Canon Powershot A560 Review

The screen display in Auto record mode. Icons across the top indicate that ISO is set to Auto, Auto flash, single frame drive. Along the left you can see metering is Evaluative, image size is Large, quality is Superfine and there's space left on the SD card to take 1224 more pictures.

When the color LCD is turned on and you half-press the shutter you will see which of the nine AF points (green rectangles) where used for the focus lock. You can also see whether the flash will be used as well as the shutter speed, aperture and ISO values that were selected for by the camera for this shot.

Manual mode is also fully automatic, as the camera selects both the shutter speed and the aperture values. However, now you have access to camera settings, like ISO, Exposure compensation, White balance, My Colors, and Metering.

Manual mode Function options:

Exposure Compensation - ±2EV in 1/3EV steps
White Balance - Auto, Day Light, Cloudy, Tungsten, , Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, and Custom one-push WB set
My Colors - Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black&White, and Custom
Metering - Evaluative, Center Weighted Avg. and Spot
Image Compression - Normal, Fine, Superfine
Image resolution - 3072x2304, 2595x1944, 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 640x480, Postcard (1600x1200), and Widescreen (3072x1728)

MENU options:

AiAF - Face Detect, On, Off
Digital Zoom - Standard, Off, 1.5x, or 1.9x
Slow Synchro - On or Off (Manual mode only, not shown)
Red-eye - Red-eye reduction lamp: On or Off
Self-timer - Choose the interval of the self-timer (2, 10 seconds or custom)
AF Assist Beam - On or Off
Review Time - Off, Hold or 2 - 10 secs
Display Overlay - Off, Grid lines, 3:2: Guide, or Both; helps aid in framing
Date Stamp - Off, date, or date&time (only works in 3:2 Postcard mode)

The camera has a very respectable macro focusing mode with coverage from 2 inches to 1.5 feet in wide angle and 1.1 to 1.5 feet in telephoto.

On the Mode Dial are positions for Portrait, Landscape, Indoor (Shown above), Kids&Pets, and Night Snapshot. Options for the SCN (Special Scene) position are: Night Scene, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, and Aquarium. These modes are pre-programmed to give you the best possible pictures for the chosen shooting situation.

When using the Standard Movie mode, you can capture video clips at either 640x480 or 320x240. Audio is recorded and you may choose a frame rate of either 15 or 30fps. File sizes can not exceed 4GB. There's also Compact (160x120), and Fast Frame rate modes (320x240, 60fps.) These are great when wanting to be a bit more creative and the Compact mode is perfect for sending clips via email. When using the 160x120 mode you can record up to 3 minutes, while fast frame rate can record for a maximum of 1 minute. The optical zoom may not be used during recording, but can be preset before hand. Movie clips are recorded in Motion JPEG format and saved as AVI files.

Both the video and audio portion of movies can be replayed on the camera thanks to the built-in speaker. Full audio-video playback is also possible when connected to a TV monitor or a compatible PC after downloading.

Movie mode recording options:
Rec menu

Digital Zoom - Standard, Off, 1.5x, or 1.9x
Self-timer - Choose the interval of the self-timer (2 or 10 seconds)
AF-assist Beam - On or Off
Display Overlay - Off, Grid lines, 3:2: Guide, or Both; helps aid in framing

Mode - Standard, Fast Frame rate (320x240, 60fps), Compact
White Balance - Auto, Day Light, Cloudy, Tungsten, , Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, and Custom one-push WB set
My Colors - Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black&White and Custom
Frame Rate - Choose 30 of 15fps
Movie Size: 640x480 or 320x240

Movie Recording / SD Card Capacity