What does auto mean when using long zooms?

When using a camera like the Olympus C-750 does automatic mode extend to
both aperture & shutter speed? I mention this camera because it has a 10 x
zoom. To have any change to getting a good picture you would need a very
fast shutter to minimize movement. This means that you will need a very
wide aperture. Is this what the auto mode does?

 

Aah, the classic dilema of a photographer using zoom lenses.

The Aperture and shutterspeed are reciprocally related. i.e if
one increase the other decreases and vice-versa at constat exposure.

Also Max. apperture of a medium quality zoom lens varies over the focal
length of the zoom.
i.e. if your focal range is from say 50-500 mm (10x) , The max apperture
at 50mm could be 3.5 and at 500 mm 5.6.
And most of these zooms don't perform well at the tele end, when wide
open, So in this case to get any sort of decent picture at 500mm, the
aperture would need to be stopped down to f/8 or f/11. And this will no
doubt increase the shutter time.

Auto mode, determines the amount of exposure reqd for your shot and
decides on the best possible shutter-speed and aperture. But this
doesn't mean It will optimise both of them. either it will select a wide
aperture, which would mean a soft picture (See exp. above) or a slow
shutter speed which would require a tripod.

Any zoom with a range > 3x is almost unusable at the tele or wide end at
max aperture. You need to step down at least 2 stops , which means a
slower shutter speed.

 

I'd guess that most cameras that do automatic will try for as fast a
shutter speed as possible give the limitations of lens and light.

 

I think what Susan meant to say is that if you are considering such a
purchase, you surely are reading reviews, such as the ones at
www.steves-digicams.com, www.dcresource.com, and
www.imaging-resource.com, and/or looking at the manufacturers specs
and manuals at www.olympus.com, and if you are reading that stuff, why
ask here, since you already know the difference between the Program
mode, the Automatic mode, the Aperature-Priority mode, the
Shutter-Priority mode, and the Manual mode. Of the C-750. A guess
isn't really necessary, given that the question was framed as "...
does automatic mode extend to ...", the querant clearly is not
discriminating between the umpteen different automatic modes, and is
almost certainly not referring to what the camera calls "full
automatic mode" or whatever, therefore, the straightforward answer
would be "yes and no" or "sometimes" or "it depends" or "RTFM".

-Tom