Originally posted by TMH Luminar3, nice, another alternative. I’ll check it out
I took a few shots today using SCN mode, landscape. As s baseline to see what the camera thought was best.
It seems you are following logical plans with which to go forward.
The scene modes can be handy for certain conditions, where you need a quick shot and are not sure how to address the lighting situation, or to see what the camera would do for self-instruction purposes. But they are far from foolproof.
My guess for the landscape mode (I don't use SCENE modes myself, even on the camera bodies I own that have this feature) the camera would most probably set a smaller aperture (larger number) to maximize DOF. Since there is plenty of light in your scene, there would be no trouble achieving a good result in this manner.
OTOH, if you are operating in P mode, and you come across a landscape shot you like, you can engage the exclusive Pentax Hyper Program system to simply select a smaller aperture yourself in a fraction of the time it would take to switch to the landscape SCENE mode. It is so simple to do it is ingenious on the part of Pentax- they've had this design for ages, and no other brand of camera can do this- in P mode you decide you want f/11 instead of the camera's choice of f/5.6 and there's plenty of light for this change so all you do is use your thumb dial and simply select your aperture!! The camera will obey, even though you are in P mode! The first click will freeze the current aperture setting, while any further clicks will change the aperture. What happens is, upon obeying your wish, the camera switches itself to Av operation without your having to first turn your Mode dial to the Av setting, or even touch the Mode dial at all. Then, when you wish to return to full P Program operation, just hit the green button and it is restored. You don't even have to take your eye away from the VF!
The system works the same when you'd rather have a different shutter speed- just select your own choice using the front finger dial, going directly to what you want without having to first change the Mode dial to Tv. The change you've selected will remain as long as lighting permits, until you hit the green button or turn off the camera. If you want to select your aperture or shutter speed but will be turning the camera off and on intermittently, then use the Mode dial on Av or Tv to keep your setting.