Does night scene mode in a camera sets the focus to infinity?

Question

Does the night scene mode in a point-and-shoot camera sets the focus

to infinity? I ask this question because in the article

How to Photograph Fireworks

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,147633-page,1-c,digitalcameras/arti...

has a quote "Try using the camera's landscape mode, which also sets

the focus to infinity; the low-light environment will encourage the

camera to shoot at a slow shutter speed by default" which I then

thought why couldn't the same be done using night scene mode to shoot

fireworks?

Thank you.

Answer 1

No it won't, and neither does Landscape Mode. Setting the focus is one of the things a 'point and shoot' camera does between pressing the shutter and taking the picture, along with exposure, colour balance etc..  (hence the delay). So photographing fireworks will be a hit and miss affair. Leastwise that's how both my 'point and shoot' cameras work. Still worth trying though, yours are probably newer than mine, it might be mentioned in your manual.

Only a DSLR can handle 'pre-set' focus.

Chris

Answer 2

It shouldn't do it in night mode. "Night mode" seems like an inapproprate name for this function since there are other things that happen at night.

Cameras that have a fireworks mode usually set a 2 to 4 second shutter speed and focus out to infinity. Contrast and saturation are also generously pumped up. Landscape mode works similarly.

It varies from camera to camera. Check the manual for details on the different scene modes or leave the make and model of your camera here so we can help you.