Ideas about menus August 2016

Panasonic TZ80  Even a basic compact can make good pictures these days.

The camera industry is in the doldrums. 

As I write this in August 2016 camera production is in steep decline. The Japanese earthquake this year has caused a drought of (mainly Sony) sensors halting production of many models from several brands.  But even before this event camera sales had been in decline for several years.

Which leaves this blog short of  its usual material  for posts but creates an opportunity to look at the issue of menus.

One ergonomic issue which often draws criticism from reviewers and users alike is the chaotic state of some camera menus.

The most popular posts on this blog are the ‘setting up’ guides.

Many models have a collection of menu items which appear to have been thrown together in haphazard fashion to the perpetual confusion of users.  Evidence for this confusion is the number of ‘please help’ posts on user forums.

Many camera menus appear to be arranged in ‘camera centric’ and/or ‘maker centric’ fashion with sub menus (such as ‘custom’) unrelated to usage together with  random or idiosyncratic allocation of items.

Dis-similar items are lumped together.

Like items which should be together are scattered among submenus.

It’s a mess.

In this post I put forward some ideas for a ‘user centric’ arrangement of menu items.

As a proof of concept test I applied a system based on these ideas to the menu items of my favourite all purpose camera, the Panasonic FZ1000.  If I can work up the energy I will apply the same exercise to my Sony RX100 (4), a more daunting proposition as this camera’s menu system is less well organised.

Level 1

This is what you see when the button allocated to [Menu] is pressed.  The display and the options will depend on the current setting of the Mode Dial and of any other fixed function dial on the body such as the Drive Mode dial.

If the Mode Dial is set to fully automatic operation (iA on a Panasonic camera, Auto on a Sony) a basic list of options for each submenu will be available.

If the Mode Dial is on P, A, S or M the full list of submenus and options will be available.

If the Mode Dial is on [Panorama] only the options required for panorama are displayed.

If there is, say, a Drive Mode dial then if this is on the single shot setting all menu items are displayed. But if the dial is on one of the other positions such as burst, then pressing the Menu button only brings up options for Burst mode function.

This means the user does not have to trawl through the menus to find options for functions selectable via hard dials which I call ‘set-and-see’ dials.

If the Mode Dial is on P, A, S, or M and the Drive Mode Dial is on single shot the Level 1 screen will display the following:

Setup, Stills, Video, My Menu

These could be arranged along the top of the screen or down the left side. The Sony RX100(4) has main submenus along the top. Panasonic cameras have them down the left side.

Either arrangement works well enough in my experience.

However some cameras utilise both. For instance Canon Powershots have a Menu button which accesses the main menu system with submenus along the top and in addition have a Func/Set button in the center of the 4 way controller. This brings up an accessory menu system with submenus arrayed down the left side of the screen.  Canon DSLRs generally have one of the better menu systems but the Powershot system is un-necessarily convoluted because of the two different access points leading to two different layouts.

Every camera should have a [My Menu] right at the top level, able to be populated by user selectable items.  This makes oft used items quickly accessible.

Every menu system should also have ‘menu resume’ function so the last used item is automatically displayed next time the menus are accessed.

Some cameras such as the RX100(4) lump video items in with stills items. Presumably this is to make some kind of statement about that camera being able to operate full time still and/or video function. But it makes setting up the camera more puzzling than it needs to be.

Level 2

Setup  leads directly to the items generally found in the Setup menu of a Panasonic camera and scattered about in various places in a Sony Camera.

The Stills and Video  headings lead to submenus as described below.

My Menu leads directly to the user selected items.

Level 3

From Stills or Video  level 3 leads to:

Capture, View, Operate and Playback

View, Operate and Playback lead directly to items with options for selections.

Capture leads to Level 4

Level 4

Submenus in Capture are

Picture, Focus, Exposure and Drive

Each of these submenus leads to items with options for selections.

Discussion

I have tried to craft a menu system which is more relevant to the user than typical systems available in current cameras.

Thus ‘Camera’ as a menu item on some models has to go as it means nothing.

Rec.(ord) as a menu item covers too many parameters which get cluttered up in a list with too many items.

‘Custom’ is just a catch-all for lazy menu designers who couldn’t be bothered to arrange items more coherently.

‘Setup’ makes sense to me as a collection of items which set basic visual and operational features to personal preference.

Capture (Picture, Focus, Exposure, Drive) Viewing, Operating, Playback are categories which make sense to me as a camera user.

The list is eclectic and to some extent a mix of not-altogether-like-items, but I think it is more user oriented and function oriented and therefore more likely to be user-friendly than many of the menus seen on current cameras.

I should include in this discussion the problem of ‘grayed-out’ items.  An item will show as  grayed-out if a setting elsewhere in the menus is incompatible with the grayed out item and/or renders it inoperative.

For example if RAW or RAW+JPG is set as the Quality on a Panasonic camera then i-zoom, i-Dynamic and a range of other features are inoperative because they will not work with RAW capture. 

But the camera does not explain this or what you should do about it.

It would, I imagine, be easy and much appreciated if the firmware boffins included an on screen text message like ‘i-Zoom not compatible with RAW capture, set Quality to JPG’ or similar. 

Worked example: Panasonic FZ1000

Any current model Panasonic Lumix camera will have a similar menu system with individual variations.

Setup Menu

Basically the current Panasonic Setup menu is reasonably well thought out.

The only changes I would make are:

* Panasonic has managed to confuse generations of new users, and I suspect quite a few reviewers, by locating Monitor Display adjustment and EVF display adjustment on the same tab. Look in the viewfinder while adjusting menus and the display changes from ‘Monitor’ to ‘Viewfinder’.  All they need to do is put each of these two adjustments on a separate tab.

* Exposure Comp.Reset  should more logically be in the ‘Exposure’ submenu.

* Reset Wi-Fi can stay in the Setup menu but move up adjacent to the ‘Wi-Fi’ tab.

Rec. Menu

I would reallocate all the items in the Rec menu as below:

* Photo Style ( I would rename this [JPG Settings] to indicate what it really is namely JPG capture settings) > Picture.

* Aspect Ratio > Picture

* Picture Size > Picture

* Quality > Picture

* AFS/AFF > Focus

* Metering Mode > Exposure

* Burst Rate > Drive

* Auto Bracket > Exposure

* Self Timer > Drive

* Time Lapse > Drive

* Highlight/Shadow > Picture

* i-Dynamic > Picture

* i-Resolution > Picture

* i-Handheld Night Shot > Exposure

* i-HDR > Exposure

* HDR > Exposure

* Multi Exp > Exposure

* Panorama > Show Panorama options only when Mode Dial is set to the Panorama icon.

* Shutter Type > Operate

* Flash > Exposure

* Red Eye Removal > Exposure

* ISO Limit Set > Exposure

* ISO Increments > Exposure

* Extended ISO > Exposure

* Long Shutter NR > Picture

* i-Zoom > Operate

* Digital Zoom > Operate

* Stabiliser > Operate

* Color Space > Picture

* Face Recog. > Focus

* Profile Setup > Setup

Comment on Rec Menu reallocations

I hope you can see what I am trying to achieve here. I have tried to group like items which are meaningful to the user in terms of the tasks required to work a camera and the fundamentals of camera operation such as picture quality, exposure, focus, operation and so forth.

Custom Menu

* Cust. Set Mem. > Setup

* Silent Mode > Operate

* AF/AE Lock > Operate

* AF/AE Lock Hold > Operate

* Shutter AF > Focus

* Half Press Release > Focus

* Quick AF > Focus

* Eye Sensor AF > Focus

* Pinpoint AF Time > Focus

* AF Assist Lamp > Focus

* Direct Focus Area > Focus

* Focus/Release Priority > Focus

* AF + MF > Focus

* MF Assist > Focus

* MF Guide > Focus

* Peaking > Exposure

* Histogram > Exposure

* Guide Line > View

* Center Marker > View

* Highlight > Playback

* Zebras > Exposure

* Monochrome Live View > View

* Constant Preview > View

* Expo. Meter > View

*  Dial Guide > View

* LVF Disp. Style > View

* Mon. Disp. Style > View

* Mon. Info. Disp. > View

* Rec Area > View

* Remaining Disp > View

* Auto Review > Playback

* Fn Button Set > Setup

* Zoom Lever > Setup

* Manual Ring Zoom > Setup

* Zoom Resume > Setup

* Q Menu > Setup

* Video Button > Setup

* Eye Sensor > Setup

* Menu Guide > View

Comment on Custom Menu reallocations

You can see that the Firmware developers have already gone part way towards the model which I suggest with like items somewhat grouped together although not with much consistency.

Thus you can see a bunch of ‘Focus’ items together, another bunch of ‘View’ items together and at the end eight items which are obvious candidates for the Setup Menu as they determine how the camera will work.

I would contemplate a submenu in the setup menu for user interface module (UIM, buttons, dials, rings, levers ) function allocations as some modern cameras allow user function allocation for almost all UIMs and this is a critical aspect of setting up the camera to personal preferences.

Motion Picture Menu

Motion Picture menu items can usefully have the same sub menu categories as those for stills with the addition of  Sound. Thus:

* Photo Style > Picture

* 4K Photo > Drive

* Rec Format > Picture

* Rec Quality > Picture

* Exposure Mode > Exposure

* HS Video > Drive

* AFF/AFS > Focus

* Picture Mode > Picture

* Continuous AF > Focus

* Level Shot > Picture

* Metering Mode > Exposure

* Highlight/Shadow > Exposure

* i-Dynamic > Exposure

* i-Resolution > Picture

* Luminance level > Picture

* i-Zoom > Operate

* Digital Zoom > Operate

* Flicker Decrease > Picture

* Mic Level > Sound

* Special Mic > Sound

* Mic. Level Limiter > Sound

* Wind Cut > Sound

* Zoom Mic. > Sound

Playback Menu

All the items in the Playback menu appear appropriately located there.

Overall Summary

I have, over the years, read many complaints by reviewers and users about camera menus which are disorganised and unfriendly to users. Some of these complainants have offered limited suggestions for improvement.

This post goes further and presents a proposal for a fully realised, coherent,  user friendly camera menu system.