Camera Mode - P for Panic Mode
OK, it doesn’t really stand for panic, but it can be thought of that way. The P mode on your camera sets everything in fully automatic, so all you have to think about is composing the shot and pressing the shutter release button. So if you have been playing around with camera settings and that shot of a lifetime comes along and you don’t want to mess it up, you can set your camera to P to get the shot.
This means the camera will select an ISO setting, Shutter Speed and Aperture for what it thinks is the best exposure for the conditions it can detect. Most cameras will allow you to override certain settings in P mode if you think it’s needed.
The P mode can be useful for people who are new to photography and don’t want to use any of the manual settings, and it can be good for getting that spur of the moment shot so you don’t have to worry about any camera settings and you just want to record the moment.
Using the P mode is fine, but exploring the other modes, giving you more control over the image, will help you produce better quality work and understand photography a lot more.
You have a lot of good articles. I am newcomer in digital photography.
Hi Bryan. I’m glad you like the articles. If you have any specific questions or areas you would like me to cover, please let me know and I will do my best to help you out.
Another excellent article, can you explain how P mode might differ from a camera other automatic settings ? Although I expect that may differ from camera to camera ?
Hi Bruce, I think this deserves an article of it’s own. Stay tuned…. as they say.
Hi Garry, first thanks for the site, is very useful and a good tool for the ones interested in learning but that we cannot adjust to the tight courses schedules.
One question, which it goes in the same direction of Bruce’s one. Whats the difference between Auto and P mode? Thank you.
I think the differences are sometimes camera dependent, but I think on most cameras, the fully auto mode is just that, the camera does everything except compose and press the shutter button. P mode does allow some form of manual override, so you can change the settings the camera chooses in P mode if you want to tweak the exposure a little. How much override is, I think, going to differ from camera to camera.
The other camera auto modes Bruce mentioned, like portrait, or landscape, or sports all have slightly different settings. So for sports, the camera will try and select a faster shutter speed to capture the motion, whereas in landscape mode, the depth of field is more important, so it will choose a smaller aperture (larger number). So although it’s still an automatic mode, it does use settings that are more suited to the type of picture the camera thinks you want to take.