Canon PowerShot SD960 IS

Viewfinder

There is no viewfinder on the Canon PowerShot SD960. Honestly, it's probably just as well. The viewfinders on Canon's other 2009 PowerShots (like the Canon Powershot SD780) are so minuscule that they're uncomfortable and impractical to use. You'll just have to rely on the LCD for lining up your shots.

LCD

Most of your time with the SD960 will be spent with the beautiful 2.8-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD. This is a good size for an LCD, especially on so small a camera. And with no viewfinder for lining up images, the quality of the LCD is very important. A couple of Canon's PowerShot cameras offer a full 3.0-inch LCD, but you have to sacrifice some compactness for the larger screen size.

The 2.8-inch LCD lets you preview your photos and interface with the camera menus.

Within the Settings menu, you can adjust screen brightness to one of five increments, with the default setting in the center. As always, take care when brightening or darkening your screen, as that can skew your sense of how the final photo will look.

Flash

The built-in flash has a range of 1 ft. - 13 ft. when at maximum wide angle and 1 ft. - 6.6 ft. when using the optical zoom. The flash can be set to auto, on, off, red-eye reduction, and red-eye correction. (You can do this from within the main menu or by clicking right on the scroll wheel.)

There are also a couple of extra features that are designed to improve flash performance: FE lock and Slow Synchro. FE lock allows you to press the shutter halfway, then lock in the exposure for shooting with the flash. Slow Synchro sets the camera to combine flash with a slow shutter speed — the goal being to light your subject as well as background objects that are beyond the range of the flash.

The small flash can help you out in dim light, especially when used with special settings like Slow Synchro.

Lens

The Canon PowerShot SD960 isn't as compact as some of Canon's other ELPH models, but at just 0.87 inches deep, there isn't a lot of room to pack in lens elements. As a result, you'll find just a 4x optical zoom, with a focal length of 5.0-20.0mm (35mm equivalent: 28-112mm). The aperture range is f/2.8 - f/5.8. There's also an optical image stabilizer packed into this slim little body. The lens automatically extends when the camera is powered on and retracts (with an automatic lens cap) when the camera powers down.

The lens extends and retracts automatically.

The tiny zoom lever isn't much to write home about, but it gets the job done.

Zoom is controlled with a small pivoting lever that surrounds the shutter button. You won't have much luck getting any fine control over the zoom speed with such a small toggle, but there isn't much need for fine control with such a small zoom ratio. The Canon SD960 is equipped with a 4x optical zoom and up to 16x digital zoom. As always, the camera's digital zoom deteriorates image quality, so we suggest you stick to the optical zoom whenever possible. If you're not shooting in the highest quality setting, you can use a little bit of digital zoom without negatively impacting the image.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

Both of the SD960's ports are in a single location on the right side of the camera. The cavity is concealed by a sturdy cover, which is attached to the camera body by a surprisingly rugged rubber tether. The cover closes snugly to keep out dirt, dust, and a couple stray raindrops. (Naturally, you can't drop the camera in a swimming pool or sand dune and expect it to escape all damage. If you plan on exposing the camera to lots of water, the SD960 is compatible with Canon's waterproof case.)

Included in the cavity is a universal mini-HDMI terminal as well as a proprietary jack that does double-duty, serving the AV and USB connection. Standard RCA cables and standard mini-USB cables will work with the SD960.

The mini-HDMI output and proprietary AV/USB port

Battery

The Canon SD960 comes equipped with a small, rechargeable lithium-ion battery (NB-4L). It shares a compartment with the SD/SDHC card, which maximizes real estate usage on the camera, but can also make card removal a challenge for anyone with long nails. The SD960 comes with a charging station; just remove the battery and charge it up whenever you're low on juice.

The rechargeable NB-4L lithium-ion battery

We haven't tested the battery ourselves, but Canon predicts you'll be able to shoot about 200 images with the LCD on. Of course, this all depends a lot on how much time you spend setting up shots with the LCD and reviewing photos in playback. You might want to buy a backup battery if you plan on taking the camera out for a long day of shooting.

Memory

The Canon PowerShot SD960 records to SD/SDHC memory cards: a popular and highly compatible memory format. A 2GB SD card will hold approximately 626 shots on the highest quality setting or about 11 minutes of video; an 8GB SD card will hold approximately 2505 shots or 43 minutes of video. The number of remaining shots or the remaining video time is displayed in the lower right corner of the LCD when in the appropriate shooting mode.

The SD/SDHC card slot is tucked away on the bottom.