Sony Alpha DSLR-A200 Review: 8. Operation & Controls: Digital Photography Review

Rear of camera controls

The A200's back is a fairly conventional affair. You have the usual bank of buttons down the left-hand side of the screen and a 'multi-controller' to its right. The exposure compensation and AEL buttons are located so that you can easily reach them with your thumb when your index finger is on the shutter button.

The control layout is clear and intuitive, the only point of criticism is the function of the multi-controller. As mentioned earlier in this review I found myself (unwillingly) triggering the AF with my nose pretty much all the time. This is indeed quite annoying but depending on the size and shape of your nose it might not be problematic for you. In any case it would be useful if a future firmware-upgrade would allow users to customize the usage of the multi-controller (or at least to deactivate the AF-trigger).

Shooting mode controls

Control	Function
MENU	Menu Enters or leaves the menu (in shooting mode it takes you straight to the shooting section of the menu, and to the play section when you're in play mode).
DISP	Display Select recording information display mode: • Enlarged display • Detailed display • No display
	Delete (record review). During record review (image playback immediately after taking the shot) you can press this button to delete the image. This displays a Delete / Cancel confirmation box.
	Play Enters play mode, displays the last image taken or the last image browsed.
	Multi Selector The multi selector is used to navigate menus and make selections (using the center button). If the AF area is set to 'Local' the controller is also used to select your focus point when shooting. In all other AF modes a press of the center button and any of the arrow keys will force the camera to focus on the center spot.
Fn	Function button Provides access to the function menu, this provides control over the camera functions you may want to change fairly regularly that don't have direct access buttons. • Flash mode • Auto focus mode • White balance • Metering mode • AF area mode • D-Range Optimizer
AEL	AE Lock button / Slow Sync / M-Shift By default acts as a standard AEL lock button (hold it down to lock the exposure), though you can change the behavior to 'Hold' (press once to activate AEL). When the exposure is locked, the display also shows the current spot metered value to help you judge the correct exposure. In manual exposure (M) mode holding this button down activates a 'Manual Shift' option, which allows you to retain a fixed exposure but to change the aperture and shutter speed combination by turning the front dial.
	Super Steady Shot Used to enable or disable the 'Super Steady Shot' CCD-shift anti shake system.

Play mode controls

Control	Function
MENU	Menu Enters or leaves the current mode menu, all menus are accessible once in the menu system but pressing this button in Play mode will take you directly to the Play section.
DISP	Display Select play mode display: • Image with information overlay • Image with information, blinking highlights and histograms • Just image • Film strip (thumbs and single large image) Also used to change the number of thumbnails in index view
	Delete (play only) In play mode press this button to delete the currently displayed / selected image. This displays a Yes / No confirmation box.
	Play Leaves play mode and returns to shooting. Note that you can achieve the same function by simply half-pressing the shutter release button.
	Multi Selector Press left or right arrows to browse through the images, note that you can also use the control dial to achieve the same function. When magnified the controller is used to scroll around the image.
	Rotate Allows you to rotate the displayed image through 90, 180 or 270 degrees.
	Zoom in In play mode enters the camera's magnify mode (at 4.6x, initially), press again to magnify the image further (up to 9.1x). Pressing the 'Fn' button jumps back to full screen.
	Index/Zoom out From playback mode, toggles index (thumbnail) mode on and off. (Pressing the DISP changes the number of thumbnails). When zoomed in, the button zooms back out.

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