Originally Posted by Cloudy Wizzard
so It's a number like on your *ist DS, I first thought that the number had to be as high as possible so that explains why ALL my test shots in M last night ever overexposed
Heh.
Funny thing though is that you state that most professional photographers don't use the "kiddie" modes like P (not even present on the K10D) however the girl at the camera-store told me yesterday when I went to pickup the camera (she gave a small feature introduction) that she almost always uses the P mode with an external flasher for best result (don't one a flasher yet) but I guess she's a Canikon person herself
I also assume that she's a professional photographer or at least an experienced Hobby photographer.
Couple small points here.
First, I don't personally assume that the folks working in camera stores actually know how to use cameras. This is not meant as an insult to any individual who works in a camera store. In fact, one of our colleagues here in pentaxforums.com -- someone I respect very much -- either works in a camera store now or has worked in the past. But many of the folks that I've talked to in camera stores were, well, sales people. I've done car shopping where I knew more, much more, about the car I wanted to buy than the salesman and I hasten to add that I am now and have always been an ignoramus when it comes to cars. I will branch out and mention that I almost never go into computer stores any more because almost every time I do, I overhear a sales person telling some innocent consumer something that is flat-out wrong, and then I have to go through a little moral crisis. I usually do end up taking the consumer aside, introducing myself, assuring them I'm not selling them anything, and trying to correct what they were just told. Anyway, if you find a store that actually does have someone who knows something about photography, and specifically knows something about Pentax equipment, be sure to support that store. But in my experience, such a person is the exception rather than the rule.
Second, even if your person was a serious amateur, she was talking about using P mode with her flash attachment.
Flash is a separate ball game. My remarks above addressed only the issue of getting the correct exposure with ambient light (no flash). With a flash unit, the exposure issues are much more complicated. With flash, you often want to worry about exposing the subject with the flash, but exposing the background or surroundings with ambient light. In some other situations, it's fair (somewhat inaccurate, but fair) to say that the shutter speed doesn't matter. I shoot in M mode now even using flash, almost all the time -- but I've been shooting a lot of flash shots, plus, I'm trying to improve myself in this department. Given the complexity of shooting with flash, using P mode (or Av mode), setting your flash to its particular brand of TTL (through the lens) metering and hoping that the system will produce a decent photo, is not a foolish choice, indeed, if you don't really really know what you're doing, it's the safe and therefore smart thing to do. I was talking to a photographer just the other day who was about to shoot her first wedding in a week and had just bought her first detachable flash unit. Because she did not have time to learn how to control everything herself, I urged her to use the camera + flash in P mode and hope for the best. But it's better to really really know what you're doing.
Will