I did it! I went and looked in the menus. I was so afraid that I changed something and bring it back how it is in automatic. The manual helped me but it is not as difficult as you think. I am not sure about what all the settings are good for and I think I will stay in automatic for now but I will keep going into the menu to see what is in there so I can get better. I do not understand what all the settings are good for. Which setting is good if you are not in automatic? I want to take my professional Panasonic PV-DV953 camcorder to church this Sunday. I do not have a tripod and I think a tripod is what I must use but I do not have one yet. Is this okay? I am scared people will think I do not know how to use it in not automatic. What not in automatic setting should I use? My girl friend will be in church with me and I hope she will know what I am doing.

Fred, try this: switch your cam to manual mode and leave all the auto settings on. But use manual focus. That should help the cam hunting around to focus on something. Play around with this BEFORE you start shooting during the service. If the pastor has the church light turned down, tell him that his boss requires the light to be turned up. Hope this helps. :-)

I shall be doing this. I was studing the manual last night after reading your advise about using not automatic and manual focus. I found out how to set in manual focus and using the manual focus ring in the front. I see that if I am in not automatic and want to automatic focus again I go back to automatic mode because it is easiest way of doing it. I really like my professional Panasonic PV-DV953 camcorder because it has a big menu system and you can do a lot with it. Church is waiting for me tomorrow please wish me luck. I have to go out now over to my girl friends parents house because she is there by herself and I want to practice my filming for tomorrow.

Good move. However, I was just making a joke about this: "If the pastor has the church light turned down, tell him that his boss requires the light to be turned up." Oops. :-)