Canon A480

Auto Mode

The A480 comes set to a full-auto mode out of the box, which locks out the ISO and macro settings, leaving only the ability to turn the flash off or turn the self-timer on. You'll have to switch it to Program mode to get to all of the settings. Beginners will probably be most comfortable in full Auto mode or in one of the Scene modes that cover a variety of scenarios. 

Movie Mode

 The A480 can record movies in AVI format with a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 at 30 fps. There is an LP option available that essentially doubles recording time at this resolution and frame rate, presumably through higher image compression. There is also a 320 x 240 resolution setting, also at 30 fps.

Movie mode is easy to use, though getting to the settings is a little different than in still image mode - you must press the Function/Set button to bring those up. You can zoom the lens while shooting video, a feature that's often disabled because it causes too much noise in the recording.

Drive/Burst Mode

The A480 has a burst mode to capture multiple sequential shots, and this mode can only be used when the Program mode is selected and not in the Auto mode. In burst mode, the A480 will capture 0.8 frames per second with the resolution and picture size at their highest settings. Note that using the flash slows down the burst mode considerably since it must re-charge between each picture so you'll get better performance in brighter settings where the flash is not needed.

Playback Mode

The playback button allows you to access all captured images and videos in full-screen mode by default, though you can switch to a thumbnail view using the left zoom button. Pressing the right zoom button will magnify the selected image, and you can use the 4-way control to navigate around it, with a small graphic in the bottom right corner to show you where you are in the picture.

Custom Image Presets

The A480 has a variety of scene modes that, in total, indicate the A480 is intended for family use. In addition to the standard Portrait, Night, and Indoor scene modes are ones for Kids & Pets, Fireworks, Beach, Aquarium, Foliage, Snow, Sunset, Long Shutter, as well as a Super Macro one. The Aquarium is a new one for us, but with the low light and heavy blue tones present at most aquariums, it's nice to see that Canon thoughtfully included a scene mode to make it easier to capture images in this setting.

These scene modes are pretty self-explanatory for the most part, with probably the Long Shutter mode as the only one that would prompt someone to look it up. However, descriptions of the scene modes are not included in the 34-page Getting Started guide that comes with the A480, so you'll need to pay a visit to the Internet to get more details.