When you poke the button to manual it gives you a magnified square in the middle of the screen and a scale bar along the right edge so you can see where you are. I would like more scale points along the bar but otherwise it's pretty good.

It also provides that other method of which you speak, and it allows you to position the focus spot at an arbitrary location away from the center - but that's really only good for repetative stuff.

The 750Z also had the magnified center but it wasn't nearly as easy to use.