Anyone who has used a Canon camera
in the last few years will feel immediately comfortable with
the A510's interface, as Canon has used the same design in
almost all its digital cameras, from SLR to the smallest compact.
In use, camera settings are distributed mostly on the left
side and at the top of the screen, each icon appearing on
semi-transparent black background that allows it to remain
visible, irrespective of the underlying image.
With the exception of the Function menu, which can
be left on screen while shots are captured, the other menus
of the A510 are presented on a neutral background, and not
superimposed on an image, be it coming from the CCD, or simply
a playback image, enhancing legibility when the camera is
used outdoors.
As explained in the Characteristics section
of the review, the Recording and Playback menus of the A510
also serve to access the basic configuration options contained
in the Setup menu:
Mute (On or Off) turns off all sounds produced
by the A510. Additionally, holding the Menu button while
powering on the camera activates the Mute option.
Volume allows setting the volume over 5 steps or
Off for:
Start-up sound,
Operation sound,
Self-timer sound,
Shutter sound,
Playback Volume.
Power Saving decides the delay until the camera
automatically shuts down (On or Off), and the delay until
the LCD monitor turns off after a period of inactivity (10,
20, 30 sec or 1, 2, 3 min).
Date and Time to set the time and date on the A510.
Format: to format the memory card. (Formatting
the memory card will erase all images, including those that
have been protected.
File Number Reset (On or Off) decides whether or
not images are numbered consecutively at all times (Off),
or restart from 1 whenever the card is emptied, formatted,
or a new SD or MMC card is used.
Auto Rotation (On or Off) decides whether or not
the camera will keep track of the orientation of images
and automatically present them rotated in playback.
Distance Units serves to select whether metric
or imperial measurements are used when the manual focus
mode is used.
Language decides the interface language (English,
German, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian,
Swedish, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Portuguese,
Greek, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Traditional Chinese,
Korean, or Japanese).
Video System selects the video output signal, NTSC
or PAL.
In Canada Canon provides a printed manual — one in English
and one in French — which are common to both PowerShot
A510 and A520. The manual is well-designed, with each part of
the camera graphically identified at the beginning of the manual,
and referenced with the page numbers that explain the function
of the control. Similarly, all menus are itemized and each of
their options spelled out and referenced with a page number.
Software
In North America, Canon bundles a single CD titled Digital
Camera Solution Disk (version 22.0) with the PowerShot
A510. For Microsoft Windows-based computers, the disc contains
ZoomBrowser EX 5.0, PhotoRecord 2.2, Photo
Stitch 3.1, Twain and WIA drivers, and ArcSoft PhotoStudio
5.5. For Macintosh computers, the CD provides ImageBrowser
5.0, PhotoStitch 3.1, and ArcSoft PhotoStudio
4.3. QuickTime, for both Windows and Macintosh is also
provided to view video clips captured with the camera.
ZoomBrowser is primarily
an image browser, and serves as the gateway to the other utilities
Canon includes as part of ZoomBrowser, and to PhotoRecord
which is to create albums.
In ZoomBrowser images can be seen in a variety of ways:
Zoom mode, Scroll mode and Preview mode (screen capture at
left) which shows the photos in the folder in a strip below
the currently selected image, and includes the shooting data
on the right, while other folders on the drive are shown on
the left.
ZoomBrowser also offers basic
image editing functions. Photos can be adjusted for brightness,
saturation and contrast, and colour can be adjusted using
sliders for red, green and blue.
As noted earlier, ZoomBrowser can access other programs such
as PhotoStitch, the program that assembles photos captured
with the Stitch Assist mode into panoramas, or, for instance,
any other photo editing program residing on the computer.
With the A510 in playback mode and connected to the computer
using the USB cable, not only can ZoomBrowser be used to download
images from the camera, it can also be used to upload new
themes to be used with the My Camera menu, or do Remote shooting.
When selected, the Remote Capture Task window turns on the
camera and provides a preview window. All camera parameters
are accessible, including all the basic shooting modes, aperture
and shutter speed settings, white balance, exposure compensation,
zoom setting, macro mode, focus method, flash modes, etc.
The other program included on the
CD is PhotoStudio, a comprehensive photo editing program
that offers precise tools that are not unlike those found in
programs such as Photoshop. Sections of images can be selected
precisely using a lasso tool, and layers can be used.
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Interface & Software
