Manual is fully manual, and quite comfortable - aperture is directly set on the up/down dial (a.k.a. thumb wheel), time is set on the same while simultaneously pushing the exposure compensation button in front of it with the index finger. Manual focus however is barely accessible, being combined on dial and AF/M button - where the latter is down at the back below the display, placed in a groove for protection against accidental pressing. It takes a fingernail or other pointy instrument to press it - something I can't do while looking through the finder.
WTR the f/8 limit, it is even worse, at f/11, due to the zoom lens. 1/700s can only be combined with aperture f/11 and below, in any mode including manual - at that speed the shutter does not fully open and limits the lens diameter. All other shutter speeds are not restricted.
You better consider that shutter a 1/400 shutter with a limited extra speed - which is good enough, or indeed even better than usual. Only the fast among my leaf shutters (and as a mostly medium and large format photographer I have plenty of them) claim to do 1/500, and most of them actually test slower than 1/400 (most manufacturers already took use of the permitted -1/3 stop tolerance to start with, and they lose speed as they age), so a real 1/400 with 2/3 stop reserve stopped down is quite good.
Sevo
