Shooting in Manual mode and zoom lenses

Good piece, Nando. Especially because you make it clear that manual isn't better, and not more professional either. Some kind of dickhead at a seminar talked my daughter into that, and now she's constantly messing things up, because she has to adjust the settings every time, and dad, who has only been taking photos for 60 years, of course doesn't know anything.
Indeed something to look at with lenses that become more than 1 stop less light-sensitive, a stop is no issue with almost all modern cameras. My Sigma 150-600 goes from 5 to 6.3 or something, you hardly notice that, but my 16-85, from 3.5 to 5.6, you can see to some extent.
But these days my camera is set to A 90% of the time (Nikon, so aperture priority) then you don't notice it at all......

I have a Panasonic Lumix S5M2 camera with the corresponding 24-105 and 70-200 zoom lenses, with a starting aperture of F4 throughout the entire zoom range .
I always photograph in manual mode and my camera chooses the correct ISO value itself.
The Lumix camera can go to a very high ISO value, with the noise barely visible even when enlarged to A3 size.
I recommend that every photographer take a good look at this camera and not keep sticking with the renowned brands such as Canon and Nikon.

@Wim,
That is not photographing manually. Because you still let the camera decide.

But indeed a nice piece, just to point out again that manual is not the best.

But maybe for the next piece you are going to write, to then talk about when it is best to use manual (I use it a lot myself, because for what and how I often photograph, manual is simply the best), when aperture priority, and when shutter speed priority. (and possibly when to let ISO vary).

Because none is the best, but each is the best in certain circumstances.

I mainly shoot in M mode, but that actually came out of necessity.

My first digital camera (a Konica-Minolta A2) was used for photographing classical concerts. The lighting conditions were often extreme, and the light meter in the camera often made a mess of it, just like the white balance. So there was little choice but to use M mode and set A, S, ISO and the white balance myself. Over the years I continued to photograph this way out of habit.

So M mode can really add something, but only in the more exceptional situations, where the camera itself loses track a bit, or because you want to achieve a certain effect and therefore want to force a certain exposure/atmosphere.