This one is probably a no brainer for most of you, but I'm not accustommed to the option of adjusting for skin tones. The zebra function I can use, but I'm not too certain how to use the skin tone function - is it designed to be balanced with a persons skin and if so what's the best way to do so?

The skin tone function is a 'beauty' filter that's supposed to smooth out wrinkles and blemishes on faces you shoot. I haven't tested it yet but on my previous camera it worked quite well (Sony DSR-500). It picks the selected colour and lowers sharpness (I believe) without affecting anything else in the frame.

Thanks Jiri!

Pretty much. So you can guess that it best isn't used when you shout in a skin-coloured wooden interior...