Canon PowerShot SD780 IS

Manual Controls

The SD780 is strictly a camera for point-and-shooters; users looking for more control over manual controls are likely to be disappointed with the offerings. The camera relies heavily upon scene modes for giving users control over their images. What little is available in the way of manual controls is found primarily in the Function menu: ISO, white balance, and some color settings. There's also an exposure compensation option easily accessed via the four-way directional controller.

The FUNC. SET button provides access to limited manual controls.

Focus

As with the vast majority of digital cameras, pressing the shutter button halfway will activate the autofocus system. The focal range at maximum wide angle is approximately 1.2 inches (3cm) to infinity, while the focal range when using optical zoom is 17.7 inches (45cm) or more. Using digital zoom, the focal length is 33 to 400mm (35mm equivalent).

There is a focus assist lamp that can be enabled to help the camera focus in low lighting conditions. This lamp doubles as assistance for red-eye reduction. There are several different ways you can let the autofocus take over. There's Face AiAF, which will use Canon's face detection technology to find faces in the frame and use those as the focal points, and Center, which will simply focus on whatever is in the center area. (You can adjust the size of your focal center using the menu system.)

If you're using Center, you can take advantage of the AF Lock, which lets you press the shutter halfway to focus on your center point, then push left on the directional pad to lock in that focal length. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's Servo AF, which keeps adjusting focus, even while the shutter is pressed halfway. And in any of these scenarios, the user can take advantage of AF-Point, which lets you zoom in to magnify your subject for focus assistance.

The SD780 also comes equipped with digital tele-converter for helping to increase the focal length by an equivalent of 1.5x or 2.0x. The digital tele-converter, however, will cause image deterioration at the two highest quality settings.  A 1.5x digital tele-converter can be used on the M2, M3, or S settings, while the 2.0x digital tele-converter can only be used at the M3 or S settings without image degradation.

ISO

ISO can be manually selected from one of seven settings: auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600. Pressing halfway on the shutter button during auto mode will display the ISO that has been automatically selected by the camera. Certain scene modes will automatically boost ISO. There is also a scene mode available in Special Conditions that allows you to shoot at ISO 3200. This setting also automatically adjusts image size to the M3 option (1600 x 1200 pixels).

White Balance

You can perform a manual white balance, allow the camera to set white balance automatically, or choose one of five white balance presets: Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Fluorescent H. (Fluorescent H is designed for daylight fluorescent or daylight-type fluorescent lighting.)

Metering

Metering can be adjusted to either evaluative (whole screen), center weighted average (to meter the whole screen but prioritize exposure in the center of the frame), or spot metering (to disregard the edges and meter only on the center). Pressing up on the four-way directional controller during shooting mode allows you to set an exposure compensation to one of 13 increments between -2 and +2.

There is also an AE Lock, which lets you press the shutter halfway, then push up on the control pad in order to lock in a specific exposure setting. This is helpful when you're letting the camera adjust exposure automatically, but want to have some control over the choices being made. There is an FE Lock, which accomplishes the same thing when you have the flash activated.

Another feature, called iContrast, automatically compensates dynamic range for faces/subjects that appear dark in certain shooting conditions.

Like nearly every point-and-shoot camera these days, Canon has thrown in its face detection technology. On the SD780, face detection will pick out up to nine faces when the shutter button is engaged halfway. Detected faces will be prioritized for focus and exposure. Face detection is automatically disabled if you turn off the display and rely on the viewfinder for shooting photos.

Shutter Speed

The Canon SD780 does not offer manual control over shutter speed, instead letting the automatic controls take over. The automatic shutter speed range is 1 - 1/1500 seconds.

In addition to the range of shutter speeds you would use in ordinary shooting conditions, you can also set the shutter speed to 1-15 seconds in order to record long exposures. This is obviously more effective when the camera is placed on a tripod.

Aperture

The SD780 does not allow direct control over aperture. The aperture range is f/3.2 - f/5.8.

Image Stabilization

The Canon SD780 has image stabilization, which allows the camera to make adjustments for natural hand shaking while shooting both still photos and video. You can set the stabilization to Continuous (always on), Shoot Only (only active in the moment of shooting), and Panning, which will disregard horizontal shifting, but adjust for horizontal shake.

Picture Quality & Size Options

Photographs may be captured in one of two qualities: fine and normal. There are also six different size options: L (4000 x 3000), M1 (3264 x 2448), M2 (2592 x 1944), M3 (1600 x 1200), S (640 x 480), and W (4000 x 2248).

Picture Effects

The Canon SD780 has a number of digital effects that range from useful, fine-tuned control over image details to novelty effects that are just as easily accomplished in Photoshop (or avoided altogether). Options include: Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, and Vivid Red. There is also a Custom Color option that allows the user to tweak contrast, sharpness, color saturation, red, green, blue, and skin tones independently from one of five different levels. These color options can also be added in post-production during Playback mode.

Canon also includes a couple of color controls that go beyond the ordinary scene modes and digital effects. There is a Color Accent feature, that lets you pick a single color and change everything else to black and white. And there is a color swap feature that lets you exchange two color values being recorded.

An extra little perk included in the SD780 is stitch assist, which lets you take a series of up to 26 photos that can be easily stitched together in post-production to create a wide panorama.