Canon Powershot SD850 IS Review



Record Modes & Menus
The screen display in the Automatic record mode. Icons across the top and left indicate
that metering is Evaluative, single frame drive, auto flash, and Auto exposure mode. The
image size is Large, quality is Fine and there's space left on the SD card to take 218 more
pictures. The "wavy hand" symbol indicates the IS system is active.
When the color LCD is turned on and you half-press the shutter you will see which of the
nine AF points (green rectangles) were used for the focus lock. The selected ISO, aperture
and shutter speed values are also shown.
Manual exposure mode is like Auto in that the camera selects both the shutter speed
and aperture for a correct exposure but you now have access to a multitude of
Function and Menu options.
Manual mode Function options:
Exposure Compensation - Override the metering +/- 2.0EV in 1/3 steps White Balance - Auto, day Light, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Custom one-push WB set My Colors - Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, B&W, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, or Custom Color Metering - Evaluative, Center Weighted Avg., Spot Image Compression - Superfine, Fine, Normal Image Resolution - 3264x2448, 2592x1944, 2048x1536, 1600x1200, 640x480, and Widescreen (3264x1832)
Manual mode MENU options:
Digital Zoom - Standard, Off, 1.6x, or 2.0x Slow Synchro - On/Off Red-Eye - On/Off Self-timer - Custom set Auto ISO Shift - On or Off AF Assist Beam - On or Off Review Time - Off, Hold or 2 - 10 secs Auto Category - On/Off Display Overlay - Enable or disable Grid lines, 3:2 Guide, Off or Both IS Mode - Continuous, Shoot only, Panning or Off Date Stamp - Off, date, or date&time (only works in 3:2 Postcard mode) Set Print/Share Button - Choose the task of the print/share button in record mode (Exposure comp., White balance, Rec. movie, etc.)
To set long shutter speeds, enter the Function menu, highlight exposure compensation then
press the Menu button. The shutter speed is displayed at the bottom of the LCD; select a
value from 1 to 15 seconds using the left and right buttons of the 4-way controller. Depress
the FUNC./SET button to return to shooting mode. The LCD viewfinder's live image provides a
preview of the exposure; adjust the shutter speed for the exposure you want. Noise Reduction
is applied for exposures of 1.3 seconds or longer.
The camera has a very respectable macro focusing mode with coverage from 0.79 in.-1.6
ft./2-50cm at wide angle and 1.3-1.6 ft./40-50cm at telephoto.
Scene modes are selected via the Function Menu when the mode dial is set to the SCN
position. You can choose from 11 different modes (Portrait, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks,
Aquarium, Underwater, Indoor, Kids & Pets, Night Snapshot, Creative Light Effect), like
Portrait shown above. These are pre-programmed to give you the best possible pictures for a
wide variety of different shooting situations. In all Scene modes, Exposure compensation,
Image compression and Image size settings are available via the Function menu.
The Stitch Assist Panorama mode is available from the Function menu with the Mode dial in
Manual. It aids you via on-screen prompts to achieve the proper overlap of sequential photos
for later "stitching" with the PhotoStitch program. You can capture up to 26 images in either
left-to-right or right-to-left orientation. After the first picture is taken the white
balance and exposure is locked until you exit the StitchAssist mode. The use of a
tripod and a bubble level is recommended. Since the SD850 IS will not output video in this mode,
this screen capture was taken from the PowerShot S400
review.
You can record movie clips with audio at a variety of resolutions and frame rates. Standard movies can be recorded at resolutions of 640x480 or 320x240 with frame rates of 30 or 15 fps. Compact movies are recorded at a resolution of 160x120 with a frame rate of 15 fps. Color Accent and Color Swap allow you to record creative video clips. Movies are captured 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:
White Balance - Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Custom one-push WB set My Colors - Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, B&W, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, or Custom Color Frame Rate: 30 or 15 fps Movie Size: 640x480 or 320x240
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