If you have the English version of the manual you will want to take a look at pages 94 and 167.
Basically the AF/AE-L button (default is AF auto focus) allows you to set either the exposure or the focus for the picture you are going to take. If you set it to AE-L (as soon as I learned of this I changed the default to Auto Exposure-Lock) then it locks in the exposure allowing a half press of the shutter release button to be your auto focus. This means if you want to set your exposure and recompose and/or set your focus and recompose, you can. There is a you tube video that might help explain it and many other features of a dslr.
(15 features of your dslr that every photographer should know) As a novice K30 user myself, this type of video along with the user manual have been amazing. The more I discover, the more I realize how good a choice I made in getting the K30!
This helps in uneven lighting situations, when you have something, light like a wedding dress, beside something dark like a tuxedo you can point the camera more towards the wedding dress, set the exposure using the AE-L button, then recompose and autofocus on the couple and take the picture with the exposure set to the dress. Or if you are in a room with lots of windows, point your camera slightly down to get them out of the exposure metering, set your exposure and bring it back up to take a photo of the room rather than overexposing because of the windows. For landscapes it is great for setting your exposure to the mountain meadow rather than the bright sky behind it.
Hope this helps.
Post #2 by taneval23
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