Canon Powershot S200 Review

Record Mode Screens & Menus

The screen display in the Automatic record mode. Across the top is the camera icon that indicates Auto mode. The exposure compensation is fixed at +/-0, white balance is locked to auto (AWB), the image size is currently Large and quality is Superfine. Across the bottom is the flash mode, drive mode, focus mode and metering mode icons.

The three rectangles in the center are the auto focus points, the active ones turn green when the shutter is half-pressed. The AiAF will use one, two or all three of them when focusing.

The menu options while in Auto:

Image Resolution 1600x1200, 1024x768 or 640x480
Image Compression Superfine, Fine, Normal
Digital Zoom On or Off
Selftimer 2 sec or 10 sec
Review Time Off, 2 or 10 secs
AF Assist Illuminator On or Off
File Number Reset on, off
Auto Rotate Enable or disable the orientation sensor

In Manual record mode the icons looks similar to Auto mode but here you can now adjust the exposure compensation +/-2EV, change the white balance or use a Photo Effect mode. The ISO is settable (Auto, 50, 100, 200, 400). On the bottom you have access to all flash modes and drive modes (single, continuous, selftimer). And you can select Spot metering, disable AiAF or select a slow shutter speed.

The menu options while in Manual:

Image Resolution 1600x1200, 1024x768 or 640x480
Image Compression Superfine, Fine, Normal
ISO Sensitivity Auto, 50, 100, 200, 400
AiAF 3-point automatic AF point selection On or Off
Digital Zoom On or Off
Selftimer 2 sec or 10 sec
Review Time Off, 2 or 10 secs
AF Assist Illuminator On or Off
File Number Reset on, off
Auto Rotate Enable or disable the orientation sensor
Long Shutter On or Off

Pressing the Exposure Compensation / White Balance / Color Effect button cycles between the next three frames:

The exposure compensation screen is only available in Manual record mode. You can vary the EV by +/-2 in 1/3-step increments. Pressing the "right" arrow puts you into shutter speed mode where you can select from 1 to 15 second slow shutter speeds.

White balance options are automatic (AWB), daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, fluorescent H, and Custom.

The Photo Effect options are: Off, Vivid (high saturation), Neutral, Low Sharpening (soft focus), Sepia or B&W.

The StitchAssist mode aids you with on-screen prompts to help you capture the best possible sequence of photos for later "stitching" with the supplied PhotoStitch software. You can capture up to 26 images in either left-to-right or right-to-left orientation.

The S200 can record movie clips with audio at 20 frames per second in any of three resolution modes (maximum recording length shown is regardless of the size of the CF card): 640x480 (4 secs), 320x240 (10 secs) or 160x120 (30 secs). Movie clips are recorded as QuickTime AVI files.

Full audio-video playback is also possible when connected to a TV monitor or a compatible PC after downloading.