Canon PowerShot A70 Review: 6. Operation & Controls: Digital Photography Review

Rear of camera controls

The rear of the A70 is clean and simple, one lever to change between record and play mode, a four way controller and a row of four buttons below the LCD monitor. This is an entry level camera and this simple layout is perfect for the first time user.

Buttons (Record mode)

Four way controller

In Auto and P modes the left and right buttons of the four way controller have no function (except in manual focus mode), in Tv (Shutter Priority) and Av (Aperture Priority) the left and right buttons set shutter speed and aperture respectively. The up button is mapped to flash mode (described below) and the down button is mapped to focus mode (described below).

Flash Mode

Toggles through the flash modes: Flash Auto, Flash On (Fill), Flash Off. You can enable or disable red-eye reduction from the camera menu.

Focus Mode

Pressing this button toggles between normal focus (default), macro focus and manual focus. In manual focus mode the left and right buttons of the four way controller are used to set focus position, a ruler indicating the current focus distance is displayed along the bottom of the LCD monitor.

SET

SET

The SET button is used to confirm menu settings and other on-screen options.

MENU

Record Menu

Pressing this button in record or play mode enters that mode's settings menu (described in detail on the next pages of this review).

DISP.

Display Mode

Toggles between three LCD display modes: LCD off, Image and AF frame, Image and AF frame plus detailed exposure information.

FUNC

FUNC button

The FUNC button displays an overlaid menu which provides access to the most often changed photographic settings. In Auto exposure mode you can only modify Drive Mode and Image Size / Quality, in Scene exposure modes the available settings vary. All settings are available in the creative record exposure modes (P, Tv, Av or M). Settings appear in a column down the left side of the display, use the direction buttons on the four way controller to move up and down each option and and change an options. Click here to view an animation of FUNC settings. Note that the icons used below to represent each setting are the default for that setting and that the icon will change once a setting change is made.

	Exp. compen.	+/-2 EV in 0.3 EV steps
	White balance	Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Fluorescent High, Flash, Manual (Custom)
	Drive mode	Single, Continuous,Self-timer 10 sec, Self-timer 2 sec
	Sensitivity	Auto, ISO 50, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400
	Photo Effect	Off, Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, Sepia, B&W
	Meter Mode	Evaluative, Center Weighted Avg., Spot
	Image size / quality	2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480, Super Fine, Fine, Normal

Play Mode

	Four way controller Press the left or right buttons to browse through images, the up and down buttons have no function.
SET	SET The SET button is used to confirm menu settings and other on-screen options. Note that in record review (immediately after taking a shot) this button can be used to hold the record review on screen.
MENU	Record Menu Pressing this button in record or play mode enters that mode's settings menu (described in detail on the next pages of this review).
DISP.	Display Mode Toggles between three LCD display modes: Image view, Image view with brief overlaid information, Image view with detailed overlaid information.
	Erase image Erases the image, requires confirmation: Erase / Cancel. Note that this button can also be used in record review (immediately after taking a shot).

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