Canon PowerShot SD960 IS

Auto Mode

Still photos can be taken in either auto or manual mode. In full auto mode, the user is prevented from making any adjustments at all: the entire quick menu is locked out except for changing the capture size. Even the scene modes are inaccessible while in easy mode, which seems a peculiar feature to hide from the easy mode user.

When you're shooting in Manual mode, you can select a Scene Mode, which will automatically tailor your photos to whatever specific shooting conditions you select. This will lock you out of making manual image adjustments, as the camera is attempting to do this for you based on the selected Scene Mode. (See Custom Image Presets, below.)

Movie Mode

The Canon SD960 records video at a 30 frames per second frame rate in one of three possible qualities: high definition 1280 x 720 and standard definition 640 x 480 or 320 x 240.

Unfortunately, most of the manual controls available for still photography are inaccessible in movie mode. You can't use the optical zoom and options for ISO, exposure compensation, and most of the custom image presets are unavailable. You can alter white balance or choose between regular movie mode, color accent, and color swap. (See Picture Effects.)

To enable automatic focus for capturing videos, you push the shutter halfway down. Once you've engaged the shutter button fully, video will begin recording. Brightness and tone will adjust automatically while recording, but focus will remain at the same level. There is also a small amount of on-board video editing available, including the ability to trim the beginning and end of videos in one-second increments.
 

Drive/Burst Mode

The SD960 has continuous shot, which will allow you to take approximately 0.8 images per second as long as the shutter button is engaged. Most cameras offer a bit more in the way of a Drive or Burst mode.

As with most digital cameras, you also have a self-timer, which is one of the four functions easily accessed on the clickable scroll wheel. You can customize the self-timer for 0-30 seconds and 1-10 shots. There is also a face detection self-timer, which will automatically take a picture when a new face enters the frame.
 

Playback Mode

Playback mode is accessed via the large button above the camera's scroll wheel. The Canon SD960 employs the scroll wheel to make sifting through images quick and easy. Pushing the playback button will bring up the most recently captured image, while the scroll wheel will cycle through images, displaying a nice animation that borrows a page from the iTunes Cover Flow (see image, below).

By pressing the Display button during playback, you can cycle between the isolated image, a simple information display and detailed photo data. In any display type, the zoom lever will allow you to zoom in on a portion of the image during playback (up to 10x magnification). Simple rotating, resizing, and cropping options are also available, as well as auto-rotation. Playback mode also allows you to use iContrast and red-eye removal in post-production.

While in Playback mode, pressing the Function button in the middle of the scroll wheel will bring up a quick menu of what Canon has deemed to be the most commonly used options: Rotate, Print, Protect, Trash, Slideshow, Category, Filtered Playback. You can filter your playback images by date, category, folder, or type (still or video).

As with most digital cameras, there is also an instant playback, or clip review, immediately after a photo is taken. You can increase the length of time for review and the amount of information displayed with the review.

The SD960 also features Canon's new Active Display technology, which lets you quickly switch between images during playback with a shake of the camera. We're not sure why you would want to do this, given the excellent and responsive scroll wheel, but if you're a fan of superfluous tech, then look no further.

The playback display and the playback menu on the Canon SD960

Custom Image Presets

Judging on menu layout, it seems that Canon expects users to rely largely on the camera's built-in scene modes to make automatic image adjustments for them, rather than delving into the manual controls that let you make finer adjustments while shooting. The primary scene modes available are: Portrait, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pets, and Indoor. There is a fifth setting, called Special Conditions, that allows you to select more specialized environments: Sunset, Fireworks, Long Shutter, Beach, Underwater, Aquarium, Foliage, and Snow. There's an eighth Special Condition called ISO 3200, which boosts the ISO beyond what is normally available. (See ISO.) A handful of other Record Modes are described more fully under Picture Effects (below).

When any of these modes are selected, ISO, white balance, and other manual controls are disabled.