Shown here is a typical still image recording screen in the default Program AE shooting mode. There's space for another 148 pictures on the SD card, the battery level is full, and we are using Auto + Red-eye reduction flash mode. The time and date of capture are displayed across the bottom and 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.

Pressing the Fn (Function) button in Record mode brings up these menu options. This is a handy shortcut menu that allows you to quickly change settings for Flash, Drive and Autofocus modes.

To focus manually -- Press the Fn button and then press the 4-way controller right. Once displayed you 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.

One other focusing feature is the ability to freely move the active AF Area to any one of the 9 possible positions within the frame.

Still image menu options:

Recorded Pixels - 2560x1920, 2304x1728, 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 1024x768 or 640x480
Quality Level - Best, Better or Good
White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Shade, Tungsten, Fluorescent, or Manual
AF Setting - Change Focusing Area (Multi. or Spot) and Focus Limiter (On/Off)
AE Metering - Multi segment, Center-weighted or Spot
Sensitivity - Auto, 80, 160, 320
Auto Bracket - Exposure, White balance, Sharpness, Saturation, and Contrast bracketing
Interval Shoot - Choose time between frames, the amount of frames, and start time
Movie - Enters Movie mode options
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, Landscape, Flower, Portrait, Surf, Snow, Self-portrait, Night Scene Portrait, Food, Museum, Pet, Sport, and Fireworks.

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).

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 (15fps) with audio. The length of movies is limited only by available memory. As with most digicams, the zoom can be preset before recording, but it can not be used during. You can however use the digital zoom, but this degrades image quality.

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 Movie menu (see below.) No sound is recorded.

Movie mode menu options:

Color Mode - Choose Full Color, Black&White, or Sepia
Time-Lapse Movie - Choose x2, x5, x10, x20, x50, x100, or Off