You can set the camera to autofocus in any mode. The only mode that won't allow RAW shooting is the "scene" preset mode. If you want to shoot in RAW, I suggest you use the "MyMode" to set up manual presets for a variety of shots. You can have four settings. You can do these in "M" (fully manual) "S" (shutter priority) or any of the other manual or semi automatic modes. Put the camera in the mode you want, then set all of your options in the "camera" and "picture" menu modes, and use the scroll buttons to set the lightness settings, etc. depending on what mode you're in. Then, without turning off the camera, go to the menu mode. Scroll down to "settings", scroll down to "MyMode" and choose "current". Then choose the MyMode number you want to set for wide/macro/smacro/manual focus/autofocus etc. and press the Go button. It will save your current settings for that "MyMode" number. Then you can set up a different one for a different type of shot.