Product Tour

Like some of the other cameras in Canon's ELPH series, the PowerShot SD960 IS is part camera, part fashion accessory. It isn't the most compact camera this year, but the SD960 offers 12.1-megapixel stills and 720p video, just like two of Canon's other 2009 ELPH cameras, the SD970 and SD780. And by increasing the size slightly, cutting down the number of buttons, and getting rid of the impractical viewfinder, Canon has managed to cram a 2.8-inch LCD onto the back and improve the lens specs a bit.

The design approach on the SD960 is a little different from other Canon models entering the fray this year: the colors are all light and soft and the angles have been smoothed out to wide, arcing curves. You'll find no dark red, navy, or bright turquoise on the SD960: just silver, a pale gold, a sort of dusty rose, and the powdery blue you see here. That right side of the camera is especially curved and the chrome-finished ring around the lens softens the transition between the body and the retractable lens.

All in all, there aren't a lot of architectural surprises here. The battery/card slot is on the bottom, the LCD is on the back, and the zoom toggle and shutter button are on the top. One feature you'll want to check out is the scrolling control wheel nestled next to the LCD. This is the primary control mechanism and its function perfectly complements the camera's aesthetic. The spinning action on the wheel is smooth and responsive.

The Canon PowerShot SD960 Digital ELPH is expected to hit stores this month for an MSRP of $329.99.

There are lots of curving lines on this powder blue camera.

Front

The front of the SD960 is home to a small, 4x optical zoom lens. With a 5.0-20.0mm focal length and an aperture range of f/2.8-f/5.8 (35mm equivalent: 28-112mm), Canon offers a decent lens for so compact a camera. The lens automatically extends when the camera is powered on and retracts (with an automatic lens cover) when the camera powers down. The chrome-finish ring around the lens extends slightly, adding some depth to the camera—plus a bit of extra protection to the lens.

The front of the SD960 offers just the bare minimum:

a 4x optical zoom lens, focus assist lamp, and flash.

Above the lens is a small lamp that functions as a Focus Assist beam, red-eye reduction lamp, or self-timer lamp, depending on the circumstances. To the left of the lamp is the built-in flash.

Back

On the back of the camera, Canon has done away with the viewfinder and placed just a tiny array of buttons in order to make room for a sizable 2.8-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD. This is a good sized LCD for so small a camera.

The LCD and scroll wheel are the highlights here.

Off to the right of the LCD is your primary control mechanism on the SD960: a ridged scroll wheel. The scroll wheel (or control dial) operates a lot like an iPod 'click wheel'; you can spin the wheel to navigate through menus or click one of the four cardinal directions when more specific control is needed. During the ordinary still photography mode, the up, down, left, and right clicks correspond to macro, self timer, flash, and display. In the center of the scroll wheel is a Function/Set button, which brings up the camera's quick menu and is the 'Enter' key for the SD960.

Above the scroll wheel is a large button for entering Playback mode; below the scroll wheel is a similar button for bringing up the camera's main menu. Just next to the wheel is a small indicator lamp.

Sides

The left side of the SD960 is about as barren as can be, but the right side has a few noteworthy features, including the large port cover, which hides the camera's HDMI and USB/AV terminals. The cover is attached to the body of the camera by a surprisingly rugged rubber tether. While the mini-HDMI is a universal output, the USB/AV jack is a proprietary one that will only work with the included cables.

That small silver detail on the right side is a wrist strap anchor, which lets you attach the included wrist strap.

There's not much on the left, but the right side houses the camera's AV ports.

Top

The top of the camera is home to the zoom lever, which engages optical and digital zoom while shooting and gives you a closer look at your captured photo during playback. The zoom lever also surrounds that all-important shutter button, which functions in the traditional manner: press halfway to focus and all the way down to take a photo. Near the center is the small on/off button and a couple of holes covering the speaker for system sounds and video playback.

You'll also notice that there's no formal mode dial, as you might see on slightly thicker cameras. But to clear up space on the back, the small mode switch is located here on the top. Use this switch to select movie mode, camera mode, or auto camera mode.

The mode switch, power button, and shutter button.

Bottom

The bottom of the SD960 features exactly what you expect to find on the bottom of a camera: a tripod mount. But there's also the camera's dual battery cavity / memory card slot. As is now customary on Canon point-and-shoot cameras, the rechargable battery and SD/SDHC card both reside in one enclosure.

They can't fit much on the bottom except for the tripod mount and battery/card slot.

Hardware

Viewfinder

There is no viewfinder on the Canon PowerShot SD960. Honestly, it's probably just as well. The viewfinders on Canon's other 2009 PowerShots (like the Canon Powershot SD780) are so minuscule that they're uncomfortable and impractical to use. You'll just have to rely on the LCD for lining up your shots.

LCD

Most of your time with the SD960 will be spent with the beautiful 2.8-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD. This is a good size for an LCD, especially on so small a camera. And with no viewfinder for lining up images, the quality of the LCD is very important. A couple of Canon's PowerShot cameras offer a full 3.0-inch LCD, but you have to sacrifice some compactness for the larger screen size.

The 2.8-inch LCD lets you preview your photos and interface with the camera menus.

Within the Settings menu, you can adjust screen brightness to one of five increments, with the default setting in the center. As always, take care when brightening or darkening your screen, as that can skew your sense of how the final photo will look.

Flash

The built-in flash has a range of 1 ft. - 13 ft. when at maximum wide angle and 1 ft. - 6.6 ft. when using the optical zoom. The flash can be set to auto, on, off, red-eye reduction, and red-eye correction. (You can do this from within the main menu or by clicking right on the scroll wheel.)

There are also a couple of extra features that are designed to improve flash performance: FE lock and Slow Synchro. FE lock allows you to press the shutter halfway, then lock in the exposure for shooting with the flash. Slow Synchro sets the camera to combine flash with a slow shutter speed — the goal being to light your subject as well as background objects that are beyond the range of the flash.

The small flash can help you out in dim light, especially when used with special settings like Slow Synchro.

Lens

The Canon PowerShot SD960 isn't as compact as some of Canon's other ELPH models, but at just 0.87 inches deep, there isn't a lot of room to pack in lens elements. As a result, you'll find just a 4x optical zoom, with a focal length of 5.0-20.0mm (35mm equivalent: 28-112mm). The aperture range is f/2.8 - f/5.8. There's also an optical image stabilizer packed into this slim little body. The lens automatically extends when the camera is powered on and retracts (with an automatic lens cap) when the camera powers down.

The lens extends and retracts automatically.

The tiny zoom lever isn't much to write home about, but it gets the job done.

Zoom is controlled with a small pivoting lever that surrounds the shutter button. You won't have much luck getting any fine control over the zoom speed with such a small toggle, but there isn't much need for fine control with such a small zoom ratio. The Canon SD960 is equipped with a 4x optical zoom and up to 16x digital zoom. As always, the camera's digital zoom deteriorates image quality, so we suggest you stick to the optical zoom whenever possible. If you're not shooting in the highest quality setting, you can use a little bit of digital zoom without negatively impacting the image.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

Both of the SD960's ports are in a single location on the right side of the camera. The cavity is concealed by a sturdy cover, which is attached to the camera body by a surprisingly rugged rubber tether. The cover closes snugly to keep out dirt, dust, and a couple stray raindrops. (Naturally, you can't drop the camera in a swimming pool or sand dune and expect it to escape all damage. If you plan on exposing the camera to lots of water, the SD960 is compatible with Canon's waterproof case.)

Included in the cavity is a universal mini-HDMI terminal as well as a proprietary jack that does double-duty, serving the AV and USB connection. Standard RCA cables and standard mini-USB cables will work with the SD960.

The mini-HDMI output and proprietary AV/USB port

Battery

The Canon SD960 comes equipped with a small, rechargeable lithium-ion battery (NB-4L). It shares a compartment with the SD/SDHC card, which maximizes real estate usage on the camera, but can also make card removal a challenge for anyone with long nails. The SD960 comes with a charging station; just remove the battery and charge it up whenever you're low on juice.

The rechargeable NB-4L lithium-ion battery

We haven't tested the battery ourselves, but Canon predicts you'll be able to shoot about 200 images with the LCD on. Of course, this all depends a lot on how much time you spend setting up shots with the LCD and reviewing photos in playback. You might want to buy a backup battery if you plan on taking the camera out for a long day of shooting.

Memory

The Canon PowerShot SD960 records to SD/SDHC memory cards: a popular and highly compatible memory format. A 2GB SD card will hold approximately 626 shots on the highest quality setting or about 11 minutes of video; an 8GB SD card will hold approximately 2505 shots or 43 minutes of video. The number of remaining shots or the remaining video time is displayed in the lower right corner of the LCD when in the appropriate shooting mode.

The SD/SDHC card slot is tucked away on the bottom.

Design & Layout

Design & Appearance

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The Canon PowerShot SD960 has a very particular design aesthetic that emphasizes soft colors and curves. All of the other models in the PowerShot line come in bold, darker colors (like the burgundy or navy Canon SX200 and the fuchsia, turquoise, and bright orange varieties of the Canon SD1200), while the SD960 comes in silver, light gold, a dusty rose pink, and this powdery blue. The right side of the camera is marked by a gradual sloping curve on both top and bottom, giving the camera a slight resemblance to 1950s kitchen appliances. The silver model might sell to a men and women alike, but the camera in general seems stereotypically geared towards a female demographic.

The surfaces of the camera sport the bare minimum of buttons, dials, and switches. The result is a clean, simple design unfettered by the usual clutter of modern gizmotech.

Size & Handling

The Canon SD960 in hand

The SD960 is another highly compact camera from Canon. It isn't as slim as the SD780, but it will still fit in a lot of pants and jacket pockets. Tossing it in your purse would be even easier. Measuring 3.85 x 2.12 x 0.87 in. (97.9 x 54.1 x 22.1mm) and weighing just 5.11 oz. (145g), the SD960 isn't the smallest from Canon, but it's smaller than most point-and-shoot cameras. If you don't mind adding some extra bulk, the SD960 is also compatible with Canon's waterproof camera case, which would let you take the SD960 into some more extreme shooting conditions.

Although the SD960 is very small, it's surprisingly comfortable in average-sized hands. It's a bit difficult to operate the scroll wheel while wielding the camera with one hand, but it's easy to activate the shutter and two-handed shooting and menu navigation is a breeze.

Menu

As with most of the Canon point-and-shoots, the SD960 has a quick menu — accessed via the Function button — that houses commonly used options, such as ISO and white balance. When you want to make more complicated adjustments, you can press the Menu button to access the camera's administrative menus. In both photo and movie mode, everything is divided into two tabs: photo/movie settings and camera settings. The menus are easy to navigate and, frankly, beautiful. The quick menu, in particular, has a very nice aesthetic, including a highly legible typeface, nice color choices, and smooth animations.

Our biggest complaint is the split menu architecture that you'll see on this and other Canon models. There's nothing wrong with having features accessible in a quick menu, but they should be duplicated in the camera's main menu. We don't like having to wonder which menu holds which option.

The main administrative menu (left) and quick menu (right) on the Canon SD960

Menus are navigated via the scroll wheel on the back of the camera. There are 26 display languages available. With the nice, responsive action of the wheel and the large, crisp fonts, the physical act of menu navigation is an enjoyable experience.

Ease of Use

As with other entries in the Canon PowerShot series, one of the highlights of the SD960 is the large, crisp menus. You won't have to squint to make out what's happening on screen and navigating with the scroll wheel is natural and intuitive. The LCD presents some information in the form of mystery icons, but even beginners will decipher the display after a short time inside the menus.

The buttons and switches are all well positioned and nicely responsive. The scroll wheel is a worthwhile upgrade from the four-way directional controller that Canon uses on most of its point-and-shoot cameras. Some models just aren't large enough to hold a good four-way controller; the SD780, for instance, has a control pad that's small enough to result in frequent mistaken button presses. On the SD960, you'll rarely press the wrong button. This is a nice feature to have on a camera that could be a transition point for beginners. With clear menus and responsive controls, users are more likely to experiment with manual settings that they might otherwise leave untouched.

Modes

Auto Mode

Still photos can be taken in either auto or manual mode. In full auto mode, the user is prevented from making any adjustments at all: the entire quick menu is locked out except for changing the capture size. Even the scene modes are inaccessible while in easy mode, which seems a peculiar feature to hide from the easy mode user.

When you're shooting in Manual mode, you can select a Scene Mode, which will automatically tailor your photos to whatever specific shooting conditions you select. This will lock you out of making manual image adjustments, as the camera is attempting to do this for you based on the selected Scene Mode. (See Custom Image Presets, below.)

Movie Mode

The Canon SD960 records video at a 30 frames per second frame rate in one of three possible qualities: high definition 1280 x 720 and standard definition 640 x 480 or 320 x 240.

Unfortunately, most of the manual controls available for still photography are inaccessible in movie mode. You can't use the optical zoom and options for ISO, exposure compensation, and most of the custom image presets are unavailable. You can alter white balance or choose between regular movie mode, color accent, and color swap. (See Picture Effects.)

To enable automatic focus for capturing videos, you push the shutter halfway down. Once you've engaged the shutter button fully, video will begin recording. Brightness and tone will adjust automatically while recording, but focus will remain at the same level. There is also a small amount of on-board video editing available, including the ability to trim the beginning and end of videos in one-second increments.

Drive/Burst Mode

The SD960 has continuous shot, which will allow you to take approximately 0.8 images per second as long as the shutter button is engaged. Most cameras offer a bit more in the way of a Drive or Burst mode.

As with most digital cameras, you also have a self-timer, which is one of the four functions easily accessed on the clickable scroll wheel. You can customize the self-timer for 0-30 seconds and 1-10 shots. There is also a face detection self-timer, which will automatically take a picture when a new face enters the frame.

Playback Mode

Playback mode is accessed via the large button above the camera's scroll wheel. The Canon SD960 employs the scroll wheel to make sifting through images quick and easy. Pushing the playback button will bring up the most recently captured image, while the scroll wheel will cycle through images, displaying a nice animation that borrows a page from the iTunes Cover Flow (see image, below).

By pressing the Display button during playback, you can cycle between the isolated image, a simple information display and detailed photo data. In any display type, the zoom lever will allow you to zoom in on a portion of the image during playback (up to 10x magnification). Simple rotating, resizing, and cropping options are also available, as well as auto-rotation. Playback mode also allows you to use iContrast and red-eye removal in post-production.

While in Playback mode, pressing the Function button in the middle of the scroll wheel will bring up a quick menu of what Canon has deemed to be the most commonly used options: Rotate, Print, Protect, Trash, Slideshow, Category, Filtered Playback. You can filter your playback images by date, category, folder, or type (still or video).

As with most digital cameras, there is also an instant playback, or clip review, immediately after a photo is taken. You can increase the length of time for review and the amount of information displayed with the review.

The SD960 also features Canon's new Active Display technology, which lets you quickly switch between images during playback with a shake of the camera. We're not sure why you would want to do this, given the excellent and responsive scroll wheel, but if you're a fan of superfluous tech, then look no further.

The playback display and the playback menu on the Canon SD960

Custom Image Presets

Judging on menu layout, it seems that Canon expects users to rely largely on the camera's built-in scene modes to make automatic image adjustments for them, rather than delving into the manual controls that let you make finer adjustments while shooting. The primary scene modes available are: Portrait, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pets, and Indoor. There is a fifth setting, called Special Conditions, that allows you to select more specialized environments: Sunset, Fireworks, Long Shutter, Beach, Underwater, Aquarium, Foliage, and Snow. There's an eighth Special Condition called ISO 3200, which boosts the ISO beyond what is normally available. (See ISO.) A handful of other Record Modes are described more fully under Picture Effects (below).

When any of these modes are selected, ISO, white balance, and other manual controls are disabled.

Controls

Manual Controls

The SD960 is another camera from Canon that is strictly for the point-and-shoot crowd; users looking for more manual controls are likely to be disappointed with what's here. The camera relies heavily upon scene modes for giving users control over their images. What little is available in the way of manual controls is found primarily in the Function menu: ISO, white balance, and some color settings. There's also an exposure compensation buried a little deeper in the menus.

The clickable scroll wheel helps you navigate the menus and utilize the camera's few manual controls.

Focus

As with the vast majority of digital cameras, pressing the shutter button halfway will activate the automatic focus element. The focal range at maximum wide angle is approximately 0.8 in. (2cm) to infinity, while the focal range when using optical zoom is 12.6 in. (50cm) or more.

A focus assist lamp can be enabled to help the camera detect subjects in low lighting conditions. This lamp doubles as assistance for red-eye reduction. There are several different ways you can let autofocus take over. There's Face AiAF, which uses Canon's face detection technology to find faces in the frame and use those as the focal points, and Center, which will simply focus on whatever is in the center area. (You can adjust the size of your focal center from inside the menus.)

If you're using Center, you can take advantage of the AF Lock, which lets you press the shutter halfway to focus on your center point, then push left on the directional pad to lock in that focal length. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's Servo AF, which keeps adjusting focus, even while the shutter is pressed halfway. And in any of these scenarios, the user can take advantage of AF-Point, which lets you zoom in to magnify your subject for focus assistance.

ISO

ISO can be manually selected from one of seven settings: auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600. Pressing halfway on the shutter button during auto mode will display the ISO that has been automatically selected by the camera. Certain scene modes will automatically boost ISO. There is also a scene mode available that lets you shoot at ISO 3200, but this setting also automatically adjusts image size to the M3 option (1600 x 1200 pixels).

White Balance

You can perform a manual white balance, allow the camera to set white balance automatically, or choose one of the camera's five white balance presets: Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Fluorescent H. (Fluorescent H is designed for daylight fluorescent or daylight-type fluorescent lighting.)

Metering

Metering can be adjusted to either evaluative (whole screen), center weighted average (to meter the whole screen but prioritize exposure in the center of the frame), or spot metering (to disregard the edges and focus only on the center). From with the main menu, you can set an exposure compensation to one of 13 increments between -2 and +2.

There is also an AE Lock, which lets you press the shutter halfway, then lock in a specific exposure setting. This is helpful when you're letting the camera adjust exposure automatically, but want to have some control over the choices being made. There is an FE Lock, which accomplishes the same thing when you have the flash activated.

Another special feature, called iContrast, automatically compensates for faces/subjects that appear dark in certain shooting conditions. Like nearly every point-and-shoot camera these days, Canon has also thrown in its face detection technology. Detected faces will be prioritized for focus and exposure.

Shutter Speed

The Canon SD960 does not offer manual control over shutter speed, instead letting the automatic controls take over. The automatic shutter speed range is 1 - 1/1600 seconds. This range includes the long exposure settings, which give you the option to record at longer than the shutter speeds you would use in normal shooting conditions. Long exposure can be set to 1-15 seconds. Noise reduction is automatically enabled when you set shutter speed to 1.3 - 15 seconds.

Aperture

The SD960 does not allow direct control over aperture. The aperture range is f/2.8 - f/5.8.

Image Stabilization

The Canon SD960 has image stabilization, which allows the camera to make adjustments for natural hand shaking while shooting both still photos and video. You can set the stabilization to Continuous (always on), Shoot Only (only active in the moment of shooting), and Panning, which will disregard horizontal shifting, but adjust for horizontal shake.

Picture Quality & Size Options

Photographs may be captured in one of two qualities: fine and normal. There are also six different size options: L (4000 x 3000), M1 (3264 x 2448), M2 (2592 x 1944), M3 (1600 x 1200), S (640 x 480), and W (4000 x 2248).

Picture Effects

The Canon SD960 has a number of digital effects, most of which are novelty effects that are just as easily accomplished in post-production. Options include: Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, and Vivid Red. There is also a Custom Color option that allows the user to tweak contrast, sharpness, color saturation, red, green, blue, and skin tones independently from one of five different levels. These color options can also be added in post-production during Playback mode.

Hidden at the tail end of the Record Modes are a couple of color controls that go beyond the ordinary scene modes and digital effects. There is a Color Accent feature, that lets you pick a single color and change everything else to black and white. And there is a color swap feature that lets you exchange two color values being recorded.

An extra little perk included in the SD960 is stitch assist, which lets you take a series of up to 26 photos that can be easily stitched together in post-production. A lot of people might find this mode fun to use for stitching together a long image of a vast panoramic landscape.

Conclusion

Specs & Ratings

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