Canon PowerShot S110Canon updates their Digital ELPH with improved color, movie capture, and direct print capabilities!<<Design :(Previous) | (Next): Optics>> Page 4:ViewfinderReview First Posted: 5/24/2001 |
ViewfinderThe S110 provides a real-image optical viewfinder as well as a color LCD monitor for composing images. The optical viewfinder zooms along with the lens to give an approximate preview of the capture area (ranging from 77 percent of the field of view at wide angle to 82 percent at telephoto), and a set of autofocus target marks in the center of the finder help define the autofocus and exposure areas. Though the optical viewfinder does not offer a diopter adjustment, it does have a fairly high eyepoint, which should accommodate most eyeglass wearers. Two LED lamps on the left side of the viewfinder eyepiece report a range of camera information. The top LED lamp glows green when the focus and exposure are set, or when the camera is ready to communicate with your computer, and it flashes green when the camera is processing an image. If the top LED lamp glows orange, the flash is charged. A flashing orange LED lamp indicates a low-light shooting situation and the potential for a blurred photograph from camera movement (it also brings up the shaking hand icon on the LCD monitor). The bottom LED lamp lights yellow when the Macro mode is enabled and the Shutter button is halfway pressed (also noted by a small macro symbol next to the LED lamp).
The 1.5-inch, color LCD monitor features a low-temperature, polycrystalline silicon, TFT display with roughly 117,000 effective pixels. When enabled, the LCD serves as a very accurate viewfinder, showing 98% of the final image area regardless of lens zoom setting. A Display button adjacent to the LCD monitor controls the image display, turning it on and off in the Shooting mode. An information display operates independently of the Display button, appearing on-screen whenever the LCD monitor is activated or a control button is pressed (even when the LCD image display is turned off). The information display reports the current camera settings, including Shooting mode, Exposure Compensation, White Balance, and Resolution and Compression across the top, as well as Flash, Drive, Macro / Infinity modes, and the number of remaining images across the bottom. After a few seconds, the display disappears, and is called up again with the next press of a control button.
In Playback mode, the Display button cycles through various levels of information display. The first display shows no information. The second reports the file number, date and time of exposure, quality setting, and the number of images on the card. A third display shows select exposure information, such as Shooting mode, Macro, Drive, Flash, Exposure Compensation, and White Balance. Also in Playback mode, the LCD monitor offers a nine-image index display (the wide-angle position on the Zoom lever) and single image 2x enlargement (the telephoto setting) for closer inspection of details. Once an image is enlarged, you can use the arrow keys to scroll around and check on framing or other details (holding down the Set button provides up and down scrolling).
An Instant Review function displays captured images on the LCD screen for two or 10 seconds; the review time is adjustable through the Setup menu. You can continue to review an image by holding down the Shutter button after you've exposed the image, or leave it on-screen indefinitely by pressing the Set button at the same time. The image will continue to display until you press the Shutter again halfway. During this time, you have the option of deleting an image, before it is recorded to the CompactFlash card, by pressing the left arrow button.
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