The SD20's interface is simple,
efficient, and very responsive. While shooting, the camera displays
the current camera settings near the edges of monitor's image.
White characters and icons are used, superimposed on a semi-transparent
background that allows the image to show through but which leaves
the superimposed information very legible.
The menus are clear as well, each section easily identified by a colour.
Options are labelled by an icon and include a descriptive text at the top
of the screen when the each is highlighted in turn.
The Setup section serves to set the basic configuration of the camera
and is common to both the recording and playback modes:
Mute: On or Off, turns off all sounds.
Volume serves to adjust the volume for camera sounds
over 5 steps or turn them Off for:
Start-up sound,
Operation sound,
Self-timer sound,
Shutter sound, and
Playback Volume.
Info Display serves to select the level of information
displayed for:
Shooting Info: On or Off.
Review Info: On or Off.
Replay Info: Detailed (includes a histogram, Standard
or Off).
LCD Brightness: allows adjusting the brightness
of the LCD monitor over 14 steps.
Power Saving: Decides if the camera will automatically
power down (On or Off), and the delay before the LCD monitor
turns off after a period of inactivity (10, 20, or 30 seconds,
or 1, 2, or 3 minutes).
Date and Time: to set the time and date on the SD20.
Clock Display: sets the on-screen time for the clock
display which is shown when the FUNC./SET button is
pressed for a couple of seconds (from 0 seconds to 3 minutes).
Format: to format the SD memory card.
File No. Reset: On or Off. Determines whether or
not images are numbered consecutively at all times (Off),
or restart from 1 whenever the card is formatted, or a new
card is used.
Auto Rotate: On or Off. Decides whether or not the
camera will keep track of the orientation of images and automatically
present them rotated in playback.
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. Worth noting,
although the language selection option can be accessed in
the SETUP menu when the camera is in Playback mode, a shortcut
to the Language selection screen is also available by holding
the FUNC. SET button and pressing the MENU button.
Video System: decides the video output signal, NTSC
or PAL.
A small printed manual is enclosed with the SD20, and so is a
manual about printing directly from the camera to a Direct Print
compatible printer. The camera operation manual is easy to follow
and explains every feature and function of the SD20 quite clearly.
Software
In North America, two discs are included with the
PowerShot SD20. One is Canon's Digital Camera Solution Disk (version
21.0) which contains:
ZoomBrowser EX 5.0 (for Windows)
ImageBrowser 5.0 (for Macintosh)
PhotoStitch 3.1 (for Windows and Macintosh)
PhotoRecord 2.1 (Windows only)
all the drivers for older Operating Systems, and Apple QuickTime to
view movies captured with the SD20.
ZoomBrowser is a multi-purpose
program that has had time to mature and develop into an easy
to use and reliable tool for organizing, printing, exporting
(including exporting shooting properties), e-mailing images,
and even controlling the camera remotely.
Photos are displayed as scalable thumbnails, and the contents of folders
are presented so that tiny thumbnails of the photos they contain are shown
too, making it very easy to locate a particular photo or subject.
Shooting data is also easily seen, and depending on the view
mode in use (Zoom mode, Scroll mode, or Preview mode) can be
shown in a separate window or alongside the image. ZoomBrowser's
editing functions make it possible to adjust brightness, saturation
and contrast of images, or their RGB colour balance. The main
editing window can show the image being worked on at a variety
of sizes, and a Navigator window is provided to move around
easily on the image.
ZoomBrowser can also be used to start PhotoStitch, although it is
a stand alone program. PhotoStitch is designed to assemble sequences of
photos that were captured to create a panoramic image.
The second CD offers ArcSoft Camera Suite 1.3 which contains two
programs, and both are compatible with either Windows or Macintosh systems.
PhotoImpression5 is automatically linked to ZoomBrowser during
its installation, so that it can be accessed as an alternative image editor.
PhotoImpression provides generally
rudimentary editing functions, but still offers a lasso tool
which makes it possible to apply modifications to selected portions
of an image. Moreover, the program offers tools to add frames,
or text to photos, or print them in a calendar format.
VideoImpression 2, the second program in the suite, serves to edit
video clips recorded with the SD20. Clips can be combined, still images
can be blended into video clips, sound, including music, can be added,
and the the creation can be recorded to VCD or DVD.
Compare Prices for Canon PowerShot SD20 Camera Battery
Interface & Software
