Canon PowerShot S60: Follow-up to the S50

Playback Features

To enter playback mode there are two options. If the camera is powered off, you can hold down the Play button for a second to enter playback mode without extending the lens. If the camera is already powered up and in record mode, you can simply press the Play button to switch over to the playback screen. Either way, the same options are available. By default, the playback screen shows the picture as a full-screen display with no information. By pressing the Display button once, the following information will be added to the screen: filename, image number out of total images recorded, resolution size and quality, and the date/time. Pressing the Display button again shrinks the image to about 1/4th of the screen and adds the following information: record mode, shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation value, white balance, metering, and a histogram. We should point out that any overexposed areas in the picture will flash continuously. This is a nice feature that provides immediate feedback of overexposure problems. Pressing the Display button again will clear the screen of all information and return the picture to its original full-screen status.

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An image viewed in playback mode can be magnified by using the zoom control (W/T). The image can be viewed in 10 different levels of magnification. While magnified, you can navigate to different portions of the image using the arrow pad. We found zooming in and out and scrolling across the images to be fast and responsive. When an unmagnified image is being viewed a 9-thumbnail image display can be reached by pressing either the zoom-out control or the Flash/Thumbnail button. While in the thumbnail display, pressing either the zoom-out control again or pressing the Macro/JUMP button will enable JUMP mode. While in JUMP mode, pressing the left or right arrow buttons will jump behind or ahead 10 images. This makes finding a picture easy even when there are several to look through.

To delete a picture, you can simply press the MF/Delete button and a dialog will prompt you “Erase” with the options “Erase” and “Cancel”. In playback mode, you have the option to record a sound memo with the same filename number as the picture you are viewing at the time. The sound clips can be recorded up to 60 sec.

The menu options in playback mode are listed below:

The protect option allows you to mark specific files as “protected” so that you will not be able to accidentally delete them. The rotate feature allows you to select individual images to be rotated in-camera. The Erase All function simply confirms that you wish to “Erase all images?” and deletes everything on the flash card (except for protected images). The Slide Show option allows you to use either all images or to choose specific images. You can customize 3 separate groups to choose between. Other options include Play Time with settings Manual (manual advance), 3 – 10, 15, and 30 sec. There is also a Repeat option that can loop the slide show. The Print Order feature refers to DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) and allows you to specify specific images to print on a DPOF-compatible printer. You can choose to print Standard, Index, or Both with options to include the date and/or file number. With the Transfer Order option, you can specify which images you would the camera to transfer automatically when it is connected to your computer.

Edit movie feature

When playing back movie clips in the camera, you have the option to edit the start and stop points. After specifying the new points, you can play the new edit and save the modified clip either as a new file or in place of the old clip. During playback, volume can be adjusted by using the up and down arrow pads. On a side note, we are happy to see that the S60 switches back to record mode whenever the shutter is half-pressed (even while editing a movie). This means the camera is always ready to shoot the next picture.