Canon Powershot SX210 IS | Feature Packed

The Canon Powershot SX210 IS is pretty impressive in terms of features for a compact camera. From the experienced user requirements such as manual mode to the more frivolous and gimmicky features you see in lots of the newer point and shoot cameras of today.

Here’s a quick review of some of them.

Auto and Easy Modes:   Auto is the one I use most often when I’m out and about. It consistently produces quality images with no additional effort on my part.

Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority and Program modes tend to be the domain of the more experienced. You might not use these at first however once your photography knowledge improves you will be glad they are there. Having said that don’t be afraid to experiment as you go along.

Scene modes: As well as all the usual ones like landscape and portrait etc are available and a few extra which are particular to the SX210 IS:
 
Smart Shutter: The camera automatically takes the picture when either a smile is detected, a new face is detected, or 2 seconds after a wink is detected. All of these are customizable and work just as described! Great for self portraits and such. As I’ve said previously, my kids love this feature. The camera shoots automatically after about 15 seconds even if it didn’t detect anything, so no missed shots because it didn’t recognize a face.

Low Light:  Sets ISO higher and the shutter speed faster so you can shoot in poorer light conditions with reduced camera shake and subject blur. Not amazing, but good results. The auto ISO setting will adjust the ISO speed to the shooting mode and shooting conditions. You should increase the ISO speed as the available light decreases.

Color Accent and Colour Swap:  These are neat features which allow you to be particularly creative by changing the look of an image when shooting.  Choose a single colour to highlite and change the  rest to black and white. Using the flash with this setting maymess up the desired results.  Colour swap allows you to swap one colour for another when recording it, but only one colour.  Again the flash if used can have an  adverse effect. 

Stitch Assist: Great for taking panoramas as larger subjects can be split in to several shots that can be merged together later on your pc using the software provided. The results can be stunning. Tip, use a tripod if you can to keep the lens rotating in the same horizontal plane.

My Colors: Allows you to let your creative juices flow as this function alters tone of your image during shooting.  Use this to make reds/greens/blues, more vivid, makes the sky and ocean blues look the way they should! Can make skin tones lighter or darker, the possibilities are endless to the shots you can take.

White Balance | Controlling Light is Key

Unlike the human eye, cameras cannot automatically adjust to compensate for variations in the colour of light which can lead to unaturally  coloured pictures. By adjusting your cameras white balance your pictures will turn out better. If you know the lighting you are shooting in you can use one of the pre-set options ie cloudy, tungsten etc. Or to manually record the white balance data simply use an opaque white object or a white wall to fill the frame, just press the DISP button, and the white balance is set perfectly.  If you change camera settings after recording the white balance data the tone may not turn out properly. Use the Auto option if you are not sure of the lighting or there is a mixture of lighting. 

As always you should read the manual making notes as you go. There is no substitute for practice though so go out and have some fun with your Canon Powershot SX210 IS