Record mode display (Auto / Scene modes)

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).

Record mode display (P, Tv, Av, M, C)

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.

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. **
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.
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.
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).
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.
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

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).

Manual Focus

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.

Playback display

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.
 
Press DISPLAY again to switch to the histogram / highlight mode. Here we can see far more exposure information as well as an exposure histogram.  

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.
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.
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.