However you'd better be seated close to the dais to grab your celebrity snaps, because this 5-megapixel shooter's fixed-focal-length 39mm lens (35mm-camera equivalent) has no zooming capability beyond a 6.5X digital zoom that produces highly pixelated results. Nor is there an optical viewfinder: You'll need to compose your shots using a tiny 1.5-inch LCD panel that is bright but easily washes out in the glare of full sunlight.
While eminently portable, the SD20 lacks the manual controls enthusiasts look for. There are no manual exposure or focus settings available, beyond exposure value adjustment (plus or minus 2EV in 1/3EV increments) and five scene modes (Portrait, Landscape, Night, Indoor, and Underwater), plus Macro, Stitch Assist for creating panoramas from multiple shots, and manual mode. The last simply unlocks a modest range of adjustments accessible from a back-panel Function key, including exposure compensation; white-balance controls; sensitivity settings (ISO 50-400); special effects (saturation, sharpening, sepia, and black-and-white); and a choice of evaluative, center-weighted, or spot exposure metering.
A separate Menu/Set key produces three pages of other options for shooting and setup when the camera is in Recording mode. When the SD20 is in Review mode, this key offers an additional set of choices for protecting or rotating images, displaying slide shows, and creating print orders. There's also a print/share button that simplifies making hard copies using Canon Direct Photo and PictBridge, when connected either to a computer or directly to a compatible printer.
The SD20's top surface features a large shutter-release button flanked by a tinny speaker and a recessed power button. Those with unfashionably large hands may have some difficulty curling their fingers around the camera to trigger the release. The back-panel layout uses a four-way rocker switch to navigate menus and select basic shooting options such as flash settings, self-timer/burst mode, digital zoom, and quick delete. A sliding switch changes between Review, Movie, and Recording modes.
Canon gets double and triple duty from its indicator lights. A back-panel LED flashes orange while the self-timer is ticking and shifts to green when the LCD goes to sleep, to indicate that the camera is still powered up. The front-panel focus-assist beam also serves as a self-timer indicator and a red-eye reducer.
