Canon PowerShot SX1 IS

Playback Mode

The available playback displays are adequate, but there’s no calendar view, and only a single 12-image thumbnail view where most cameras offer more variety.

There are two methods for rapidly browsing through your photos; holding down the right or left side of the four-way controller, or spinning the control dial.You can choose to have images automatically categorized as People, Scenery or Events as they’re shot, assuming you use either face detection or scene modes while shooting, or assign shots to your own categories manually. This can be handy during playback when using the Jump feature (accessible via the exposure compensation button), which lets you navigate by category, shot date or folder, skip to movie files, or jump ahead by 10 or 100 images. Categories can also be used in slideshows and for direct printing.

Holding the playback button down will turn the camera on in playback mode, without extending the zoom lens, a handy feature.

Movie playback offers all the options we like to see, including the ability to jump to the beginning or end of a clip, play in slow motion, and advance or rewind frame by frame.

The system for erasing files is unusually flexible, allowing deletion by range, date, category or folder in addition to individual images or all images on the card.

The slideshow capability is fairly sophisticated, with a choice of transition effects and the individual image display times and a lot of freedom in choosing which files will be included, with image date, image category, folder, movies or still images only, groups of individually selected files and DPOF image sets as available selection criteria.

Detailed Info	Thumbnail View

In-Camera Editing (5.50)

Editing capabilities are fairly extensive, with the option to resize to a lower-res file, crop to a smaller image size and/or orientation, rotate, correct red-eye, adjust dynamic range (called i-Contrast here) and apply the same My Colors filters available as color adjustments (with their effects previewed on screen).There is no in-camera editing for RAW files, though.

An audio file of up to a minute in length can also be attached to a file during playback. This is a welcome capability, but it would be significantly more useful if you could record an audio annotation while taking a shot in the first place, to capture information about where and when the image was taken without reaching for a pen and paper.

The beginning or end of a movie can also be trimmed in-camera, particularly useful when there’s a visible hiccup as you press the button to start or stop recording.

Direct Print Options (5.50)

The DPOF function is unusually flexible, providing for index print creation and file selection by range, date, category or folder in addition to the standard options to have date and/or file number printed and single or multiple copies output. DPOF selections can also be used to choose images to be transferred to your computer. The system for PictBridge output via USB to a compatible printer is also nicely designed (understandable, considering printer manufacturer Canon’s vested interest in encouraging you to put ink on paper). There’s a dedicated print button for easy access, and a straightforward on-screen menu for choosing single or multiple images for printing.