For most instances, I believe, Sony chose to go with this option because it provides the best overall experience with the camera function for all users. It will generally pick the settings needed to provide a reliable decent quality picture in all situations ( different light levels, night/day/sunny/cloudy/close objects/landscapes etc.) Whereas, my guess is, having the camera set to the full MP was producing bad results during Sony's tests for all condition use, therefore they didn't want to get bad reviews from all the average camera users and turned down the quality to allow for a decent quality photo and still be allowed to quote their 20.7 MP. Otherwise, to me it makes sense that there would be a way to set the camera button or app to automatically start up with the settings you have chosen for the camera (20.7MP) Which I have recently posted about in these forums but have not yet received a response. I believe they should still add this function for users who don't want the superior auto setting to start up automatically. It takes seconds to miss a moment for a great photo and it takes more then seconds to change it to full quality mode.
