Dslr camera - What setting do you usually use?

The 400D might be the world's best kid photo camera. If you want to use the "easy" modes, use Sport Mode, but it really isn't necessary: Program Mode is ideal. If you are outdoors, and the light is from behind, add 1 stop of Exposure Compensation rather than using flash. Not that there is anything wrong with fill-flash: great to lighten the shadows and put a glint in the eyes. But outdoors, with quick moving kids far enough from the camera not to feel self-conscious, I prefer not to distract them with it... even more so if I only have the pop-up flash: not enough range to make it worthwhile, and if the external flash is close enough to make a difference, it may add hard shadows that I would rather do without! Indoors, with walls and a ceiling to bounce it off, flash is more useful with kids, but let them get used to it; once they start to ignore it the pictures improve. There is a good article on photographing kids (I'm biased: I wrote it) at http://www.qassia.com/Photographing-kids

I like to my camera under program,shutter priority and aperture priority but when I shoot my kid I use "kid" and "sport" mode because I think it's more important to catch the expression and the movement. If you use shutter priority or aperture priority,they are good for stable objects that means you may miss the intersting moment of your kid.

MyLot Response When I take pictures of my kid, I prefer using my prime lens (60mm Macro) and an SB800 Speedlight attached to my camera. I also prefer to shoot in natural lighting conditions. I prefer to use a prime lens because of its sharpness and I could set it to 2.8 aperture when I want to have more bokeh on my shots. I prefer to attach my SB800 Speedlight because I want to have a nice exposure every time I shoot against the light. I prefer natural light because it is much easier to shoot on this kind of lighting. With this lighting I could set my camera to a much higher shutter speed when I want to freeze my kid's motion.

I alternate between program, manual, shutter priority and aperture priority. I know the Nikon D50 has a "child" mode which offers you the optimal settings for photographing children. I'm not sure what other camera models offer the same or similar mode. I've never owned a camera that had this mode, so I've never been able to try it out to see if it works. But if your camera does have this mode, I'd say go ahead and try it out and see if it works for you! If you want to use a setting where your camera does all the metering and adjusting, and all you have to do is shoot, then I would use either Auto or Program. DSLR cameras are so advanced these days, that these modes do an excellent job of determining the correct settings. Most of the time your photos come out great when using these modes!