Canon PowerShot S45 Review
Record mode display (Auto / Scene modes)
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Here you can see an animated example of the S45's 9 area AiAF in
action. A half-press of the shutter release and the AiAF system
selects whichever AF points it feels should be used for focusing
and then displays them in green. In practice this system seemed
to work quite well. What I find slightly odd is that this 9 area
automatic AiAF system isn't available in any of the 'creative' exposure
modes (P, Tv, Av, M or C).
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Record mode display (P, Tv, Av, M, C)
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Here, an example of information overlay in Program Auto Exposure
mode (P). FUNC settings are shown down the left of the frame (in
the exact same place they are with the FUNC menu displayed), other
settings along the top and bottom of the frame.

In this case: FUNC: +0.3 EV compensation, Cloudy WB, Single
Drive, ISO 200, Super-Fine Large image quality. Others: Flash
cancelled, Macro, Evaluative metering, Normal Orientation, Program
AE mode, 239 remaining shots.
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Here we're already half-pressed the shutter release
and are ready to shoot. Notice the exposure is now displayed and that
the selected AF frame has turned green to indicate a good focus (it
would turn yellow if the AF couldn't lock). Also, because the exposure
is slow it may suffer from blur (due to hand shake) so the small shake
icon is displayed. |
After shooting a preview is displayed briefly (this
can be disabled or set to 2 or 10 seconds). During this preview you
can press the MF (erase) to delete
the image or the meter (microphone) button button to record
a voice annotation (up to 60 seconds). Press the FUNC button to
save as RAW instead of JPEG. ** |
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Switching to spot metering adds [ ] brackets to
the current spot meter area, you can choose for this area to follow
the AF area or be locked into the center of the frame. |
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Example of Shutter Priority (Tv) mode, shutter speed
is displayed and aperture will be calculated on a half-press of the
shutter release. |
Example of Aperture Priority (Av) mode, aperture is
displayed and aperture will be calculated on a half-press of the shutter
release. |
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Example of Manual Exposure (M) mode, note that when
you half-press the shutter release the camera will indicate the difference
between the metered exposure and your selected exposure (+0.3 EV in
this case). |
The new Custom (C) mode. In this case settings were
saved from Program AE mode (enter menu and choose Save Settings) which
are then automatically recalled when you turn the mode dial to the
C position. This includes zoom position and manual focus location
(if selected). |
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Example of movie clip record mode, the number of seconds
remaining (>999 in this example) simply refers to the total space,
an individual clip is limited to 3 minutes. |
Press the DISPLAY button in any of the creative modes
to toggle between the normal full information display, a simple display
(see above, just AF area) or LCD monitor off. |
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Here you can see the new overlaid FUNC menu. As you
move down the menu options the settings for that option are shown
at the bottom of the screen, use the left and right arrows to change.
Note that when you cancel the FUNC menu any non-default settings icons
remain on the screen. |
Here is a good example of how the changing of options
in the FUNC menu are immediately reflected in the live view 'behind'
the menu. |
** Note: it is possible to change this to a histogram display by pressing
the SET button to hold the image on the screen then press DISPLAY to switch
to histogram mode. All shots taken from then onwards will use a histogram
display for image review.
AF Frame
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Press the SET button and you can move the AF area freely around
the center three quarters of the frame to any one of over 300 locations
(just a few shown for example).
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Manual Focus
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An example of manual focus, unfortunately for some reason the magnification
loupe doesn't work for video output (which we used to capture this
image). Normally a loupe appears at the current AF point about twice
the size of the AF frame to show more clearly where the focus point
is. Note the ruler indicating the focus distance can be switched
between metric or imperial measurements.
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Playback display
 |
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Switching to play mode
immediately displays the last image taken. Depending on the previously
chosen display mode you'll either see this (clean image, no info overlaid) |
Press DISPLAY to increase
the information displayed: folder / filename, frame number, image
quality / size, date / time. |
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|
Press DISPLAY again to
switch to the histogram / highlight mode. Here we can see far more
exposure information as well as an exposure histogram. |
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In Jump mode you can skip
through 10 images at a time without switching to thumbnail view mode.
You can also use JUMP
mode in thumbnail view to jump a page of 9 images at a time. |
Thumbnail view, 3 x 3 images
displayed, you can use the 4-way controller to move the selector rectangle
between images. Note that because of the S45 orientation sensor images
which were taken in the portrait orientation are displayed in the
same orientation. |
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The S45 has a wide range
of magnifications in playback from 2x to 10x. The good thing about
the S45's magnify mode is that it is very fast, both in zooming and
scrolling. Kudos Canon. |
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As noted above the orientation sensor
means portrait images are displayed correctly. |
And if they aren't correctly orientated
(you had the orientation sensor switched off or took a shot at 45
degrees) you can always rotate images from an option in the play menu. |
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Dec 3, 2002
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Nov 12, 2002
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Oct 18, 2002
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Nov 12, 2005
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