Rear of camera controls

The DSC-V3 has no less than fourteen separate buttons and controls on its rear. It's not as scary as it may at first sound and does mean that you can access some useful camera functions without jumping into the menu. That said two things which I change fairly often; White Balance and ISO sensitivity are absent, perhaps next time Sony can create a customizable button which could be set to a range of different functions.

Buttons / Controls

AE LOCK AE Lock

In record mode this button is used to lock Automatic Exposure, when locked a green asterisk is shown in the bottom right corner of the camera screen to indicate the exposure is locked. Press again to unlock.
Exposure Compensation

Press this button and then turn the jog dial, you can shortcut this button using the jog dial in most modes.
 • -2.0 EV to +2.0 EV
 • 0.3 EV steps
FOCUS Focus mode

Press to switch between auto focus and manual focus.
FRAME Auto focus frame

Choose auto focus area mode:
 • Auto selection (from five areas)
 • Center point only
 • Selectable point (press again to move)
CF / Compact Flash / Memory Stick

This switch controls which media the V3 uses. As soon as you flick the switch the camera examines the media in the slot and updates the number of frames remaining (record mode) or the displayed image (play mode).
W / T Zoom / Play magnify & thumbnail

In record mode this lever controls the camera's zoom (focal length), in play mode you can press 'W' to switch to a thumbnail index display (3x3 & 4x4), press 'T' to enter magnify mode (up to 5.0x).
Display

Pressing this button cycles through the screen display modes:
 • Live view with overlaid information
 • Live view with overlaid information and live histogram
 • Plain live view display (basic overlay, AF areas)
Flash mode

 • Auto
 • Flash On
 • Slow Sync
 • Flash Off

Image Review

Instantly reviews the last image / movie, in this mode you can zoom into the image but not browse images on the media card. As noted previously I believe this button should take you into full play mode but that it becomes shooting-priority (a tap of the shutter release or other record button returns the camera to shooting mode).

Four way controller

Used to navigate menus, browse images, select options, move the AF area in selectable point AF area mode.
Macro focus

Press this button to toggle macro focus on or off.
Self-timer

In record mode pressing this button engages or disengages the self-timer.
MENU Menu

Displays or removes the current mode menu. The V3's menus are laid out similarly to previous Sony Cybershot's in that they are displayed as a bar of options along the bottom of the screen.
Image Size / Erase

In record mode pressing this button displays an image size selection 'pop-up' box. In play mode pressing this button displays a display confirmation box and puts the camera into a browse & delete mode.