PowerShot User
10 March 2010

Copyright
PowerShot User website content and images are the property of PowerShot User and subject to copyright 1998, 1999, 2000

Disclaimer
The PowerShot User website is the work of an enthusiastic owner of Canon's digital cameras, it is not funded or supported by Canon.
PowerShot is a registered trademark of Canon Inc.

Frequently Asked Questions

As a result of numerous email requests to PowerShot User the FAQ has come to life. Over time it will build into the definitive set of questions and answers for PowerShot Users everywhere. If you have a question and it's not covered here, then send an email and PowerShot User will try to find out the answer and post it here. We cannot reply directly to all emailed requests, so please recheck the FAQ a few days after submitting your questions.

FAQ Questions and alternate or better answers to powershot@benel.com

Last update: 6 August, 2001

Software and drivers questions

1. Where can I get the latest drivers for a PowerShot A5 or PowerShot 350?
2. Where can I get the latest drivers for a PowerShot 600?
3. How do I read CCD_RAW files from a PowerShot 600 with a MAC?
4. Are drivers available in languages other than English and Japanese?
5. What software opens CCD_RAW images directly from a CF card?
6. How do I use the PowerShot 350 with Windows NT4?
7. Where can I get the latest drivers for a PowerShot Pro70 or PowerShot A5 Zoom?

Camera questions

1. What resolution does the PowerShot have?
2. My PowerShot A5/A5 Zoom menus are in French, how do I change the menu language on my PowerShot? ....I can't read French
3. How do you quickly change resolution/quality on a PowerShot A5?
4. Why don't my ordinary NiCd batteries charge in my PowerShot 350?
5. I have a European model PowerShot A5, can I connect it to a NTSC TV or is it only PAL?
6. Why are PowerShot 600 B/W text mode images so large?
7. Can I use other flashguns with the PowerShot Pro70?
8. How can I use the PowerShot Pro70 with studio lights?
9. Does the PowerShot Pro70 work with the Speedlite 550EX?
10. How do I change from Default to CIFF format files on the PowerShot A50?
11. What is Default or CIFF format on the PowerShot A50, which should I use?

Other questions

1. What size are the CCD_RAW files?
2. Can I use large capacity CompactFlash cards in my PowerShot?
3. What is CCD_RAW mode?
4. How do I check if an image on the web is really from a PowerShot camera, with no image modifications?
5. I've heard about shortcuts, what are they and how do I use them?

Canon Switzerland has the English, French, German and Italian drivers on it's web site. Version 2.2 supports PSA5 and PS350 under Windows 95/98/NT4. For the MAC PowerPC users the drivers are also at Canon Switzerland, English, French and German available.

The English PowerShot A5 MAC 68K driver and the Windows 3.1 drivers [three zip files - 1 2 3] are available from Canon Germany, though your local Canon agent should be able to provide it on request.

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Canon Switzerland has the PowerShot drivers for the PS600 on it's web site. These are version 1.21 and in English, French and German. However the version 1.21 driver only supports Win95/3.1, if you need to use NT4, the only way to access the images is with a CF card reader or PCMCIA card reader, and use the drivers for the PSA5 version 2.2.

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Using the accessory Macintosh Interface Kit from Canon which provides a Mac serial to CS-36 camera station converter cable and a plug-in module for Photoshop. With this plug-in module you can also read the files from a memory card in a PowerBook PCMCIA slot.

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For European PowerShot models

PS600 - Original drivers in English, French and German for Windows 3.1/95

PS350 - Original drivers in English, French and German for Windows 95 and MAC

PSA5 - Original drivers in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish for Windows 95/98/NT4 and MAC Power PC.
Windows 3.1 and MAC 68K in English only on request from Canon.

A5 Zoom / Pro70 - Original driver ins English, French, German, Italian and Spanish for Windows 95/98/NT4 and MAC Power PC.

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Vueprint version 5.1f from www.hamrick.com can open PS600 CCD_RAW images from a CF card directly.

Update FEB '99: VuePrint version 7.1 can open PowerShot 600/A5/Pro70 CCD_RAW images directly. Unfortunately the image quality is not up to Canon's standards. Click here to see what we mean.

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The latest drivers for the PowerShot A5 are 32bit drivers and support Windows 95/98/NT4 as standard. This driver also communicates with the PowerShot 350 camera via the serial port by simply selecting the camera model from the top left corner drop down box. The TWAIN 2.2 drivers are available for download from some European Canon sales company web sites. Check out the FAQ answer for details.

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Canon Switzerland has the English, French, German and Italian drivers on it's web site for Windows 95/98/NT4. For the MAC PowerPC users the drivers are also at Canon Switzerland, English, French and German and Italian available.

These version 2.3 drivers are supplied with both Pro70 and A5 Zoom, plus they work with the PowerShot 350 and PowerShot A5. Spanish drivers were also prepared, but we don't have a link for them yet!

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PS600; auto/ccd_raw=832x624, med=640x480 and sml=320x240

PS350 has only 640x480 pixel resolution

PSA5/PSA5 Zoom; large/ccd_raw=1024x768, small=512x384

PSPro70; large/ccd_raw=1536x1024, small=768x512

PSA50; large/ccd_raw=1280x960, small=640x480

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The PowerShot A5 has many commands accessible from it's menus, and depending on which PSA5/A5 Zoom you have these menus are translated in to 10 languages to make it easier to use the camera. The only problem is that if the camera has Danish menus it's hard to get to the language selection menu to change it to something else. Canon built a shortcut key into the PSA5/A5 Zoom; Switch the camera to [PLAY] mode, and after the image appears on the LCD, press and hold the [SET] button, then press the [MACRO/JUMP] button. The language selection menu appears and you can select the language. For European (PAL) model PowerShot A5/A5 Zoom menus in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish. For USA/JAPAN models (NTSC) the language choices are English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese.

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PowerShot A5 offers five combinations of image size and compression, however it's sometimes a bit awkward to just change the setting for one shot. Here's PowerShot Users own method... using AUTO mode (green square) the default setting is LARGE NORMAL, but if you set the resolution in program "P" mode to another choice, eg LARGE FINE you can now quickly switch resolution just by turning the dial from Auto to Program. As a further option you could set the burst mode to default to SMALL FINE to further expand the possibilities.

Important notes: In Auto mode it's only possible to select Large Fine or Large Normal, in burst shooting mode it's only possible to select Small Fine or Small Normal. Also the settings default to Large Normal in Auto and Program mode, and Small Normal in burst shooting mode whenever you change the battery.

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The Panasonic NiCd batteries supplied with the PowerShot 350, are special in that the insulating plastic is cut back from the bottom of the battery leaving the bottom 3~5mm of metal case exposed. In the PowerShot 350 battery compartment there is an extra contact strip which makes use of this to charge the batteries. This ensures that only the correct batteries can be charged by the Canon charger/adapter, and eliminates the possibility to recharge non-rechargeable cells.

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First check you have a European model PowerShot A5. Switch it to [PLAY] mode, then once the image is displayed press the [SET] and [JUMP] keys together. This takes you to the language selection menu and if you see ten languages listed you have a European PowerShot A5 with PAL only video output. If you see five languages listed including Japanese then you have a Japanese/USA model with NTSC video output.
You can only connect a PAL PowerShot A5 to a PAL or multi-standard TV, and an NTSC one to NTSC or multi-standard TV.

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PS600 B/W text mode uses the individual CCD pixels to record each pixel in the image file, using only the luminosity component. There is no need for colour calculation so the detail in B/W text mode images should actually be higher for B/W text mode images. Under this case there is little benefit in choosing the amount of compression.

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The PowerShot Pro70 is the first PowerShot to feature a hotshoe for flash units. Canon recomends the Speedlite 220EX and 380EX units be used, and so far these are the only models that successfully work with the exposure metering of the camera. Other flash units - including Canon's - do not work with the E-TTL flash metering, and only give maximum flash output.

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We have discovered that if you put a standard hotshoe to PC adapter on the Pro70, AND select an aperture from the menu, the shutter speed of 1/90 is automatically chosen. We have also had some users who have even had success with their existing infra-red flash triggers on the Pro70! Please note that even with the Speedlite 380EX and 220EX units, in aperture mode the camera does not control the flash output, you only get full flash output.

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According to the latest information the PowerShot Pro70 does not work with the new Speedlite 550EX flash unit.

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Switch the PSA50 to program [P] mode, then press the [MENU] button, when the menu is displayed press and hold [LCD/VIDEO] then press [SET] key. The File Format menu will display and the choices of Default or CIFF are available. Change the selction or press [MENU] to return to the standard Record Menu.

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PowerShot A50 includes new design rule for camera file system, default, and the camera image file format, CIFF support. Both formats are similar as they define the directory structure, and the file types and formats.

CIFF format files are stored in the \DC97 folder with subdirectories of \CTG... each folder holds upto fifty images, plus a small 4KB thumbnail image and any sound annotations for an image.

Default format stores the images in the \DCIM folder with subdirectories \100CANON. Each image is stored with an integral thumbnail included in the main image file. In the case of CCD_RAW images, there is a small separate 6KB thumbnail file. JPG image files conform the EXIF 2.1 standard.

Which format should I use? As we have a few cameras using CIFF format the A50 is set for CIFF format as it is then fully backwards compatible with the other PowerShot cameras. We can put the CF card from an A50 into the Pro70 and view the CIFF format images with the Pro70 for example. Quality-wise there should be no difference, in terms of file size CIFF jpg files are a little smaller, but you need to account for the 4KB thumbnail file too. For users with only an A50 camera default is the best choice as it is more industry standard!

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PowerShot 600 CCD_RAW image files are 672.3KB in size each for B/W Text mode and colour.

PowerShot 350 CCD_RAW images not available, only jpeg images.

PowerShot A5, PowerShot A5 Zoom CCD_RAW files are 940.5KB in size.

PowerShot Pro70 CCD_RAW files are 1.89MB in size.

PowerShot A50 CCD_RAW files are 1.52MB in default and CIFF formats.

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Canon recommends and supports the PowerShot cameras only with it's own cards, however some other CompactFlash cards do indeed work.
CAUTION: Not all CompactFlash cards are equal, the variations in read/write speeds is one factor, also consider the different power consumptions. We have even heard of 5volt and 3.3volt cards, though the standard covers both in the same card. For example we have successfully tried a 45MB Sandisk card in a PowerShot 600, and a PowerShot A5.

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CCD_RAW mode is Canon's own uncompressed image format. In simple terms the light reaching the CCD is converted to 10bit digital data signals for each pixel and then stored without performing any colour processing. When the CCD_RAW data file is read by the Canon TWAIN driver or plug-in module the colour processing is performed before the data is passed to the calling application. What this means is that the image in the application has never been compressed, so saving it as a TIFF file will preserve the best quality. Unfortunately CCD_RAW mode is specific to each camera model as the CCD size and pixel count changes, so a PowerShot 600 driver cannot be used to open a CCD_RAW file from a PowerShot A5, though most Canon drivers are backwards compatible.

PowerShot 600, PowerShot A5, PowerShot Pro70, PowerShot A5 Zoom and PowerShot A50 have CCD_RAW mode.

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PowerShot User have recently discovered a feature in the Ulead PhotoImpact v4.2 software. If you open an image or thumbnail file directly from the camera - use a card reader - you can view the CIFF header information directly. Select the image, then choose the VIEW menu, PHOTO PROPERTIES or press <ALT> <ENTER> then click the "File Info" button, if it's a real PowerShot CIFF format image there will be a CIFF tab available. Select the CIFF tab and then check out all the image information, camera, shooting date / time etc. However if the image is manipulated and resaved the CIFF header information is lost.

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To give quicker access to commonly used functions Canon built some shortcuts to certain functions into the PowerShot A5 Zoom, PowerShot Pro70 and PowerShot A50 cameras.

Quick image delete - A5 Zoom, Pro70 and A50

When in [PLAY] mode press [SET] and [-] keys together, the current image displayed will be shown with a delete OK/Cancel prompt. This saves going through the menus to delete a single image.

Quick exposure compensation setting - A5 Zoom and A50

When in program [P] mode, press [SET] and [-] keys together, the exposure compensation display appears on the LCD, press [-] or [+] to adjust the exposure compensation as required.

Quick aperture priority mode selection - Pro70

On the Pro70, aperture priority can be accessed quickly from program [P] mode by pressing [SET] and the [INFO] buttons together. Make sure you don't switch the LCD off as this will cancel the aperture priority mode.

File format change - A50

In program [P] mode press the [MENU] button, when the record menu appears press and hold the [LCD/VIDEO] button and then press the [SET] button. You can then choose Default of CIFF file formats.

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