Scene modes are features from old digital cameras, you tell it what you are filming and it narrows down the iso/shutter/aperture based on your selection... ex: a "sports" selection favors a high shutter speed and low aperture so you can take a photo of a fast moving subject without blur, the tradeoff is less light sensitivity and depth of field. A "night" scene would favor high iso and low aperture for better pictures in low light, however the high iso leaves a grainy quality to the image. It appears the guts of this system are based on a repurposed digital camera