Night scene, Sports, Macro, etc. This is why these modes are very successful for a lot of people.

I think that you have more need of manual modes when you are straying away from a standard picture.

I use manual mode when it seems the camera cannot make up its mind about what it wants to do, or if I am doing a setup shot with difficult light. If the exposure varies between each shot as I move around to compose then the lack of consistency is degrading my photos. Mainly I use aperture mode with a manually set ISO for the light conditions as I walk around since I can turn 360 degrees and shoot away with no problems.

Incidentally I shoot Canon. It seems to me that the auto modes have a very strict adherance to the 1/EFL (effective focal length) rule for shutter speed. This effects the auto modes, aperture priority, shutter priority and the auto ISO control. I would like the camera to acknowledge my lens has a 4 stop image stabiliser. Sometimes I have to switch to manual just to tell the camera it is ok to slow the shutter speed.

Alex

[Donald]

M = 100%

Although I'd qualify that by saying that I have the 3 function (Cf) buttons set up on my 40D to all be in manual but to behave slightly differently in other ways; e.g.

Cf1 = 2 second delay
Cf2 = No delay
Cf3 = AI Servo mode

Other factors are set the same; e.f. my starting point for shutter, aperture and ISO.

And I just move between these 3.

[RockNGoalStar]

I'd say I shoot in Aperture Priority Mode 70% of the time and Manual 30%. I have never used the scene modes on my D90.

[Shadowman]

Depends on the camera:
1. DSLR-M mode 60%, A mode 20%, S mode 20%
2. Bridge-M mode 50%, A mode 20%, S mode 20%, Auto 10%
3. 4/3rds-M mode 50%, A mode 20%, S mode 20%, Auto 5% Creative 5%

It depends on how and what I am photographing, time of day, event, camera's ability to function in those environments and situations.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

100% Manual but with a few more settings on user programmable modes.

U1 - AF-S, Single Point Focus Mode, Manual ISO
U2 - AF-A, Auto Focus Mode, Auto ISO 100 to 6400

[Rob Douglas]

M = 90%
AV = 3%
CF = 7% I have a preset for when I shot B&W

[Jim B.]

AV-90%
M-10% use mainly with flash.

[murfdogg645]

M-95%
And the creative settings 5% just to see the difference between my manual shot at the preset shots.

[Andrew76]

M = 100% for me. I started that way a while back just to get the practice, and now it's all I shoot.

[Squidgy]

Outside, 75% Aperture Priority 25% Manual. Inside, 100% manual.

[Geoff F]

I suspect the answers to any statistical poll depend on the locations where the questions were asked. For example, asking this question outside a supermarket would produce different results to asking it on a site like this.

And if the questions were aimed at DSLR new users there would obviously be a bias towards auto settings. I suspect if you asked the same people in a years time there would be some difference. Most people without previous DSLR experience will start with the auto settings.

Having worked for many years in the fishing industry I have become somewhat sceptical of any official statistics; particularly those questions which go something like 'If this proposal made a significant improvement would you support it?' I don't answer any questions which start with If.

Going off on a quick ramble . . . I was recently asked to take part in a UK Home Office (government dept) survey on crime figures. So I started off by suggesting to the interviewer that the government were deliberately targeting 'soft' areas like where I live because there is a very low crime rate here.

He agreed this could have been possible but added that if this was the case they had 'shot themselves in the foot' because he was discovering quite a lot of low level nuisance crime which hadn't been reported because people thought the police wouldn't take any action anyway.

But returning to the actual question. I suppose I shoot Tv more than the average user because quite a few of my subjects involve movement, where correct shutter speed is more important than aperture. For example when I am on a small boat and shooting other moving craft or wildlife, etc.

I find that a lot of my failures are due to too slow a shutter.

However, auto or creative zone is easy to calculate - it's 0.

Then Av or M are both important; although I often take some exposure readings in Av before actually shooting M.

But I wouldn't actually want to give firm figures because they vary during the year as I tend to target different subjects. For example, a lot of my time during the summer involves shooting insects with flash, so M is used a lot. But later in the year, autumn landscapes become more important so Av gets used more.