Canon "quick shot" mode

I just noticed the "Quick Shot" mode on a Canon S410 camera. This must
be relatively new, since it's not present in other Canons I've looked at
or read the manual for, including the relatively recent A80. The S500
has it too, but that's basically the same camera with a different
sensor, down to sharing the same printed manual. Any other Canons have
it?

Basically, in normal mode the camera continues to provide video to the
LCD display while it is autofocusing. If you listen to the camera
during autofocus, you can hear a stuttering sound as the camera moves
the lens, stops, makes a measurment, and repeats this multiple times.
In quick shot mode, the LCD image freezes during autofocus and the
camera spends all of its energy on focusing without also providing
video. The stuttering sound speeds up to the point where it's a sort of
buzz, and the whole operation takes noticeably less time. The period
the viewfinder is frozen is a small fraction of a second; not very
annoying in practice.

Dave

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 06:32:54 +0000 (UTC), (Dave Martindale)
wrote:

>I just noticed the "Quick Shot" mode on a Canon S410 camera. This must
>be relatively new, since it's not present in other Canons I've looked at
>or read the manual for, including the relatively recent A80. The S500
>has it too, but that's basically the same camera with a different
>sensor, down to sharing the same printed manual. Any other Canons have
>it?
>
>Basically, in normal mode the camera continues to provide video to the
>LCD display while it is autofocusing. If you listen to the camera
>during autofocus, you can hear a stuttering sound as the camera moves
>the lens, stops, makes a measurment, and repeats this multiple times.
>In quick shot mode, the LCD image freezes during autofocus and the
>camera spends all of its energy on focusing without also providing
>video. The stuttering sound speeds up to the point where it's a sort of
>buzz, and the whole operation takes noticeably less time. The period
>the viewfinder is frozen is a small fraction of a second; not very
>annoying in practice.
>
> Dave

Try this site for a way to set the A80 for a 'quick shot or snap'
mode. You can then save it in one of the custom settings.
http://albert.achtung.com/cameras/A80/index.html

Irwell <> writes:

>Try this site for a way to set the A80 for a 'quick shot or snap'
>mode. You can then save it in one of the custom settings.
>http://albert.achtung.com/cameras/A80/index.html

Those techniques apply to any camera with manual controls: presetting
things like focus and exposure avoids the time the camera would
otherwise need to spend determining them. It's especially useful with a
camera that can memorize a complete set of control settings and recall
them at will, like the A80.

But the S410 has no manual mode (the so-called "manual" mode is really
want is called P mode on Canon's more sophisticated cameras). There's
no manual focus at all. So it's interesting when Canon provides a mode
that speeds up the autofocus step.

Dave