useful to the operator. More pages can be assigned to this menu if required.
2.2 Engineering Menu
The engineering menu is accessed by powering up the camcorder with the menu wheel on the front of the
camera pressed in.
Note: the user menu is relative to the engineering menu for many of the level controls. e.g. if detail level in the
engineering menu is set to -10 and in the user menu to +10, the overall effect will be detail set to zero. Looking in
the user menu the operator may have the impression that detail is wound up a bit to +10.
In general it is recommended that all items in the eng. menu are left at zero or factory set level, and any
‘tweaking’ is done via the user menu. More pages can be assigned to the user menu if access is required to a
particular control.
A full list of the available menus is attached at the end of this document, including a brief description of the
function of each item, and a suggested setting for each item.
2.3 Camera Operator Menu
Instead of selecting whole menu pages to the user menu, it is possible to create up to five individually configured
pages, with items taken from anywhere within the menu structure. The user menu pages can then be switched
off, and the whole menu cut down to a couple of pages containing only the most useful adjustments.
3 Set-up Cards
Cards can be read or overwritten as many times as you like. They are quite robust, are not corrupted by
magnetic fields and can survive accidental immersion in a washing machine!
Data written for DVW-709 and 790 is inter-changeable, but will not transfer to the SX camcorders or the DVW-
700. Future software will allow the 709 and 790 to read cards from the ‘700, but this is not recommended at
present. The cards themselves are usable with any of the above camcorders.
3.1 Reading a Set-Up Card
Insert the card to be read into the slot in the side of the camera, label facing outwards.
Turn on the menu, using the Menu on / off / page switch on the small panel below the gain/ white balance
memory/ power save switches..
Rotate the dial on the front of the camera until the page called ‘Set-up Card’ appears in the viewfinder.
Press and turn the dial until the pointer is at ‘Read (-camera)’
Press the dial and check the ID of the card is the one you want to read.
Press again to read.
Reading a card to a camera will always copy both levels of menu, so do not worry about someone having left
something odd in the engineering menu that will alter your card settings.
3.2 Creating your own set-up card
To copy another card: read the card you want to copy into the camcorder, as per section 3.1. Insert a blank card
or one that can be overwritten. Select ‘Write (-card)’ from the set-up card menu page and press to confirm. That’s
it.
To create your own set-up, align the camera the way you like it via the menus, either from scratch, or by fine
tuning a previous set-up. Write to the card.
To fine tune a card, read it into the camera, change the menu item that will improve your setting, Write to your
