Canon Powershot SD960 IS Review

The screen display in the Automatic record mode. Icons on screen indicate the exposure mode being used (AUTO), Flash is set to Auto, the battery level is full, orientation is horizontal (small camera icon at the top left), we are using Large Fine image quality, and there's enough space left on the SD card to take 1231 more pictures.

When you half-press the shutter you will see which of the nine AF points (green rectangles) were used for the focus lock. The aperture, shutter speed and ISO values are also shown along the bottom. The orange glow is from the AF-assist lamp.

Program 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 more advanced Function and Menu options; like metering, ISO, White balance, etc.

Program mode Function options:

Metering - Evaluative, Center Weighted Averaging, Spot
My Colors - Off, Vivid color, Neutral color, Sepia, B&W, Custom (Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation)
White Balance - Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Flash or Custom
ISO - Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, or 1600
Exposure mode - Choose Program or one of the 17 scene modes
Exposure Compensation - +/- 2.0 in 1/3EV steps
Drive mode - Single or Continuous
Image Size - L (4000x3000), M1 (3264x2448), M2 (2592x1944), M3 (1600x1200), S (640x480) and Wide (4000x2248)
Image Quality - Fine or Normal JPEG compression

Program mode MENU options:

AF Frame - Face AiAF or Center
AF Frame Size - Small or Normal (Center Frame mode only)
Servo AF - On or Off
Digital Zoom - Off, Standard, 1.5x, 2.0x
AF-Point Zoom - On or Off
AF Assist Beam - On or Off
Flash Settings - Red-Eye Correction and Red-Eye Lamp On or Off
i-Contrast - Off or Auto
Review - Off, Hold or 2 - 10 secs
Review Info - Off, Detailed, Focus Check
Blink Detection - On or Off
Display Overlay - Enable or disable Grid lines, 3:2 Guide, Off or Both
IS Mode - Continuous, Shoot Only, Panning, Off
Date Stamp - Off, Date or Date & Time

The Scene Modes are accessed via the Function menu. You can choose from: Portrait, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Fireworks, Aquarium, Underwater, ISO 3200, Indoor, Kids & Pets, Night Snapshot, Color Accent, Color Swap, Digital Macro, Long Shutter, and Stitch Assist.

You can record movie clips with audio at a variety of resolutions. The SD960 offers Standard Definition movies at resolutions of 640x480 or 320x240 as well as a High Definition mode at 1280x720. The frame rate for all three modes is 30fps. For those of you who are a bit more creative, there are also options for Color accent and Color swap. The optical zoom may not be used during recording, but can be preset before hand. These clips are captured in QuickTime format and saved as .MOV 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. The SD960 is one of several models we have seen from Canon that now offers HD video output via a HDMI port.

Movie Func. Menu:

My Colors - Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, B&W, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Custom Color
White Balance - Auto, Day Light, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Custom Mode - Standard, Color Accent, Color Swap
Resolution - 1280x720, 640x480, 320x240

Movie Record Menu:

Digital Zoom - Off or Standard
AF Assist Beam - On or Off
Display Overlay - Off, Grid Lines
IS Mode - Continuous, Off

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