What's wrong with P mode?

Ok - just a short rant!

Since we all went off "Full Auto" mode on our DSLRs some years ago, it's now all the rage and a sign of professionalism to shoot in "Full Manual" mode, right?

So, you can either guess the proper exposure - I grew up with that and I'm still pretty good at it, then take a shot and check the exposure (preferably via histogram), correct and shoot again. Works perfectly for e.g. dragonfly pictures with no dragonflies in them!

Or you can use the little wheel(s) to adjust f-stop and exposure time and turn it/them until the bar is somewhere in the center - selecting which of the two to change requires some good "finger memory", and yes! it's (more or less) always in the center when you have your camera in "Auto ISO" anyway, because it compensates for a change of EV by adjusting the ISO value, just dreadful!

So, message 1: Get off "Auto ISO" - I loved for 10 days and now I'm back to selecting ISO first: sunny: 100, not so sunny: 200, not really sunny: 400, pretty dark: 640 etc. If all goes wrong, the 60D lets you adjust ISO without even taking the camera down - I love this little "nubby" on the ISO selector button!

Now in "M" I'm adjusting f-stop and exposure time manually, until the little exposure bar is centered (unless I have a weird lighting situation in which that doesn't work). I'm looking at different combinations estimating depth of field and moving speed, then I see that it's underexposed or overexposed, correct and then the shot is lost (unless it's a building or mountain both of which luckily have the pleasant habit of moving quite slowly or not at all).

Well, message 2: If it's moving fast, why not get a decent ISO preset, switch into "Tv" mode, select 1/1000 sec and see what the display says? Actually, I still think that 1/250 is fast enough for everything - some of my butterfly and horse photos are proof to the contrary :-)

Or, message 3: If I need some decent DOF why not switch into "Av" and select f/11?

Or. message 4 -and that's what I'm doing right now, if I have more than 5 seconds to take a shot: Use "P" mode and then turn the (one!) wheel until it comes up with a combination of f-stop and exposure time that seems usable?

And what about weird lighting situations? I see the point, of course! In these cases Exposure Compensation and/or Spot Measuring work perfectly if you can predict the effect.

Sorry, "M" aficionados - I'm back in "P", "Av" and "Tv"!