Battery status: fully charged, half charged, low battery
It's best to recharge or insert a fresh battery pack as soon as possible if anything other than a full charge icon is displayed.
Resolution: large, medium, small
This indicates the number of megapixels, or resolution settings, your camera provides. Bigger files are best for larger prints; small files are for 4x6s and e-mail.
Compression: superfine, fine, normal
Superfine provides the highest quality images for large prints, but lower settings are OK for e-mail and also let you take more pictures per memory card.
Shooting method: single shot, continuous, self-timer, quick shot
Single shot captures pictures one at a time; continuous shoots bursts at a framing rate that depends on your camera. Self-timer delays the shutter firing for a few seconds so you can get into the picture. Quick shot causes the shutter to fire with as short a delay as possible, for action subjects.
Flash modes: auto flash, auto with red-eye reduction, flash-on, flash-off, slow sync
In auto, the flash fires when needed. Red-eye reduction usually causes it to fire short bursts before the actual flash to minimize red-eye. Flash-on means the flash fires for every shot. Slow sync times the flash for slow shutter speeds, so backgrounds won't be dark when shooting in low light.
Metering mode: evaluative, center-weighted, spot
Evaluative mode lets the camera analyzes the scene and select the exposure. Center-weighted works with normally lit subjects. Spot metering reads a small area in the center of the frame and is useful in uneven light.
Shooting modes: Auto leaves the settings up to the camera.
Manual lets you choose exposure settings (such as color effect).
Macro for shooting extreme close-ups.
Portrait for focused faces with a pleasantly blurred background.
Landscape is for sharply capturing both distant scenery and closer details.
Night is for shooting people against twilight backgrounds.
Indoor shoots at wide apertures and hand-holdable shutter speeds without flash.
Underwater mode adjusts color to reduce bluishness.
Movie modes: For capturing video clips, usually with sound and at a length determined by available memory.
White balance: auto, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, custom
Auto white balance adjusts the appearance of white in photos to the conditions detected by the camera, such as under household (incandescent) lighting or fluorescent lights. Custom white balance lets you set the white balance—see your manual.
Photo effects: effect-off, vivid, neutral, low sharpening, sepia, black & white
Photo effects let you change the look of an image. Vivid emphasizes contrast and color saturation; neutral does the opposite for a more muted effect. Low sharpening records subjects with softened outlines. Sepia records in a vintage tone, and black & white shoots pictures as black-and-white photographs.
Gain Up: This adjusts the brightness of the image on the LCD to allow you to see the screen more clearly in low light or in bright sunlight. Some cameras feature auto gain or auto bright, more convenient than pressing a button but consuming battery power.