A mode vs. M mode

There are two shooting modes when the mode selector is slid to the shooting position. They are the A mode (or the automatic mode) and the M mode (or the manual mode). This classification, in general, does not make much sense, because the 2500 does not permit any real manual adjustments. Instead, in the A mode you have fewer selections than when you are in the M mode. One of these useful setting is for white balance.

When the camera is in shooting mode, press the down arrow of the multi-selector to enter the shooting mode selection menu as shown below:

This menu has three selections: the A mode - shown as an A followed by a camera icon, the M mode - shown as a M followed by a camera icon, and the movie mode shown as a movie camera icon. If you do not want to change many settings, you can use the A mode. Otherwise, if you prefer to tweak various settings, you'd better use the M mode. The movie mode is for taking movies up to 15 seconds. We will discuss this feature on another page.

You can use the up and down arrows of the multi-selector to highlight the mode you wish to use. Once the desired mode is highlighted, press the right arrow to set. Note that the mode selection menu only appears for a short moment. If it disappears, press the down arrow again. If the A (resp., M) mode is selected, the upper-left corner of the LCD shows (resp., ).

What is the difference between the A mode and the M mode? The answer is in the menu available in each mode as shown below.

The A mode menu		The M mode menu

The A mode menu and the M mode menu have the first three items identical. The Normal item is for image quality, the 1600 item is for image size, and the +/- item is for exposure compensation. We will discuss each item on separate pages. The M mode menu, however, has three more items for selecting different way of shooting (i.e. one image at a time or shooting continuously, the best shot selection option, and image sharpening). Moreover, the setup menu in the M mode also has one more selection as shown below. As you can see, the only option that is available in the M mode but not in the A is Reset All.

The A mode setup menu		The M mode setup menu