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Gail's Canon Powershot S2 IS Blog
S2 Hints & Tips
Menu & Function Buttons
The menu and function buttons can be confusing until you understand them conceptually. Press the Menu button once to turn on; again to turn off. When a photo is taken while a menu is displayed, it will pop back on again until you turn the menu off. Useful if you want to readjust a setting after a few shots.
Menu Button
Has three areas, which you access along the top of the screen
- Rec. Menu: select items for the current shooting mode which you will only change occasionally such as Red-eye reduction, AF-assist beam, etc.
- Setup: select camera settings such as Volume, power save, date/time, language, two levels to format a memory card, etc. You will rarely change these settings but will use it when you need to format the memory card.
- My Camera: set-up camera sounds and visual effects.
Menu Button Tip: The menu button can inadvertently be turned on when putting your finger near the area. Al Markel shares this tip (and photo):
"I used a piece of thick sticky Velcro and punched a small hole into it with a paper punch. I put the thin and thick pieces of sticky velcro together to make it elevate above the button. I can still bring the main menu up by edging my fingernail into it. The large piece of velcro underneath it is a guide to where the thumb should be."
Function Button
Access menus you may need to change while you are actively taking photos such as ISO, Exposure Compensation, resolution, white balance. etc.
Program shift
In P mode, if you lock the Exposure (the star appears on the LCD), you can use the left-right arrows to change settings. Exposure will be locked but you can change speed, aperture, etc.
Self-Timer
Choose a start time from 0 to 10 seconds. Also select the number of pictures to be taken (up to 10). Custom Self-timer: set countdown time and the number of shots (up to 10).
High Speed Continuous Mode
For the fastest results use a high speed memory card. According to the S2 manual, "Smooth continuous shooting at a constant interval until the memory card is full" with a high speed card can only be obtained using a resolution and compression combination other than L/Superfine (page 62, see footnotes 1 & 2). A low level format of the card prior to high speed continuous shooting is also recommended.
Video
Without a fast memory card (eg. Sandisk Ultra II), video recording will stop after a few seconds (when using largest size/fastest frame rate). Reduce the video size and frame rate to prevent this from happening or get a faster card.
You can record video in most every camera mode. Video can record until there is no more room on the memory card, up to 1 gigabyte.
Zoom
The zoom can be zoomed at two different speeds, depending on how hard you press the zoom lever. When the camera is recording video, the zoom seems to go into slow mode by default.
To improve video performance, do a Low Level format before shooting video.
More camera tips and suggestions posted at digital photography forums by S2 owners. Compiled by Bob Blount: Download (.zip) | Download .pdf
