4. Advanced Shooting Modes

Although we found that those automatic modes, combined with the EV compensation and bracketing, covered most shooting situations, as a long time photographer, we were looking for more even more control than the R827 offered. The good news is that the R967 delivers those features we found missing in the lower end R827.

As you scroll through the mode listing under the capture menu, you'll notice four additional shooting modes: Aperture Priority (AV); Shutter Priority (TV); Manual (M) and "MY". If you select, for example, Shutter Priority, when you go to the capture mode, the screen will display "TV" in the upper left hand corner. The center of the screen, near the top, also displays the current F-stop and shutter speed. Using the up and down buttons, you can increase or decrease the shutter speed and observe the corresponding change in aperture. If the numbers turn red, you're outside of the range of a good exposure.

The same sequence works for Aperture priority, except the up/down buttons control aperture, and you can watch the corresponding shutter speed change. If you select Manual control, you can control aperture and shutter speed independently. A light meter appears below the F-stop/aperture numbers, and for proper exposure, you need to select a combination of settings that centers the meter. In this mode, you can intentionally (or unintentionally) over/underexpose your pictures if you don't keep the light meter centered.

If you do have an exposure problem, a pair of eyeglasses will appear on the screen briefly to indicate that you have a problem. From the playback menu, if you select the eyeglasses, the camera will analyze your image and make recommendations. We intentionally overexposed an image to see the advice we'd get. The advice correctly diagnosed the image problem, and the hint told us how to correct the problem.

In manual mode, you need to keep the light meter centered for a good exposure.

The one other additional mode is "MY" mode, which lets you save any combination of settings that you might frequently quickly use. For example, if you shoot many pictures for eBay using tungsten light, you might set MY mode for Tungsten light, center weighted metering, ISO 100 and aperture priority. So when you need to shoot products for eBay posting, you simply select MY mode, and the camera adjusts to all of the saved settings. And, to remind you what those settings were, icons appear on the screen to show the settings.

Manual mode settings recalled with MY mode

The screen shot above demonstrates the amount of control you have. In the MY mode, the mode has been defined as tungsten lighting, +0.3 Exposure value, spot metering, ISO 100 with aperture priority and manual focus.