The desired recording mode is selected from the Mode Dial on the back of the camera.

The AUTO shooting mode turns the Digimax V50 into an automatic point-n-shoot camera. There's only two flash options; red-eye reduction or disabled and the menu (shown in next frame) has simplified image size and quality choices.

AUTO mode options:

Size - 2592x1944, 2272x1704, 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 1024x768, 640x480
Quality - TIFF, Superfine, Fine, Normal

Program AE mode, the camera selects both shutter speed and aperture automatically. There's a battery level icon, zoom lens gauge, the "199" indicates the number of pictures remaining. The "2592" means 2592x1944 image size, the icon below that indicates the quality level (Superfine), and below that is the sharpness icon indicating Normal. The Flash mode is "A"uto, the green brackets in the center is the auto focus area and we have half-pressed the shutter to get an AF lock. On the bottom left are the Single frame drive mode and SD memory card icons. On on the bottom right is the time and date.

Program AE mode options:

Size - 2592x1944, 2272x1704, 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 1024x768 or 640x480
Quality - TIFF, SuperFine, Fine or Normal
Metering - Multi or Spot
Effect - Normal, B&W, sRGB, Sunset
Sharpness - Soft, Normal, Vivid
Shooting - Single, Continuous, AE Bracketing

The "S" button on the back of the V50 calls up the exposure menu.

Exposure options on Program AE mode:

Exposure Compensation - +/- 2 EV in 1/2 EV steps
RGB - Adjusts the Red, Green, and Blue values of the image to be captured
ISO Speed - Auto or fixed at 50, 100, 200, 400 equivalents
White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent H, Fluorescent L, Tungsten or Custom

Depressing the "S" button with the Mode Dial in the A/S/M position allows the selection of the same exposure options as Program AE mode, plus

A - Aperture Priority. You set the aperture and the automatic exposure system sets the shutter speed.
S - Shutter Priority. You set the shutter speed and the automatic exposure system sets the aperture
M - Manual. You set both aperture and shutter speed

The selection is made with the left and right buttons of the 4-way controller, and activated by depressing the "S" button, exiting the menu.

Manual mode, you set both the shutter speed and the aperture manually by rotating the jog dial surrounding the shutter button. Depressing the AE lock button toggles between aperture and shutter adjustment. The camera will display the shutter speed and aperture on-screen, along with an indication of exposure correctness. The exposure indication is highlighted in red if the image will be 2 or more EV over/under exposed.

Shutter-priority AE, you select the desired shutter speed and the camera will select the best aperture setting automatically. Slower shutter speeds can give moving objects a motion-blur effect, faster speeds will "freeze" a moving object.

Aperture-priority AE, you select the desired aperture value and the camera will select the best shutter speed automatically. Small aperture numbers yield less depth of field (range of focus), large aperture numbers yield greater depth of field.

Press and hold the "MF" manual focus button and use the jog dial surrounding the shutter button to adjust the focus distance. There is an onscreen distance gauge but the display does not enlarge so the ability to accurately focus is somewhat limited in this mode. The Autofocus frame will turn green indicating focus confirmation even if the subject is grossly out of focus.

Movie mode records 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 motion video at 15 or 30fps with audio. Movie clips are saved as Windows AVI format video files. The optical zoom cannot be used during movie recording, you can preset it before recording starts. The length of these movies is limited only by the amount of available memory. The elapsed time of the current recording is indicated at the bottom of the LCD viewfinder, and the remaining capacity of the memory card is shown at the upper right.

Movie mode options are accessed via the Menu button:

Size - 640 x 480 or 320 x 240
Frame Rate - 30fps or 15fps
Effect - Normal, B&W, Sepia, Negative
Sharpness - Soft, Normal, Vivid

Movie mode exposure options are accesssed via the "S" button:

White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent or Tungsten
RGB - Adjusts the Red, Green, and Blue values of the movie to be captured

And finally, you can Record Audio. The length is limited to a maximum of two hours. The display here says we have recorded for 5 seconds and there is 17 hours, 16 minutes and 45 seconds of audio recording time left - there is a 512MB SD card in this camera. Audio recordings are saved as Windows WAVE format files.