The screen display when in the AUTO (point-n-shoot) mode. Minimal information is displayed and only a few parameters such as image size or recording mode can be changed. Upper left is the battery level and remaining time in minutes that's constantly displayed. Whenever the zoom setting is changed, the sliding gauge below the battery icon is displayed vriefly. The image size is "5M"egapixels, the image folder is 101, there's 61 shots left and in the center are the AF target marks. The focus mode is Single AF.

The T3 lacks a mode dial so what you do is select the desired exposure mode from the first option in the menu. Available modes are: Auto, Program, Magnifying Glass (super closeup mode), Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Landscape, Soft Snap, Candle, Beach, Snow, Magnifying Glass Mode, High Speed Shutter and Fireworks.

Here's a "busy" Program AE mode screen. The white balance set to fluorescent, ISO speed to 100, spot metering, the color saturation, contrast and sharpness are on the "+" setting, and more. All of this information can be cleared off the screen by pressing the Monitor button. Pressing the Monitor button will enable the live histogram display. The auto focus is locked (green "dot") and the shutter speed and aperture is being displayed because we have the shutter half-pressed.

After a picture has been captured it can be quickly reviewed by pressing "Left" on the 4-way controller.

Record options (other than Auto mode):

Image Size - 5M, 3:2, 3M, 1M, VGA (these are selected by using the dedicated button, not the menu system)

Exposure Compensation - Offset the auto metering by +/-2.0EV in 1/3EV steps

Focus - Multi AF, Center AF or fixed at 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity

Metering - Multi-pattern (default) or Spot

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Flash

ISO - Auto or fixed at 100, 200, 400

Picture Quality - Fine or Standard

Record Mode - Normal, Burst or Multi Burst
(The MultiBurst mode lets you record sixteen frames at high speed. The capture rate is selectable for 7.5fps, 15fps or 30fps via the menu. These 320x240 images are merged into one 1280x960 finished image. When the image is played in-camera it is animated in sequence.)

Burst Rate - 7.5/15/30 frames per second (only when Multi Burst is active)

Bracket Step - 0.3, 0.7 or 1.0EV (only when Bracketing is active)

Flash Level - High, Normal or Low

Picture Effect - None, Sepia or B&W

Saturation - Default is 0 but may be + or -

Contrast - Default is 0 but may be + or -

Sharpness - Default is 0 but may be + or -

Macro (close-up) focus mode allows you to shoot much closer than normal. The focus range in macro is from 3.9 inches to infinity. Not close enough? Then try the Magnifying Glass Mode, it focuses from 1 to 20 cm !

The recording screen in the 640x480 "VX Fine" movie mode. The frame rate is 30fps and it requires the use of Memory Stick Duo Pro media to insure that it can stream the data fast enough from the camera. The VX standard mode is also VGA resolution (640x480) but at a lesser 16fps frame rate so it can be used with regular Memory Stick Duo media. The length of recording is limited only by the space available on the Memory Stick being used.

Movie clips can also be recorded at 160x112 resolution, these movies will playback in a smaller window. The advantage is that the file sizes are smaller and more practical for e-mail purposes.

Movie mode options:

Exposure Compensation - Offset the auto metering by +/-2.0EV in 1/3EV steps

Focus - Multi AF, Center AF or fixed at 0.5m, 1m, 3m, 7m or infinity

Metering - Multi-pattern (default) or Spot

White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Fluorescent or Incandescent

Picture Effect - None, Sepia or B&W

Image Size - 640 Fine, 640 Standard, 160 e-mail