Playback Menu 1/2 Options

The Playback menu controls functions for deleting, protecting, displaying, and printing images. The Playback menu has two screens; Playback menu 1 is shown in Figure 3.10.

Figure 3.10. The Sony Alpha’s Playback menu 1.

• Delete

• Format

• Protect

• DPOF setup

• Date imprint

• Index print

• Playback Display

• Slide show

• Interval

Delete

Options: Marked images, All images

Default: None

All of us sometimes take pictures that we know should never see the light of day. Maybe you were looking into the lens and accidentally tripped the shutter. Perhaps you really goofed up your settings. You want to erase that photo now, before it does permanent damage. While you can delete a photo immediately after you take it by pressing the Delete button, sometimes you need to wait for an idle moment to erase pictures. This menu choice makes it easy to remove selected photos (Marked images), or to erase all the photos on a memory card (All images). Note that neither function removes images marked Protected (described below in the section “Protect”).

To remove selected images, select the Delete menu item, select Marked images from the submenu and use the left/right motion of the multi-selector, or turn the front control dial, to scroll through your images. When you find an image you want to delete, press the multi-selector’s center button. A green trashcan icon is superimposed over your image, and the number of images marked for deletion is incremented in the indicator at lower left. Continue navigating forward and backward among the images to mark or unmark additional shots. When you’re satisfied (or have expressed your dissatisfaction with the really bad ones), press the Menu button to go back, where you can choose Delete on the confirmation screen to erase the ones you’ve selected. You can exit from this process at any time by pressing the Playback button.

While you can use this menu choice to delete All images, the process can take some time. You’re better off using the Format command, described next.

Format

Options: Format, Cancel format

Default: Cancel format

To reformat your memory card, choose the Format menu entry, select OK on the confirmation screen, and press the multi-selector’s center button to confirm the operation.

Use this command to erase everything on your memory card and set up a fresh file system ready for use. It removes all the images on the memory card, and reinitializes the card’s file system by defining anew the areas of the card available for image storage, locking out defective areas, and creating a new folder in which to deposit your images. It’s usually a good idea to reformat your memory card in the camera (not in your camera’s card reader using your computer’s operating system) before each use. Formatting is generally much quicker than deleting images one by one.

Protect

Options: Marked images, All images, Cancel all (unmark all images)

Default: None

You might want to protect images on your memory card from accidental erasure, either by you or by others who may use your camera from time to time. This menu choice enables you to protect only Marked images (using a procedure similar to the Delete Marked images process described earlier), protect All images on the memory card, or Cancel all, which unmarks and unprotects any photos you have previously marked for protection.

To protect only selected images, select the Protect menu item, and choose Marked images. As with the Delete command, discussed above, scroll through your images using the multi-selector or the front control dial. When an image you want to protect is on the screen, press the multi-selector’s center button to mark it for protection (or to unmark an image that has already been marked). A key icon appears over each marked image. When you’ve marked all the images you want to protect, press the Menu button to return to the menu screen, then select OK from the confirmation screen and press the multi-selector’s center button to confirm the operation.

You can also use the Protect function to unprotect selected images, or all images, using the same procedure as for protecting images; just mark the images to be unprotected, which causes the key icon on each image to fade to gray, or select All images, and then confirm the operation as with the procedure for protecting images.

DPOF Setup

Options: Marked images, All images, Cancel all (unmark all images)

Options (Number of copies): 1-9

Options (Date imprint): On, Off

Options (Index print): Create index, Delete index

Most digital cameras are compatible with the DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) protocol, which enables you to mark in your camera which of the JPEG images on the memory card (but not RAW files) that you’d like to print, and specify the number of copies of each. You can then transport your memory card to your retailer’s digital photo lab or do-it-yourself kiosk or use your own compatible printer to print out the marked images and quantities you’ve specified.

There are actually three related items on the Playback menu 1 screen: DPOF setup, Date imprint, and Index print. The last two are really submenu items of the first, as indicated by the lines on the menu screen that show that these items spring from DPOF setup. Here are the steps to take to use these options.

• DPOF setup. You can choose to print All images, Marked images, or Cancel all. Selecting images is similar to the method you use to mark images for deletion or protection. To print selected images, select the DPOF setup menu item, and press the multi-selector’s center button to choose Marked images. Then, using the multi-selector or the front control dial, browse through the images you want to print. For each such image, press the multi-selector’s center button or turn the rear control dial to the right to increment the number of prints to be made of that image, from 1 to 9. If you continue pressing the controller button past 9 copies, the count wraps around to 0 copies again. You can also reduce the count as far as zero (unselected) by turning the rear control dial to the left. A printer icon in the lower-left corner shows the total number of images selected to print—that is, the cumulative total of copies for the full group of marked images.

  When you have finished selecting images and the numbers of copies, press the Menu button to exit picture selection. On the screen that appears, Cancel removes all DPOF print selection and quantity marks. The Cancel option can be useful after printing, if you print photos from a memory card but then leave the images on the card while you shoot additional pictures. Removing the DPOF markings clears the card of print requests so you can later select additional or different images for printing from the same collection.

• Date imprint. Choose this menu item to superimpose the current date onto images when they are printed. Select On to add the date; Off (the default value) skips date imprinting. The date is added during printing by the output device, which controls its location on the final print.

• Index print. Choose this menu item to print your images in thumbnail size on one or more sheets of paper. The number of images per sheet and the format are controlled by your printer. Once you have set this option, any images you shoot afterwards will not be included in the index, so you should select this menu item and then print the index immediately afterwards to avoid missing any images.

Playback Display

Options: Auto rotate, Manual rotate

Default: Auto rotate

By default, on playback the Sony Alpha DSLR-A850 automatically rotates pictures taken in vertical orientation on the LCD screen so you don’t have to turn the camera to view them comfortably. However, this orientation also means that the longest dimension of the image is shown using the shortest dimension of the LCD, so the picture is reduced in size. Choose Manual rotate instead, and you can rotate only those photos you want to re-orient by pressing the Fn button from the Playback screen and choosing Rotate.

Slide Show

Options: Activate show

Options (Interval): 1 second, 3 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds

Default: 3 seconds

This option, the first and only one on Playback menu 2 (see Figure 3.11), allows you to display all the images on your memory card using a three-second delay between images, or another delay period you select by choosing the Interval suboption. Choose 1, 3, 5, 10, or 30 seconds for your interval. During the show you can do the following:

Figure 3.11. The Sony Alpha’s Playback menu 2.

• Press the multi-selector’s center button to pause the show. Press again to resume the show.
  
  
• Move forward or in reverse through the images by pressing the multi-selector to the right or left.
  
  
• Stop the show at any time by pressing the Menu button, which takes you back to the Slide show menu item. To stop the show and exit from the menu completely, press the Playback button.
  
  
• Press the DISP button to toggle between full screen images and the same images with date, time, and image number of the exposure overlaid.