The Fully Automatic shooting mode is typically indicated with a green camera icon, or green square on the shooting mode dial. This shooting option on your camera is “point-and-click” mode as the camera calculates a suitable ISO sensitivity, shutter speed, and aperture setting for you; activating the flash if needed for additional light.
Most digital cameras do a good job of gaining a proper exposure under just about any lighting – including with flash activation for low light.
Full Auto mode is useful for tricky lighting situations such as indoors, or when the subject is heavily backlit with sunlight. Options are limited, however, for being creative with Full Auto mode as the user is not able to adjust to create desired depth of field, or stop action, and other creative photo methods.
BENEFITS
- For inexperienced photographers, this shooting option is a “point-and-click” mode as the camera makes the three necessary calculations for you; ISO sensitivity, Shutter Speed, and Aperture
- The flash is activated if needed for additional light.
DRAWBACKS
- With the camera selecting all exposure components, the user has no control, which limits creativity.
- The camera cannot predict if it should use a high shutter speed for action, therefore action images might be blurry if the camera is not selecting a fast enough shutter speed.
- In low light, the camera may boost the ISO setting to one of the higher values possible, thus introducing digital image noise into the exposure.
- If the camera activates the flash, most current cameras only allow a shutter speed of 1/250th second when the flash is activated, which might not be fast enough for some action.