What’s the difference between Sony Program Auto, Intelligent Auto, and Superior Auto modes?
Asked 5/21/2015
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2 answers
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On Sony cameras like the Alpha 6000 and QX1, there are several automatic shooting modes: Program Auto (P), Intelligent Auto, and Superior Auto. Sony’s manuals often describe all of them as automatic, without clearly explaining how they differ.
I can still shoot RAW and use some controls like program shift in these modes, so they don’t seem to be locked-down beginner modes like Canon’s green rectangle. What does each mode actually do, and why would I choose one over another?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
1
According to Gary Fong (Sony's Intelligent Auto And Superior Auto Modes), the main difference is that Superior Auto can use multiple exposures (in-camera HDR), while Intelligent Auto just uses a single image.
This is confirmed by Sony's documentation:
What is the difference between [Superior Auto] mode and [Intelligent Auto] mode?
In [Superior Auto] mode, the camera shoots burst images based on the recognized scene, then creates a composite of the burst images (Overlay shooting). The camera automatically corrects the backlight and reduces the noise by overlaying images, so a higher-quality image results than in [Intelligent Auto] mode.
Originally by user4191. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4191
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Sony’s automatic modes are not identical.
- Program Auto (P): The camera automatically chooses shutter speed and aperture, but it behaves more like a standard exposure mode than a scene-analysis auto mode. You may still have access to options like program shift and RAW.
- Intelligent Auto: The camera analyzes the scene and automatically applies suitable settings for that situation, but it captures a single image.
- Superior Auto: This also analyzes the scene, but can go further by shooting a burst of frames and combining them in-camera. Sony says it uses this composite/overlay approach to improve results such as backlight correction and noise reduction, producing higher-quality images than Intelligent Auto in some situations.
So the point of having both is that Superior Auto may deliver better results in difficult scenes, while Intelligent Auto is simpler single-shot automation. Program Auto remains useful if you want auto exposure without the extra scene-driven processing.
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