Auto modes on K100D anyone?

So far I'm very pleased with my new DSLR, but the User Guide is not very helpful. I understand the purpose of the various automatic modes, but I don't understand how the camera adjusts itself to the different types of sceneries. (And what is the difference in photographing a cat or a dog?)

What I would like to know is the philosophy behind the different modes. Is the difference in exposure or post processing?

Until I find out, I guess I will stick to shutter priority or aperture priority for action or DOF control, respectively.

I believe the Auto Picture modes as we currently recognise them were first introduced on some of the MZ 35mm cameras, although there was an earlier simplified version as far back as the the P50

To quote from my MZ6 manual in Auto PIcture mode the camera selects a Picture Mode depending on the camera to subject distance and the image magnification.


Steve

While in Dogging mode, press Fn and Menu simultaneously to bring up a sub menu. This contains a list of 25 popular breeds of dog. The camera will automatically select faster shutter speeds for the faster breeds, and smaller apertures for the larger ones - to get them all in focus.

However, these modes are really only for those who don't want to learn much about photography, or for those in a hurry. Otherwise I suggest sticking with Av, etc, for more creative control.

More seriously, I don't know if anything besides the shutter speed and aperture is changed by these modes with this model of camera. With the Optio S5i compact, sharpness and some other processing settings are changed by some of the special modes.

stevejcoe
I understand that in Auto Pict mode, the camera automatically switches between Portrait, Landscape and Macro, depending on the distance to the subject (or is it object?), while the other settings lock the mode to the selected setting.

The SCN modes are more of a mystery, maybe the camera uses different colour temperatures, saturation, etc., to capture the different moods. I still feel that Pentax could have provided a little more detailed description.

iceblinker
You are pulling my leg, aren't you? At least, I don't have any extra menu for selection of dog breed, although I can, to some extent, see your point.

In any case, I agree that these are "lazy" modes for those who cannot be bothered to think about aperture and shutter speed.

Unfortunately the winter season does not leave much light for photograpy here in the North, so I have not had the opportunities to make serious tests yet.

But thank you both for your kind replies.

I checked for the breed menu as well

I think thats the first time I've switched the camera to anything other than Tv, Av, M, or B.

I was pulling your dogleg about the sub menu , but the rest was serious.

The Scene modes do influence the selection of shutter speed or/and aperture.

To see if the saturation, sharpness and contrast, etc, are affected too, try looking through the menus to see what they are set to when using the various modes.

I don't have a K100D, but in my *ist DS (quite a similar model), the sturation, sharpness and contrast options in the menu are greyed out and reset to the default (medium) settings when any of the Scene modes are selected. Then they return to what I previously had them set them to when I put the camera back on a normal mode (eg Av).

My Opio S5i behaves in a similar way, except some of the modes do change the saturation, sharpness and contrast - to settings other than medium - as can be seen by looking at the menu.

Note that saturation, sharpness and contrast settings are virtually irrelevant when shooting RAW rather than JPEG.

I agree it's bad that the manuals don't fully describe what the camera does in these modes.

That was my premature April Fool's joke