In message ,
"Norm Dresner" wrote:

I want to use P-Mode becuase it generally gets me "close" to the
speed/aperture combination I want. Not always, but generally close.

I've recently tried P-Mode again with my newest Canon DSLR after not
using it since I first tried out my Sony F707 in early 2002, and I was
rather impressed with the choices it made (compared to my expectations).

What I've been wishing for, for a while now, are user-programmable
modes, where you supply a list of Av, Tv, and ISO combinations for
absolute EV levels. If you find yourself making the same decisons in
the same situations all the time, the process can be easily automated
this way. I find myself, in general, choosing Tv mode when light is
low, and Av when light is high, to avoid camera-motion blur, and
diffraction, respectively. A user-programmable mode would allow me to
have hybrid modes, with transition points of my own choosing. At the
low-light, Tv end, I could allow exposure to drop by a stop or two when
the highest ISO has been called upon, before opening the lens all the
way up, and this could alternatively be based upon the actual lens used,
as anything present in EXIF data on a digital is known to the camera.
Also, the specifics of the lens could be used to control minimum shutter
speed, as well. I don't know if the camera knows about image
stabilization in lens-based IS systems, but that would be useful, too,
in "non-action" user modes.

It might take a while to work out your modes, but with a little work,
you could make the camera do pretty much what you would be doing anyway,
if you had time to think about it, but there isn't always time. In many
wildlife situations, a tenth of a second is an epoch.
--


John P Sheehy