Canon Powershot S70By: Dave EtchellsWith the same wide angle lens as its predecessor, the S70 boosts resolution with its 7.1 megapixel sensor, but holds the line on image noise. <<Camera Modes & Menus :(Previous) | (Next): Video, Power, Software>> Page 10:Image Storage & InterfaceReview First Posted: 9/30/2004 |
Image Storage and Interface
The Canon S70 uses CompactFlash memory cards for image storage, accommodating both Type I and II card sizes. This means that the camera should also be able to store images to a Hitachi MicroDrive for increased storage capacity, although I did not test the camera with one. A 32MB CompactFlash Type I memory card is supplied with the camera. Entire CompactFlash cards cannot be write-protected, however, the S70's Play menu allows you to write-protect individual image files, protecting them from accidental erasure, unless the card is formatted.
Still images can be saved at one of five resolutions (3,072 x 2,304; 2,592 x 1,944; 2,048 x 1,536; 1,600 x 1,200; 640 x 480 pixels), while movie images are recorded at 320 x 240 or 160 x 120 pixels. Still images also have three JPEG compression levels available: Superfine, Fine, and Normal, plus a RAW setting that records the image straight from the CCD, with no further processing. RAW images require the Canon ZoomBrowser or ImageBrowser software for processing on a computer. The benefit of the RAW data file format is that it compresses the image file without any loss of image quality.
A full complement of interface software comes with the S70, as does a USB cable for speedy connection to a PC or Macintosh computer. Downloading files to my Sony desktop running Windows XP (Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz), I clocked the S70 at 513 KBytes/second. This is moderately fast for cameras with USB v1.1 interfaces, but a good bit slower than most USB v2.0-equipped models. Still, it's fast enough that you shouldn't need an external card reader. (Cameras with slow USB v1.1 interfaces run as low as 300 KB/s, cameras with fast v1.1 interfaces run as high as 600 KB/s. Cameras with USB v2.0 interfaces run as fast as several megabytes/second.)
Following are the approximate resolution / quality and compression ratios for a 32MB card (compression numbers are based on my own computations):
Resolution/Quality 32 MB Memory Card |
RAW | Fine | Normal |
|
|
3072 x 2304 | Images (Avg size) |
4 |
10 3.1 MB |
16 2.0 MB |
33 946 KB |
Approx. Compression |
- | 7:1 | 11:1 | 23:1 | |
2592 x 1944 | Images (Avg size) |
- | 12 2.6 MB |
22 1.5 MB |
43 734 KB |
Approx. Compression |
- | 6:1 | 10:1 | 20:1 | |
2048 x 1536 | Images (Avg size) |
- | 19 1.7 MB |
34 929 KB |
67 473KB |
Approx. Compression |
- | 6:1 | 10:1 | 20:1 | |
1600 x 1200 | Images (Avg size) |
- | 30 607 KB |
54 344 KB |
103
197 KB |
Approx. Compression |
- | 6:1 | 10:1 |
19:1
|
|
|
Images (Avg size) |
- | 115 278 KB |
178 179 KB |
114 KB |
Approx. Compression |
- | 3:1 | 5:1 |
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