Typical still image recording screen in the default Program AE shooting mode. There's space for another 151 pictures on the SD card and the battery level is full. In the center are the autofocus brackets.

When the shutter is half-pressed and the autofocus locks, the active AF point will shrink and turn green. The shutter speed and aperture values are also displayed.

Pressing the DISPLAY button will turn the color LCD on/off and also controls how much information is overlayed on top of the live image. Here we have all of the information enabled including the real-time histogram display.

To focus manually -- Press the Focus mode button until "MF" is displayed and then adjust the focus distance by using the Up and Down positions of the 4-way controller. When you are actively changing the focus, the center portion of the LCD display is magnified and a distance scale is shown on the left. The focus can also be locked at infinity.

One other focusing feature is the ability to freely move the active AF Area to any one of the 49 possible positions within the frame.

Still image menu options:

Recorded Pixels - 2560x1920, 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 1024x768 or 640x480
Quality Level - Best, Better or Good
White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent NW (Neutral and White), Fluorescent D (Daylight), or Manual
Focusing Area - Multi. or Spot
AE Metering - Multi segment, Center-weighted or Spot
Sensitivity - Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400
EV Compensation - ±2.0 in 1/3EV steps
3D Mode - Parallel Mode or Cross Mode
Time-lapse Movie - x2, x5, x10, x20, x50, x100, Off
Digital Zoom - On/Off
Instant Review - 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 secs. and Off
Memory - Saves shooting function settings when camera is turned off
Sharpness - Hard, Normal or Soft
Saturation - Hard, Normal or Soft
Contrast - Hard, Normal or Soft

The shooting modes are selected from a virtual Mode Dial that is activated by pressing Down on the 4-way controller. The selection includes: Program, Night scene, Movie, Panorama assist, 3D image, Landscape, Flower, Portrait, Self-Portrait, Surf & Snow, Autumn Color, Sunset, Art museum, Text, Cuisine, Sports, Soft, Digital filter, User, Marine.

The Digital Filter mode allows you to give a creative look to your images and includes: Slim, Posterization, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink, Red, Sepia, Black & White.

Macro focus mode covers from 7.1 in. (0.18 m) to 1.64 ft (0.5m), while Super Macro mode get you as close as 2.4 inches (0.06m).

3D mode helps you to capture two images with the proper offset so that they can be printed and then viewed with the (now optional) stereoscopic viewing aid.

Panorama Assist mode lets you take a series of images and then join them to create a panoramic image. There are four types of modes available: Join the images on the left, right, top or bottom. After the first image is captured you will see a transparent portion of the first image, this is used to achieve the proper overlap for a good panoramic image. The images captured in Panorama Assist mode can be "stitched" together using the supplied ACDSee software.

Movie mode lets you record motion JPEG at 320 x 240 resolution at 15fps, monaural audio is also recorded. The length of movies is limited only by available memory.

It also features a Time-lapse movie mode, which allows you to take movies at a delayed frame rate. When they are played back, action appears sped up. It is enabled via the Record menu (see above.) No sound is recorded.