Record Screens & Menus

The default screen In Auto mode shows basic indicators and settings, such as shooting mode at top left, anti-shake warning and battery life icon. When you press the shutter-release button halfway to engage the autofocus, the shutter, aperture and ISO settings appear at the bottom of the screen.
To change the display, you press the Info button at the bottom of the back panel. This removes the icons at the top of the screen. But when you press the shutter-release button halfway, the shutter, aperture and ISO settings still appear along the bottom.
Auto Focus Frame menu:
- Center
- Face AiAF
- Tracking
In addition to the two information displays, you can add grid lines to the screen in the main shooting menu. You simply turn this feature on or off.
When you turn the mode dial, a menu scrolls along the top of the screen, showing you which mode you've selected. Shown here is the selected mode within the SCN (scene mode) position.
Shooting modes:
- Auto
- Hybrid Auto
- Live View Control
- Program
- Shutter priority
- Aperture priority
- Manual
- Standard video
- Scene mode (SCN)
- Sports
- Creative shot
Scene modes:
- Portrait
- Smart shutter (smile detect, face self-timer, wink self-timer)
- Handheld night scene
- Low Light (5M)
- Fish-eye effect
- Miniature effect
- Toy Camera effect
- Soft focus
- Monochrome
- Super vivid
- Poster effect
- Fireworks
The Face detect scene mode allows you set up to 10 shots to be taken. In all three settings (shown below), the camera repeatedly beeps and flashes a green light after you've pressed the shutter button. When it detects a smile or wink or new face (depending on the selected mode), the pace of beep and flashing light quickens to let you know the picture will be taken soon.
Face detect menu:
- Smile: Picture is taken when a smile is detected
- Wink self timer: Wink detection is used to trip the shutter
- Face self-timer: Timer begins when a new face enters the frame
In the main menu, you can register faces. The menu instructs you to take a photo of the person, and then enter a name and birthday if you wish. The next step is to take various angles, so the person is more easily recognized by the camera.
I did not find this feature fail-proof, however. After registering my face, some very straightforward portraits did not display my name in playback mode, as they should have. My efforts to "edit ID info" resulted in a message of "no identification information."
The Live
View Control mode is selected on the mode dial. When you press the func./set button in the middle
of the four-way control, these three parameters appear on screen. You
change them using either the button positions or the dial surrounding
the four-way control.
Another way to tweak the colors in your images is with the My Colors filters. These can be used in PASM modes. Pressing the func./set button brings a menu of icons onto the left side of the screen.
My Colors menu:
- Off
- Vivid
- Neutral
- Sepia
- Black & White
- Positive Film
- Lighter Skin Tone
- Darker Skin Tone
- Vivid Blue
- Vivid Green
- Vivid Red
Within this menu you also can change the metering mode, white balance, ISO, flash power, etc.
Func./set menu:
- Metering mode: Evaluative, center-weighted average, spot
- My Colors (see list above)
- White balance: Daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, fluorescent H, custom
- ISO (80 - 3200)
- Flash
- Drive mode: Single, continuous, continuous AF
- Aspect ratio: 16:9, 3:2, 4:3, 1:1
- Recording pixels: 20M, 10M, 3M, 0.3M
- Compression: Superfine, fine
- Movie quality: 1920x1080 (30fps), 1280x720 (30fps), 640x480 (30fps)
The MF peaking feature can be set to red, yellow or blue. But I found these highlights, which appear on the parts of the image in focus, hard to see.
The seek assist function is designed to help you when using the powerful 40x zoom. When zoomed in close on a faraway subject, pressing the framing assist - seek button on the side panel (just behind the flash button) zooms out the camera. The screen shows a box of the area that will be magnified so you can more easily reframe your shot. Letting go of the button automatically zooms the lens back to the previous magnification.
You also can set this feature to automatically zoom in to a close-up magnification including a person's entire body, upper body, or just the face.
Auto settings menu:
- Seek assist: On, off
- Auto zoom: Auto, off, face, upper body, whole body, manual
There are three video record modes. You change this setting in the func./set menu.
Movie record menu:
- 1920x1080, 30fps
- 1280x720, 30fps
- 640x480, 30fps
In addition, the mode dial includes a video record position. In the func./set button menu, you can choose one of three settings for this mode.
Video record menu:
- Standard (full HD, 1920x1080, 30fps)
- Short clip
- iFrame movie
Visitors of Steves can visit the stores below for real-time pricing and availability. You can also find hot, soon to expire online offers on a variety of cameras and accessories at our very own Camera Deals page.