Rear of camera controls

The back of the F707 looks a little different than the old F505. First there is now the electronic viewfinder, below this is the sprung compartment door with A/V and DC-IN connectors. Directly above the LCD monitor is the control for switching the display between the LCD monitor and electronic viewfinder. On the higher, slightly slanted portion are buttons for display, thumbnail, menu and a 4-way direction pad which doubles up to control macro focus, flash, self-timer and image review in record mode.

Buttons / Controls

MENU Record Menu

Enters record menu (detailed later).
Thumbnail view

Switches to between single image view, thumbnail view and picture information view modes in playback mode. This button has no action in record mode.
DISPLAY Display

Toggles LCD display mode either live preview with full detail overlay, live preview with simple detail or LCD off.
Flash

Selects flash mode: Auto Flash, Flash Fill-in, Flash Cancel
Image review

Instantly reviews the last image / movie, in this mode you can zoom into the image but not scroll between images on the Memory Stick, you'll have to switch to playback mode for that (why it wasn't implemented via the jog-dial I'm not sure).
Macro Focus

Switches between normal; 50 cm (19.7") - Infinity, and macro focus; 4 cm (1.5") - 50 cm (19.7") range.
Self-Timer

Engages / Disengages the self-timer. Self-timer is cancelled after the next shot is taken.

Lens barrel controls

The barrel controls on the F707 have also gone through a bit of an evolution. Sony have moved the zoom control to its logical position, here on the lens. It's nice and big and dual speed, a soft touch on lever zooms slowly (towards wide or tele), a full press zooms very quickly (just 1.7 seconds from wide to tele). As with the F505 the zoom mechanism (just like focus) is completely silent. Also new to the barrel side is an AE lock button.

Buttons / Controls

W / T Zoom / Magnify

Zooms the camera lens towards telephoto (190 mm) or towards wide angle (38 mm). In play mode pressing the controller towards telephoto magnifies the displayed image (up to x5.0).
FOCUS

Auto / Manual Focus

Switches between automatic or manual focus. When in the Manual position you use the focus ring on the front of the lens to focus-by-wire. There's an on-screen ruler indicating focus distance as well as a magnified central 'loupe' to check the exact focus position.
AE LOCK Auto-Exposure Lock

Locks the metered exposure at the current setting, useful for aiming the camera at the subject to use for metering then realigning the scene for the final shot. AE Lock is cancelled after the shot is taken.
Metering mode

Selects metering mode:

 • Multi-Segment
 • Center-Weighted Average
 • Spot
WHT
BAL		 White Balance

Selects white balance setting (still lacking here):

 • Auto
 • Manual preset (press the preset button below to take a new reading)
 • Outdoors (Sunny)
 • Indoors (Incandescent)