Canon PowerShot S60: Follow-up to the S50

The Design: Canon PowerShot S60

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On the front of the S60 is the 3.6x optical zoom lens which is equivalent to 28 – 100mm on a 35mm camera. The lens has an aperture range of f2.8 – 8.0 and a shutter speed range of 15 – 1/2000 th sec. The camera powers on along with the extension of the lens when the door is slid to the side. Besides extending the lens, sliding the door also uncovers the viewfinder window, the Self-timer/AF-assist/Red-eye reduction lamp, and the built-in flash. The flash has a working range of 1.8 – 14 ft. in wide angle and 1.8 – 6.6 ft. in telephoto. This range is a little bit smaller than what the S50 offered, especially at the telephoto end. Just below the flash is the microphone and a Remote Sensor for the optional remote control.

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The back of the camera features a 1.8” LCD monitor with 118,000 pixels. In regards to functionality, the largest improvement over the S50 is the abandonment of the old 4-way selector button. The S60 has a 4-way arrow pad with an independent “Set” button in the middle making navigation much easier. Below the arrow pad are the Display and Menu buttons and above are the Play and Print/Share buttons. Just to the lower left of the Play button is the power/mode indicator lamp. At the top right is the zoom controller. We were able to count 8 levels of optical zoom. Above the LCD monitor are the Flash and Macro buttons and the optical viewfinder. Just to the left of the viewfinder are 2 lamps: one indicating compact flash activity and the other indicating focus status. To the left of the LCD monitor are 3 more buttons: Function, MF/Delete, and Metering/Microphone. The last two are dual-function buttons. Pressing the MF/Delete button will activate Manual Focus in record mode and Delete in play mode. Similarly, pressing the Metering/Microphone button will select metering in record mode and record a voice memo in play mode.

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The top of the S60 is fairly straightforward. There is a speaker for playing back audio in movie clips and voice memos. To the right is the Shooting Mode dial and the Shutter button.

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There is a metal tripod mount on the bottom of the camera as well as a sliding door that reveals the battery and CF compartment. The S60 comes with a rechargeable NB-2LH Lithium-ion (7.4V 720mAh). The camera is also packaged with a 32MB CompactFlash card. The S60 can use either Type I or II cards.

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On the right side is a wrist strap post. Also visible is the opening in the battery compartment for the optional DC coupler cable.

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On the left side of the camera are an A/V out and USB port. They are protected by a rubber tab that snaps in place.