Manual Control Options
The following manual control settings are accessible through the menu (manual, program, and scene modes): ISO, white balance, exposure, and metering. I really like how Sony groups all of these together and puts them in a pop-up menu form. It makes for easy navigation in which you can still view the image/scene underneath the menu. In many cameras the manual controls are scattered around throughout the buttons and menus, forcing you search around to access them all.

Focus
Auto (7.0)
The P100 has a couple of different methods for handling automatic focus. There is a "multipoint" setting that calculates distance from five sections of the composition: the left position of the frame, the right, the top, bottom, and the center of the image. This provides immediate auto focusing regardless of the subject’s placement in the frame. Often, when a subject is off center, many imagers will not readjust the focus point and the subject will appear blurred. This creates a problem for many photographers who do not like symmetry in their images and try to offset monotonous centering by moving the subject to a different segment of the frame. The P100 is intended to adapt to asymmetrical compositions by selection. When in multipoint focusing mode, a green box will appear in the LCD or viewfinder that the viewer can move to the area they desire as the focal point. This will ensure that the intended subject is in focus, providing an image that can later be cropped or framed externally if desired.

There is also a center AF mode that will pick out the dominant subject in the center of the frame and focus on it. This is a typical mode of many cameras and is an essential feature, through rather limiting if the only means of focusing that the user must rely on.

In addition, the Sony DSC-P100 also has “Single” and “Monitoring” settings within the automatic focusing mode. The single focus setting is designed for shooting subjects at a fixed distance. When set on single, the camera will not continue to refocus prior to the shutter release, but rather when the shutter is partially depressed, the AF lock will kick in and the focus will be locked. The monitoring automatic focus setting is intended for time conservation and instant frame captures, continually refocusing the image as various objects enter the frame. This allows for immediate focusing and will not have the normal lag time that occurs when the focus is reliant on the shutter release button.

Manual (0.0)
In addition to the Sony DSC-P100's AF system there is the option to have fixed focusing at 0.5M, 1M, 3M, 7M, or infinity. This is an interesting option to give consumers, but it doesn't replace the ability to manually adjust the digital camera's focusing, an option that the Sony DSC-P100 unfortunately lacks.

Metering (6.0)
There are two different metering modes available through the menu on the Sony DSC-P100: spot metering and multi-metering. Multi-metering is the default setting that divides the image into regions and determines a balanced exposure. Spot metering, designed for difficult or specific lighting situations, allows you to specify what the camera should expose for. I would have liked to see at least one other metering option on this camera to extend the control a little further. The lack of control within the metering mode might have to be compensated for with the other manual controls such as exposure (see below). However, this will only have to be for the more extreme settings. You won’t have a problem getting an accurate meter reading for everyday snapshots.

Exposure (7.0)
The DSC-P100 offers the option of adjusting the exposure on any image if proper exposure can’t be obtained to begin with due to dramatic scene conditions. You can compensate for incorrect exposure through the menu and manually over- or underexpose the image. The exposure values are available in 1/3 EV increments ranging from -2.0 to +2.0.This is a pretty standard amount of control that will serve the needs of most users.

White Balance (4.0)
Sony gives you the option of five white balance settings when the flash is turned off: auto, daylight, cloudy, fluorescent, and incandescent. I’m impressed that such a tiny camera gives you so many options. This makes me wonder, however. With all these preset options available, why not throw in the option to do custom white balancing? Most point-and-shooters won’t even explore white balance too much, so I’m sure the available options are fine for most. However, if you need manual control of white balance (which most users will in fact need) you are going to run into problems with the inability to set white balance on the Sony DSC-P100. Sony seems to be in the gray area between dumbed-down point-and-shoot and mid-ranged advanced digital camera. They are trying to appeal to both crowds and in some respects they’re not succeeding.

ISO (6.0)
The ISO in both program and manual modes ranges from 400 to 100, with an auto ISO function as well. For a point-and-shoot camera of this level, I think this a good amount of ISO control. (See previous testing for our ISO noise results.) In scene mode there is only the option for auto ISO. I am confused as to why they only gave one option for this mode in particular.

Shutter Speed (6.0)
The option to adjust the shutter speed (along with the aperture) is only available in manual mode. The shutter speed values appear in white on the bottom right of the screen.To activate numbers and give yourself the option of adjusting them, you need to push the little button in the center of the four-way control and use the arrows to change your values.The shutter speed ranges from 1/8-1/1000 sec. in auto, 2-1/1000 sec. in twilight, and 30-1/1000 in manual mode.

Aperture (7.0)
As with the shutter speed, the aperture (F-stop) values appear in white on the bottom right of the screen. You activate and adjust them as you do with the shutter speed (see above). I like the way Sony sets this up. I had to search through the manual to figure out how to do it, but once I learned it was easy to navigate. The aperture ranges from f/2.8 to f/5.6 at a wide angle and f/5.2 to f/10 at telephoto.