what mode do you guys typically shoot in? full, AV, TV, M?

I'm a nerd. My cameras are perpetually in:

M mode
Manual white balance (K mode)
ETTL off, setting flash power in manual
and honestly, I manual focus a lot, which is why I love Live view

Do it for a while, and you just get used to it. It might slow you down at first, but then you'll soon be just as fast or faster than auto.

It's gotten to the point where I sometimes don't even bother to look at the meter anymore. Practice a LOT and you'll be able to walk into a room and "see" ISO200 F/1.4 1/100, 4500K M2. You can be dialing in the settings before most could even put the camera up to their faces to look at the meter. (It's taken about 20 years of practice)

Whatever mode you decide to use, if you use it a lot you'll become efficient at it and your technical shooting style will be molded around it. And of course, you can become very good at it too. So it really doesn't matter what mode you use. P or M, and anything in between.

To be honest I'm kind of shocked at the responses here. I couldn't imagine shooting with anything else other than full manual.

I shoot full manual most of the time. Very rarely AV.

my main camera (17-50mm) i set on manual with manual flash. my second camera (50-150mm) is set on Aperture priority with flash on high speed sync.
i use the main camera to catch all the important things and use the longer lens to grab snap shots of anything that catches my eye. if i had second camera on M, id prob miss a lot of the shots.

You guys meant to tell me that "P"rofessional or "A"wesomeness is not good enough for you? pfff, camera mode snoberries.

viet wrote in post #11282446
You guys meant to tell me that "P"rofessional or "A"wesomeness is not good enough for you? pfff, camera mode snoberries.

I have a second that swears by Professional mode when he can't figure out the settings fast enough.

Somewhat consistent environment, low light, or I have no shortage of time to get the shot right, M (90%)

Less consistent environment, decent natural light, changing shadows, IS lens or tripod - AV (5%)

Good light, panning shots, looking for a specific level of motion blur or lack thereof - TV (5%)

Holy ****, look at that! Damn, I don't even have my lens attached yet! - P (<1%)