The Canon Powershot G6's interface
is very legible and well organized, using the updated design
of the recently reviewed S60, which features an animated transition
between each section of the menus. As with some other Canon digital
cameras, the most frequently used functions are accessed via
the FUNC. menu, with the exception of white balance and exposure
compensation, which are available with the up and down arrows
of the Omni Selector.
The Setup menu is available through a tab that appears in all menus:
Mute: On or Off. Controls all sounds produced by the camera.
Volume: Provides independent adjustment for the volume of
the Start-up sound, the Operation sound, the Self-timer sound, the
Shutter sound, and the Playback volume (five levels plus off).
LCD Brightness: Controls the brightness of the LCD monitor
(Normal or Bright).
Power Saving mode: Offers two options, one to set the power-down
of the camera and another to set the length of time before the LCD
monitor turns off. Each option is set for a period of inactivity of
either 10 sec., 20 sec., 30 sec., 1 min., 2 min. or 3 min.
Date/Time: Sets the date, time and date format
Format: Formats (initializes) the CF card
File No. Reset: Decides whether images are numbered
incrementally, or reset to 1 when new cards are used or an
existing card is formatted.
Auto Rotate: On or Off. Decides whether vertically
shot images are rotated automatically on playback.
Distance Units: Determines the distance units used
during manual focusing (feet or meters).
Video System: Selects the video output signal to
be either NTSC or PAL.
A printed manual comes with the G6. It is well organized and
has detailed information on the functionality of the camera.
The manual also includes a complete list of all the menus along
with a brief description, and includes the page number reference
for more detailed information.
Software
Note: The software offered may vary depending upon the country
of purchase.
The G6 comes with 2 CD-ROMs, one
is Canon'sDigital Camera Solution Disk (version
2.0) and the other ArcSoft’s Camera Suite, which
itself is made up of two programs: PhotoStudio and VideoImpressions — each
with Windows and Mac versions.
ZoomBrowser is an all-in-one
program for collecting, viewing, modifying, and exporting images
or video. Images can be retrieved from the camera; seen directly
on the camera when the G6 is connected to the computer; or retrieved
from a hard drive, or a memory card in a reader. Photos can be
corrected for red-eye, adjusted for brightness, saturation, contrast,
cropped or forwarded for editing to another program. In addition,
images or videos can be exported as backgrounds, or screen-savers,
and can be printed or prepared for e-mail.
With
version 5.0, the ZoomBrowser interface has been entirely re-designed
and is much more useable, although the software’s functionality
has not changed. Photos are displayed on the right side, while
the different tools and functions are available on the left and
at the top of the screen. The details of each image can be displayed
and listed in a new window. One of the interesting interface
improvements has been the addition of a zoom effect when the
mouse cursor passes over an image. The amount of zoom is just
enough to be able to see some more of the detail in the image.
ZoomBrowser also serves as the access to the RAW Image Converter,
a utility to convert RAW images to TIFF or JPEG. TIFF images can be saved
at either 8 or 16 bits, while JPEG can be saved using any one of four levels
of compression. As always, the RAW converter makes it possible to adjust
white-balance settings, saturation, contrast, sharpness, etc.
The utilities supplied with Digital
Camera Solutions also include Remote Capture. This is
an excellent program which serves to completely control the G6
from the computer while it is connected via USB.
PhotoRecord is another application that is called up by ZoomBrowser.
The program serves to organize photos into albums and add frames and page
backgrounds if desired. Additionally, a theme can be applied to all albums
in order to give them a consistent style.
The second CD-ROM contains two
programs: PhotoStudio 5.5 with VideoImpressions 2
for Windows versions greater than Windows98 SE and PhotoStudio
4.3 with VideoImpressions 1.6 for Mac OS 9 and OS X.
PhotoStudio provides additional functionality for image editing
while VideoImpressions is designed to edit video sequences.
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Interface & Software
With
version 5.0, the ZoomBrowser interface has been entirely re-designed
and is much more useable, although the software’s functionality
has not changed. Photos are displayed on the right side, while
the different tools and functions are available on the left and
at the top of the screen. The details of each image can be displayed
and listed in a new window. One of the interesting interface
improvements has been the addition of a zoom effect when the
mouse cursor passes over an image. The amount of zoom is just
enough to be able to see some more of the detail in the image.
