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  • Physical Tour

  • Components

  • Design / Layout

  • Modes

  • Control Options

  • Conclusion

  • Specs / Ratings

  • Physical Tour
  • Components
  • Design / Layout
  • Modes
  • Control Options
  • Conclusion
  • Specs / Ratings

Physical Tour

Front

The front of the E1 we tested at the Photokina show in Germany was light pink (it also comes in baby blue and white), and doesn't present any sharp lines or edges. This is a camera we could imagine tweens and under would like, since it looks like a toy. The main feature on the front is the lens, with the flash located in the top right corner. A microphone is positioned behind the three dots near the lens. Above that is the auto focus assist lamp. The black hole right above the lens is the front side of the optical viewfinder. Interestingly, when we see a multitude of point-and-shoots that have eliminated the viewfinder in favor of LCD-only viewing, this basic model retained what we consider a useful feature.

 

This design seems very kid-friendly.

Back

The dominant feature of the back is its 2.5-inch LCD, with its low 115,000-pixel resolution. Above this is an optical viewfinder. To the right of the viewfinder are two indicator LEDs. The right half of the camera includes a 4-way controller and several button controls. The flower-like array of holes seen here is the speaker, to the right of which is the playback mode button. The 4-way controller handles (from top, clockwise) ISO settings, flash mode, continuous shooting/self-timer and focus mode. The colored control buttons surrounding the four-way controller handle (from top left, clockwise) face detect mode, print/share, menu select and display toggle.

 

A typical back-of-the-camera setup.

Sides*
*The left side of the E1 isn't particularly interesting unless you're drawn to the two screws that border the 'IMAGE STABILIZER' feature reminder.

Whenever you gaze at the left side you'll be proud that

your camera boasts optical image stabilization.

The right side is a little more interesting. This is where you'll find the wrist strap loop, along with connectors for AC power in and data connection.

*You can use the data connection and a

PictBridge printer to print images

straight from the camera.
*

Top

From left to right, the top of the camera has the on/off switch, the control dial, and the shutter button inside a zoom ring.

*Other than the gentle curves the overall layout of the E1 is very

similar to other, less pastel cameras.*

Bottom

The bottom has just two features: a tripod socket and the battery/memory door. The latter will accept two AA batteries and an SD card.

The battery compartment is latched to prevent accidental opening.

 

Components

Viewfinder

The PowerShot E1 has a basic viewfinder that can be useful if you want to to save on battery power, or if the sun so bright that seeing the LCD is difficult.

A very simple viewfinder

LCD Screen

The LCD measures 2.5 inches and the resolution is only 115,000 pixels, which is definitely on the low end of today's market. However, Canon has made the wise choice of making all the icons and menus quite large, so you don't have to squint at the otherwise sub-par screen.

In German or English, this is a pretty low resolution LCD

**

Flash
In our brief, entirely non-scientific tests, the flash seemed pretty bright, considering its small size. The refresh speed was reasonably fast, and it was quite powerful. As with most point-and-shoots, the proximity of flash to the lens means you might have problems with red-eye.

**

In our informal hands-on experience, the flash seemed

pretty powerful for its size.

 **Lens**

The lens on the E1 offers 4x optical zoom, a bit longer than the 3x you'll often find on cameras at this price, with an equivalent zoom range of 35 - 140mm on a 35mm camera. Maximum aperture is f/2.7 at the widest angle, f/5.6 at full zoom.

The 4x zoom is a bit better than average

Connections
The E1 has a standard, mini-USB jack, located on the upper right side of the camera, along with a DC input.

USB and DC power
Battery
The E1 takes AA batteries, which means that you can easily find some more if you run out while on the road or vacation. Using Ni-MH rechargeable batteries with the LCD on, the AAs should last for approximately 450 shots. An optional AC adapter will let you plug into the wall. 

AA batteries and SD cards are both cheap and easy to find**Memory**
The E1 can take SD, SDHC and MMC cards, all of which are inexpensive and readily available.

 

Design / Layout

Model Design / Appearance

Thge E1 looks like Fisher Price's My First Camera, and unfortunately it feels like it too, with a pastel plastic shell and a body so light it almost feels hollow. While Canon is making no effort to disguise its plan to market this camera to the 'tween' market (8-12 year olds), we suspect the design will have an even younger appeal -- maybe to sandbox photographers?  However, from a purely functional perspective, the buttons were all sturdy, the menus easy to navigate, and the camera seemed to have a reasonable amount of flexibility in choosing settings while shooting.

Size and Handling

We didn't have an 8- to 12-year old handy to test handling, but our impression is that the camera grip might be a bit large for the lower end of the age spectrum. The camera isn't huge, but it is large enough that this might become a problem. And while we hope the E1 can handle the occasional drop, given its target audience, the thin plastic construction didn't fill us with confidence. The E1 measures 3.98 x 2.51 x 1.24 inches (101.2 x 63.8 x 31.4 mm) large, and weighs 5.64 oz (160g). It's too big to fit in your pants pocket, but will slip easily into a coat or purse.

*

  • It's small, pastel-colored and just slightly adorable.

Menu

The menu system of the PowerShot E1 is relatively brief, easy to read and presented in large letters. While there's no way to jump between pages of settings easily, there are generally few enough options in each menu division that it doesn't take too long to reach the desired area. There are three menu sections: Shooting, Options and Playback. In general, each is only 10 to 15 choices long. The majority of frequently altered settings are available via a quick menu, accessed by pressing the Function Set button. This lets you alter exposure compensation, white balance, color, metering, image quality and image size.

Ease of Use

As you would hope, the E1 is very easy to use. What is interesting, though, is that it actually offers more manual control than most cameras in its price range. If you want things to be really simple, there's Easy Mode, which removes all controls except flash on or off. Then there's Auto mode, and some common scene modes. With a simple, easy to read interface and modes designed for new users, the PowerShot E1 is quite easy to use.

 

Modes

Auto Mode
E1 users can rely on auto mode to make all the photographic decisions if they choose. The camera has both Auto mode and Easy Mode, the latter of which removes all control barring the flash, while Auto mode enables a subset of shooting controls.

Movie Mode
The PowerShot E1 can shoot at 640 x 480 at 30 fps in either high or low quality, 320 x 240 at 30 fps and 160 x 120 at 15 fps for extra-small email-able movies.

Drive / Burst Mode
There's only one level of continuous shooting on the E1, and that's at 1.3 shots per second. The camera will continue shooting till the memory card is full.

Playback Mode
The playback mode emphasizes image viewing rather than image editing. Images can be zoomed in to 10x size, while zooming out will take you to an index page of nine images. Basic slide shows are also available. The only editing controls are Red Eye Correction (both auto and manual, the latter of which lets you select the eyes directly), and resizing. One nice playback tool is a Focus Check, which, when activated, shows an enlarged inset of the focal area of the image, which you can check for sharpness.

In playback mode, Canon has implemented a Jump to Images feature, which essentially functions like an image sort. It's activated by pressing up on the four-way pad, at which point you can order your images by date, tagged category (people, scenery, events, to do, or user category 1-3), folder, or skip ahead 10 or 100 images at a time.

Custom Image Presets
The E1 has a surprisingly small number of scene and image presets, perhaps in a move to simplify the camera as much as possible. From the mode dial, you can select portrait, landscape, night portrait, kids and pets or indoors. From within scene mode, there's night, sunset, foliage, snow, beach, fireworks, aquarium and ISO 3200.

Control Options

Manual Control Options
We were quite surprised at the level of manual control afforded by such an obviously point-and-shoot oriented camera. For one, you can manually set the shutter speed. It's not an easily accessed option since you have to select exposure compensation then hit the Display button, but it's more than you'll find on most simple point-and-shoots. You can set a manual white balance, another rarity in this category, and a customizable self-timer that lets you choose how long of a delay you want, and how many shots to take when the delay is up. Finally, there's a user customizable button on the rear, which activates printing while in Playback, but can be user-defined to handle exposure compensation, white balance, manual white balance, red eye, digital tele-converter (essentially a type of digital zoom), shooting grid or ISO.

Focus
Auto Focus

Auto focus was fast and accurate. Facial recognition can handle up to nine faces at a time, of which you can decide whose face is the most important. If you use center focusing, you can turn on a focus assist option, which enlarges the center of the frame to help make sure everything is sharp. In addition to Face Detect and Center focus modes, there's AiAF, which will choose from one of nine squares in a grid to focus on.

ISO
The ISO runs from 80 to 1600, with an extended 3200 mode that only shoots at 1600 x 1200 pixels.

White Balance

In addition to auto white balance, presets for Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Fluorescent H are provided (flash and shade are MIA). The key feature here, though, is the ability to shoot a neutral surface to create a custom white balance reading, a real find in a $200 camera.

Metering
On the E1, the metering can be set to Evaluative, Center Weighted or Spot, offering some welcome flexibility for those interested in venturing beyond Auto.

Shutter Speed
The shutter speed range is from 15 - 1/1600 seconds. The 15 seconds at the high end is quite impressive for such a basic camera, but 1/1600 is very slow for action photography. We were surprised to find an manual shutter speed control, even if it is hidden away in the exposure compensation settings.

Aperture
Unfortunately, unlike shutter speed, there is no way to manually control the aperture setting. The aperture runs from f/2.7 at the widest angle to f/5.6 at maximum telephoto.

**Image Stabilization
**Another plus for a $200 camera, Canon has incorporated its optical image stabilization system in the E1. You can set it to be off, constantly active, only active at the moment of shooting, or for panning mode (which only cancels vertical movements).

Picture Quality / Size Options
Image size ranges from 3648 x 2736 to 640 x 480 and can be set to three levels of image quality.

Picture Effects Mode

Surprisingly for a point-and-shoot aimed at a young audience, there are no crazy image effects or filters here. One would at least expect the option to draw funky frames around the images, or something of the sort. The only image tweaking available is making image tone adjustments. There's Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black and White, and Custom which lets you adjust contrast sharpness and color at ±2 levels each.

Conclusion

**

Conclusion**

The Canon PowerShot E1 is a decidedly mixed bag. On the positive side, it has some useful manual controls, like shutter speed and white balance, and is easy to use for people new to digital cameras. On the other hand, it's resoundingly hideous, at least in our considered opinion, and probably too toddler-ish for any self respecting 10 year old. For $20 less, you can pick up the Casio Exilim EX-Z85, which is much easier on the eyes, gender-neutral, and offers many of the same settings and controls. Alternatively, if you're dead set on the features provided by the E1, but not the look, the Canon A1000 IS appears to be identical to the pastel model in every way except the case. The PowerShot E1 will be available in October 2008 for $199.99 in white, blue and pink.

Specs / Ratings

**Specs Table
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Meet the tester

Mark Brezinski

Mark Brezinski

Senior Writer

@markbrezinski

Mark Brezinski works on the Home Team, reviewing refrigerators, minifridges, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers, and fans.

See all of Mark Brezinski's reviews

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