When you half-press the shutter to achieve the focus and exposure lock, the AF target marks will turn red and show what area it is focusing on and the aperture, shutter speed and the zoom setting will be displayed across the top.

Rotate the Mode Dial to select one of the recording modes: Automatic, Sports, Portrait, Night, Landscape, Close-up, Video or PAS (Program AE, Aperture priority and Shutter priority).

Using one of the PAS modes gives you access to a wide range of exposure and menu (see below) options for those that want more manual control over the image capturing process.

This screen shows various aperture settings and shutter speeds available in the PAS mode. You can also easily override the metering +/-2.0EV, select an ISO speed, white balance preset, metering mode, focus mode or color mode.

MENU options in PAS mode:

Image Storage - Auto (select card if used or internal) or Internal

Picture Quality - Best***, Best(3:2)***, Better**, Good*

Color - Color, B&W or Sepia

White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Tungsten or Fluorescent

Exposure Metering - Multi-Pattern, Center-weighted, Center Spot

Focus Zone - Multi-zone, Center-zone

ISO Speed - Auto (100-200), 100, 200 or 400

Reset - Reset to default

Set Album - Select an image folder

Date Stamp - Off, YYYY MM DD, MM DD YYYY, DD MM YYYY (overlay date stamp in lower right hand corner of picture)

Orientation Sensor - Auto rotation of portrait mode images

Setup Menu - Enter SETUP menu

You can record up to 80 minutes of 320 x 240 motion video at 15fps with audio. The length of the movies is dependant on available space on your memory card.

When you get to the limit of the 4x optical zoom the camera will pause and then enter the digital zoom range if the color LCD is enabled. The digital zoom can extend the range of the optical zoom but you will see noticeable image degradation the higher up you go.

Pressing the Flash mode button lets you select the desired mode as displayed on the color LCD screen.