Canon PowerShot Pro1 in Review

Currently sitting at the top of Canon’s non-SLR amateur range, the Pro1 offers a powerful package in a convenient size.
The Pro1 is Canon’s shot at a long zoom SLR-like digital compact
camera. It does this with an electronic viewfinder, as well as a
swing-out color LCD screen, coupled to an 8MP digital camera with a
28-200mm (35mm camera equivalent) lens. Rather than going through the
specs, which is at the end of this article, let’s concentrate on what
it is like to use.

The Pro1 fits your hand beautifully. Those with larger hands will find
several of your fingers wrapping under the camera, as the camera is not
as high as an SLR. For me I had my index finger on the shutter button
(naturally, two fingers around the grip and my little finger under the
camera. This gave a comfortable and secure grip.  You are
presented with the choice of the electronic viewfinder or swingout LCD.
The viewfinder protrudes out nicely over the back of the camera, so a
comfortable viewing position is easy to obtain. A large control dial
sets the cameras operating mode and a plethora of buttons mean that you
do not need to dive into the menus for most functions. The lens has a
nice, wide control ring on it. Normally it controls zoom, but if you
press and hold the manual focus button (top one under the on/off switch
and falling under your thumb with a small movement) the control ring
becomes a manual focus ring with a magnified area in the center of the
viewfinder. Both zoom and manual focus are fast and positive for an
electronic rather than a manual dial.

The camera’s pop up flash is controlled from a separate button and pops
up when needed and the flash is turned on. A hotshoe takes Canon’s
excellent flash guns. The pop up flash does not go high enough though
to clear the large lenshood that comes with the camera for close
subjects, so you must be sure to remove the lenshood in such situations
if you do not want a shadow across the lower part of the image. Unlike
many others cameras, you can’t choose to display a histogram or grid
lines on the display while you are shooting. You can display the
histogram for taken shots in review mode, though. There is enough
buffer memory that you rarely have to wait for the camera to finish
writing before you can shoot again, and then only in RAW mode.

The following images are 100% sections shot at various ISO settings



ISO50



ISO100



ISO200



ISO400

Image quality is very good, helped by the availability of a RAW mode.
Noise is low at ISO50 and ISO100, noticeable at ISO200 and high at
ISO400. Color accuracy is great. Lens quality is good and the ability
to go from 28mm to 200mm is a real bonus, as many digitals do not go
wide enough without an adapter lens.

This is a very good camera. It handles well, image quality is great and
noise is low for a consumer camera with a smallish CCD and 8MP. This
one is definitely worth a look if you do not want a real SLR but need a
longer zoom range than a normal compact digital will give. Personally I
would rather have a dSLR, but this camera is more than capable of
producing some serious work. Recommended.

www.canon.com

Specifications

CCD:

Size:

2/3 inch

Effective Number of Pixels:

Approx. 8.0 MP

Total Number of Pixels:

Approx. 8.3 MP

Filter Array:

Primary color filter (Bayer type)

Image Processor:

Processing:

DiG!C

Lens:

Focal Length (optical):

7.2 (W) – 50.8 (T) mm

35mm film equivalent:

28 (W) – 200 (T) mm

Maximum Aperture:

f/2.4 (W) – f/3.5 (T)

f/number:

f/2.4-8.0 (W), f/3.5-8.0 (T)

Shutter Speed :

15 – 1/4,000 sec.

Sensitivity (Equivalent Film Speed):

      Auto, ISO 50/100/200/400 equivalent

      *Camera automatically sets optimum speeds when “Auto” is selected.

Construction:

14 elements in 10 groups (including 1 fluorite, 1 UD lens, and 2 aspherical lenses)

Optical Zoom:

Approx. 7x

Digital Zoom:

Approx. 3.2x

Max Combined Zoom:

Approx. 22x

Focusing Method:

      Hybrid autofocus (AF) system combining TTL and external metering (continuous/single)

      1 focusing point (any position is available)

      AF lock, Manual focus and AE/Focus Bracketing available

Focusing Range:

Normal:

50 cm – infinity (Wide – 90 mm equivalent) 1 m – infinity (90 mm equivalent – Tele)

Macro:

      10 – 50 cm (Wide – 63 mm equivalent)

      30 – 50 cm (63 mm – 90 mm equivalent)

Super Macro:

3 – 30 cm (42 – 90 mm equivalent)

Manual focus:

      10 cm – infinity (Wide – 63 mm equivalent)

      30 cm – infinity (63 – 90 mm equivalent)

      1 m – infinity (90 mm equivalent – Tele)

Light Metering Method:

      Evaluative/Centre-weighted average/Spot

      *Selectable metering frame with Spot mode: Centre/AF-point linked

Exposure Control Method:

Program AE/Shutter speed-priority AE/Aperture-priority AE/Manual exposure

Exposure Compensation:

± 2 stops in 1/3-stop increments

White Balance Control:

TTL White Balance

White Balance Modes:

Auto/pre-set (Daylight/Cloudy/Tungsten/Fluorescent/Fluorescent H/Flash), custom (2 po
sitions)

LCD Monitor/Viewfinder:

Viewfinder:

Electronic Color LCD viewfinder

Dioptric or Diopter Adjustment:

-5.5- +1.5 1/m (dpt)

LCD Monitor:

2.0 in. Low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT colour LCD (Vari-angle type)

Flash:

Flash Modes:

Auto */On */Off * Red-eye reduction is available.

Flash Range :

      50 cm – 5.0 m (W), 1 m – 3.5 m (T)

      at ISO100

Flash
Exposure Compensation:

      ± 2 stops in 1/3-stop increments

      FE Lock, Slow Synchro, Second Curtain
Synchro, Manual Flash Output Setting 3 steps (strong [100 %
flash]/normal/low)

External Flash Support:

Yes

Selectable Shooting Modes:

Shooting Modes:

Auto/Creative zone (Program/Shutter speed priority/Aperture
priority/Manual/Custom1/Custom2)/Image zone (Portrait/Landscape/Night
Scene/Stitch Assist/ Movies)

Photo Effects Mode:

Vivid/Neutral/Low sharpening/Sepia/Black & White/Custom

Interval shooting:

      Increments of 1 – 60 min. up to 100 shots

      (depending on CF card capacity)

Continuous Shooting :

High speed:

Approx. 2.5 images/sec. (shooting speed can be maintained up to 6 images)

Normal:

      Approx. 1.0 images/sec. (shooting speed can be maintained up to 18 images)

      [Large/Fine mode, when LCD monitor or Electronic viewfinder is on]

Image File Format:

Design rule for camera file system, DPOF (Version 1.1) compliant

Still image:

Exif 2.21 (JPEG)/RAW

Movie:

AVI Image data: Motion JPEG

Sound annotation/Audio Data:

WAVE (Monaural)

JPEG Compression Levels:

Superfine/Fine/Normal

  Recording Pixels – Still Images:

Large :

3264 x 2448

Medium 1:

2272 x 1704

Medium 2:

1600 x 1200

Medium 3:

1024 x 768

Small:

640 x 480

Recording Pixels – Movie Images:

Large (VGA):

640 x 480

Medium (QVGA):

320 x 240

Small (QQVGA):

160 x 120

Other Operations:

Playback Operations:

Single / Index (9 thumbnail images) / Slide Show / Movie Special Replay
– Next/Previous frame, Fast forward, Rewind, First frame and Last frame
/ Magnify (2x – 10x) / auto vertical and horizontal image orientation
with Intelligent Orientation Sensor / still histogram display.

File Operations:

DPOF – Print order/Slide show/Image transfer, Movie Editing –
Unnecessary parts* (image + sound) can be erased. * Start point to mid
point, end point to mid point, Sound Memos – max. record/play time is
approx. 60 sec.

Direct Printing:

Yes

PictBridge:

Yes

Camera Settings:

Start-up image, Start-up sound, Shutter sound, Operation sound, and
Self-timer sound, (My Camera Contents can be created in the camera.)

Menu Languages:

12 languages (English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Italian,
Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, Simplified Chinese and Japanese)

Self-timer:

Approx. 2 sec. or 10 sec. count-down.

Computer I/F:

USB

Video Output:

NTSC or PAL selectable

Audio Output:

Monaural

Memory Storage:

CompactFlash (CF) card (Type I or Type II)

Supplied Memory:

64MB

Supported Operating Systems:

PC:

Windows 98 (including SE)/Me/2000/XP

Mac:

OS 9.0 – 9.2, OS X (Version 10.1/10.2)

Inclusions:

Software:

Canon Digital Camera Solution Disk, Arcsoft Camera Suite Disk

Power Source:

Battery:

Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery BP-511A/514 (BP-511/512 are available.)

Standard Charger/AC Adaptor:

Battery Charger CB-5L

Optional Charger/AC Adaptor:

Compact Power Adaptor CA-560

Optional Car Battery Adaptor:

Car Battery Adaptor CR-560/CG-570 & CB-570

Shooting Capacity (full charge):

LCD Monitor On:

Approx. 420 shots

LCD Monitor Off :

Approx. 420 shots

Replay:

Approx. 400 min.

Dimensions (W x D x H):

117.5 x 72 x 90.3 mm (ex. viewfinder and protrusions)

Weight:

Approx. 545g

  All data based on Canon’s Standard Test Method:

  Subject to change without notice:

  **Please note – for a complete list of standard inclusions and
optional accessories, contact your nearest Canon dealer. Not all items
listed in the specifications come as standard:

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