Canon S90 Users (merged with Canon PowerShot S90 group) / Discuss

MARCO_POLO!    says:

This might be a case of 'RTFM" on my part ;) but while reading a review, I realized that there was an awful lot that I missed when I glanced at the manual. Here's a link to page 2 of 3 (where most of the tips are). I find myself agreeing with most of what's said and I recommend reading the entire review (Some info isn't even in the owners manual).

Things I didn't know about the S90:

1) With the camera off, you can press the "playback" button (for 1sec), and you can view images without extending the lens. *I know. I'm an idiot for not knowing this.

2) While taking photos, you can zoom into taken photos during "review" by pressing the "FUNC. SET" button first then zooming (normally to zoom you have to be in "Playback" mode).

3) When in manual mode, half-press the shutter button (and hold it), then press "↑" on the 4-way cursor. The camera will automatically set-up the f-stop and shutter speed for a correct exposure. This makes a quick way of getting 'in-the-ballpark' and you can fine-tune the settings from there.

4) This is the most useful tip. It turns out that you can pre-set focus (not just focal length). This virtually zero shutter-lag technique comes in handy for "street-photography". To do it, simply use "manual-focus" and set a desired focus distance, then push the "menu" button, scroll down to the last item under the 'camera icon tab'. There you'll see "Save Settings...", confirm and now every time you turn the top mode-dial to "C" (custom), the camera will go to the pre-set focus distance. For more info (and a hyper-focal distance chart), read the link above.