Canon PowerShot SD780 IS

Shooting Modes (10.50)

The Canon SD780 has a completely automatic mode, a program mode (that offers the most control) and then a bevy of scene modes. Most of the scene modes are pretty common, but there are a few that stand out. ISO 3200 lowers the resolution to 2 megapixels, but bumps up the light sensitivity; long exposures mode lets you set the shutter speed from 1-15 seconds; color accent removes all color from an image, except one you specify; color swap switches two colors; and stitch assist overlays images to help with panoramas, but still requires a computer to join them.

There is no option to manually control aperture, and the only shutter speed controls are in the aforementioned long exposure mode.

Auto Mode Features

The focus mode can be set to center or face detect. When centered, the size of the focus area can also be set to either normal or small. The focus area can also be set to magnify, which blows up the focal area to help check focus sharpness while shooting. With face detection, a blink detection mode can be enabled, which gives you a little frowny face if you take a photo when someone’s eyes are closed. There is no manual focus mode.

In general, the focus system felt snappy, and quick of the mark, even in low light. The autofocus assist lamp did an admirable job of helping correctly focus in less than ideal conditions.

Exposure compensation runs ±2 EV in 1/3 stop steps. There is no exposure bracketing. The SD780 has a dynamic range boosting tool, called i-Exposure, that can be used either while photographing, or else applied to a saved image. This will help bring detail out of under-exposed areas, but will add more image noise to the picture.

The metering modes are the usual suspects: evaluative, center-weighted and spot.

The maximum aperture is just f/3.2; we would hope for something a little faster out of a 3x zoom. However, its minimum aperture is impressively small, and will give you a very large depth of field. At wide angle, the aperture range runs from f/3.2-f/9, and at maximum zoom it’s f/5.8-f/16.

The shutter speed doesn’t get quite as fast as we would like, maxing out at 1/1500 seconds, but for long exposure it’s very good, given this is a simple point-and-shoot. Though you can’t manually adjust shutter speed during normal shooting, the Long Shutter mode does let you set exposures of up to 15 seconds.

Picture Effects (4.00)

The camera has a few picture effects that can alter the way your images look while shooting. Many of these are color modes that also tweak other facets of the shot.

It also has a custom color tool, for making your own color mode. From this you can adjust contrast, sharpness, saturation, red, green, blue and skin tone levels, all along a five point scale.

Picture Samples
Black and White Sepia Color Swap Color Accent Vivid Neutral Lighter Skin Darker Skin Positive More...

Manual Controls (6.85)

The presets for white balance are sun, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent and fluorescent H (for daylight fluorescent), but no shade option. It has an auto white balance mode, and manual as well. With a camera that is this streamlined and reduced in controls, it’s good to see the option of manual white balance included.

Drive/Burst Mode (5.50)

There are only two drive modes: single shot and continuous.

Shot to Shot (0.78)

The SD780 isn’t exactly what one would call fast on the draw. It managed only 0.8 frames per second, at highest resolution, which is in keeping with the speed stated by Canon in the manual. The first two shots come out a fair bit quicker, but then it slows down significantly.