Canon PowerShot A50Canon's "Digital ELPHs" goes megapixel plus - great picture quality, superb portability!<<Operation & User Interface :(Previous) | (Next): Image Storage & Interface>> Page 9:Camera Modes & MenusReview First Posted: 7/10/1999 |
Camera Modes & Menus
Following is a description of the major camera modes, and the LCD menu options
associated with them. (These were mentioned briefly above, while discussing
the operation of the Mode Dial.)
Lock Mode
Closes the lens cover and turns off the power to the camera.
Auto Mode
Used for taking pictures under average conditions. In Auto mode, the camera
determines whether or not flash is needed, and the focus, exposure, and white
balance are set automatically depending on the conditions under which you capture
the image. In Auto mode, the image quality setting is automatically set to the
Large/Fine setting (1280 x 960, minimum JPEG compression).
Pressing the Menu button in Auto Mode displays
the REC menu (shown at right), which offers the following options:
- Quality: Choose the quality at which you want to capture the image:
- Large/Fine: JPEG High Quality at 1280 x 960 pixels
- Large/Normal: JPEG Normal Quality at 1280 x 960 pixels
- Setup: Takes you to a sub-menu (shown below):
- (Setup Menu Items)
LCD: Switches the brightness of
the LCD between normal and bright settings. The Bright setting makes the
display more visible outdoors or in bright light, but does increase battery
drain, albeit only about 10%.
- Beep: Turns on or off the beep you hear when focusing, pressing
the shutter button, selecting a menu option, etc.
- Power Save: Enables or disables the Power Save function, which
turns the camera off automatically to conserve power when inactive for
several minutes
- Date and Time: Adjusts the camera's date and time settings
- Review: With Review turned on, the camera displays the each image
on the LCD Panel for a few seconds after it is captured, even if the LCD
Panel is turned off
- File No. Reset: Lets you choose the method by which the camera
assigns file numbers to the captured images:
- Off: Ensures that image filenames are not duplicated, even when using more than one memory card. With this setting, images are stored beginning with the highest file number from the last card used.
- On: With this setting, images are stored on each memory card beginning with 0001, or with the next available number if there are images already stored to the card..
Program Mode
In this mode you can change the flash setting and the picture-taking mode (Continuous
or Single) manually. Like Auto mode, the focus and exposure settings are chosen
automatically by the camera, but here, you can fine tune the exposure setting
through an LCD menu option.
Pressing the Menu button in Program mode
also displays the REC menu, but with more options available for selection (as
shown at right):
- Quality: Choose the quality at which you want to capture the image:
- Large/Fine: JPEG High Quality at 1280 x 960 pixels
- Large/Normal: JPEG Normal Quality at 1280 x 960 pixels
- Small/Fine: JPEG High Quality at 640 x 480 pixels
- Small/Normal: JPEG Normal Quality at 640 x 480 pixels
- CCDRAW: No compression, 1280 x 960 pixels image size (proprietary format).
When capturing images in continuous mode, the images are captured at the Small quality setting and you can choose only between Small/Fine and Small/Normal.
- Exposure Compensation: Lets you adjust the camera-determined exposure
by +2 EV to -2 EV (in 1/3 EV increments), while viewing the image and monitoring
changes on the LCD Panel. (This function can also be accessed by pressing
the Set and "-" buttons simultaneously, a very handy shortcut.)
- White Balance: Select from one of five white balance settings depending
on the environment in which you are capturing images:
- Auto: Automatically adjusts the white balance setting for "normal" picture taking.
- Daylight: Adjusts the white balance for outdoor (sunny) lighting conditions.
- Cloudy: Adjusts the white balance when shooting subjects outdoors under cloudy conditions.
- Tungsten: Adjusts the white balance for images captured under tungsten lighting to remove the reddish-orange tint that would normally occur.
- Fluorescent: Adjusts the white balance for images captured under fluorescent
lighting to remove the greenish tint that sometimes occurs.
- Slow Shutter: Lets you shoot night scenes or other low-light subjects:
- On: Intentionally sets a slow shutter speed when capturing images in low-light
- Off: The camera automatically chooses the shutter speed
- Night Scene: Sets a slow shutter speed for capturing outdoor, night-time
images
(Frankly, we're a little puzzled as to the difference might be between "On" and "Night Scene" modes)
- Setup: Takes you to the same camera set-up menu described in the Auto Mode section above.
Stitch-Assist Mode
Stitch-Assist mode provides special support for capturing separate images that
will later be merged into a single panoramic image using the PhotoStitch software
included with the PowerShot A50. When capturing images in this mode, the LCD
displays the previously captured image so that you can match the next image
with the previously captured one. You can choose from three different types
of sequence matching depending on the image that you want to compose: Horizontal,
Vertical, or 2 x 2 matrices. You select the sequence matching pattern when you
first place the camera in Stitch-Assist mode.
Pressing the Menu button in Stitch-Assist mode displays the same Rec menu options
outlined above in the Program mode section. The only difference is in the size/quality
settings: You cannot capture an image using the CCD RAW image-quality setting.
Play Mode
In Play mode you can review the images one at a time on the LCD Panel after
you capture them. When this mode is selected via the Mode Dial, the LCD Panel
activates and displays the images currently stored on the CF Card. Besides viewing
images on the camera's LCD Panel, you can also view them on a video monitor
using the video cable included with the camera.
Pressing the Menu button while in Play mode
displays the Play Menu (shown at right), which contains the following options:
- Show/Hide Info: Displays information about the captured image such
as the date it was captured, the file number assigned to the image, and whether
the image is protected or not.
- Erase: Lets you erase images from the camera's CF card. "Protected"
images will not be erased until you cancel the protection for that specific
image. Two options are available:
- Single: Deletes the current image being viewed.
- All: Deletes all captured images.
You can also erase the current image by holding down the Set button and pressing the "-" button at the same time, another very handy shortcut!
- Protect: Prevents an image from being accidentally erased. When you
protect an image, the word "Protect" will appear over it whenever
it's displayed on the LCD screen. To cancel protection, display the image,
press the Menu button, and choose Protect again. It's important to note that
when you format the CF memory card, all images-even protected ones-are erased.
- Rotate: Lets you reorient images for viewing (in a TV slideshow,
for example) either 90 degrees clockwise or 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
(This doesn't appear to affect the underlying JPEG image file though, which
retains the orientation it was shot with.)
- Setup: Takes you to the same camera set-up menu described in Program
and Auto Mode and adds the following menu options:
- Format: Lets you format the CF card, erasing all stored images, including protected ones.
- Language: Lets you choose the language to display on the LCD
Panel. (Options on the US-market model we reviewed included English, German,
French, Spanish, and Japanese.)
Slide Show: (This and the next option
are on a second menu screen in Playback mode, shown at right.) Lets you view
the captured images in a slideshow fashion. You can mark specific images to
include in the slide show, and can also set the interval between successive
images to 3, 5, or 10 seconds, or opt to advance between images manually.
- Print Order: Lets you select images for printing to a desktop printer,
or other digital printing systems that accept CF cards, or that permit direct
output from the PowerShot A50. You can choose to print quantities of individual
images, an index print (which contains smaller, thumbnail versions of your
images), or both. This Digital Print Order Format (DPOF) information is stored
to the CF card along with the image in a special file format.
Multi Mode
In Multi mode you can review multiple images
on the LCD Panel on or a television using the video cable included with the
camera. When you switch the camera to Multi mode, the LCD Panel activates and
displays images currently stored on the CF Card in groups of nine. You can use
the + / - button to scroll through the images and select an image on which to
perform an operation. (View at full size, delete, or order prints from it, as
described above.)
Pressing the Menu button in Multi mode displays the Play menu, showing the same
options and choices available in Play mode. Any menu option chosen applies to
the image currently selected when the option is invoked. The currently selected
image is highlighted with a green border.
PC Mode
When you want to connect the camera to a PC for downloading of images, you first
need to place the camera in PC mode. PC mode enables the Digital port on the
side of the camera for image transfer to your PC. You can transfer images to
a PC running Windows '95/'98/NT 4.0 (! - NT support is rare, kudos to Canon
for including it!), or to Apple Macintosh computers. Utility software to access
the images from the camera is included on the CD bundled with the camera.
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