Canon Digital IXUS 300 (S300 ELPH) Review: 5. Operation & Controls: Digital Photography Review

Top of camera controls

In a change to last years Digital IXUS, the 300 now features a mode dial for switching between play, record (auto / manual), stitch assist and movie mode. The power button is now located centrally within this dial, when I first saw this I had horrible a flashback to the Olympus C-2000Z and accidental power off's, fortunately the position of the mode dial and the large size of the shutter release means you'll seldom make the mistake of mixing up the two.

The power button itself requires a 2 second "hold" before the camera will power on, however just a tap will power it off (shouldn't it also have a "hold" for power off too??). As the zoom controller is labelled on the top of the camera, we'll deal with it in this section too.

Mode dial

ON/OFF	Powers the camera on or off Requires a two second hold to power-on, single press to power off.
	Play mode Switches immediately to play mode, displays the last image taken / last image on the Compact Flash card. The lens does not immediately retract if it's already extended, it will do so after 60 seconds in play mode.
	Auto record mode This is really the "point and shoot" mode, while you still have the option to choose resolution, JPEG quality and flash mode you can only select between self-timer and single shot drive modes, macro or normal focus mode and you can't change white balance (which is set at Auto) or set an exposure compensation.
	Manual record mode Manual record mode operates virtually identically to auto record mode except that you now have the option to select the continuous drive mode, the additional option of Infinity focus mode, change the white balance or even set an exposure compensation (+/-2 EV in 0.3 EV steps).
	Stitch Assist Designed to make shooting of panorama / stitch shots easier. You have a choice of two different stitch modes: left-right or right-left. The display changes to show previously shot frames in the sequence to help alignment of each frame. Exposure and White Balance are locked to the first frame.
	Movie Mode Shoot short movie clips (AVI format) at a variety of resolutions (all with mono audio @ 11.24 KHz), max file size is 4 MB: • 640 x 480, 20 fps, max 7 - 15 seconds * • 320 x 240, 20 fps, max 15 - 30 seconds * • 160 x 120, 20 fps, max 30 seconds * Depending on subject (little movement = larger record time)

Zoom controller (record mode)

	Zoom Wide Zooms towards full wide angle (35 mm).
	Zoom Tele Zooms towards full telephoto (105 mm), if you pass the 105 mm mark the camera will begin to digitally zoom (indicated by a blue text display). Unfortunately it's not possible to disable digital zoom.

Rear of camera controls

Control functions in record mode

	Flash mode Toggles through five flash modes: • Auto Flash • Anti-Redeye • Fill-in Flash (forced on) • Slow-sync Flash • Inhibit Flash (forced off)
	Drive mode Toggles between three drive modes: • Single shot • Burst shots (continuous) • Self-timer
	Focus modes Toggles between three focus modes: • Normal focus range • Macro focus range • Landscape (Infinity locked focus)
	Change Exposure Compensation / White balance First press enters exposure compensation adjustment, use the left and right arrows to change the exposure compensation (+/-2.0 EV in 0.3 EV steps) and press SET to store the setting. Second press displays the white balance menu, choose from: • Auto • Fine (sunny) • Cloudy • Tungsten • Fluorescent • Black & White
MENU	Enter Record Menu The record menu is detailed later.
DISP	Preview Display on / off Toggles between live preview display on or off. The IXUS 300 overlays shooting configuration for four seconds in either mode.

Control functions in menu mode

SET	Change currently selected menu option
	Previous menu option / value
	Next menu option / value
MENU	Show / Hide menu

Control functions in play mode

	Previous image
	Next image
MENU	Enter Play Menu Play menu detailed later.
DISP	Information overlay mode Toggles between three information display modes: • Image review, no information • Image review, basic information (date&time, folder, filename) • Image review, exposure information
	Toggle Thumbnail view (zoom wide button) Toggles between display of a single full screen image, 3 x 3 thumbnails on the LCD screen or 3 x 3 thumbnails scrollable a page at a time.
	Playback Magnify (zoom tele button) Zoom the displayed image either 2.0 times, the arrows can be used to scroll left and right, in combination with the SET button to scroll up and down.

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