Overall, I found the Canon Realis SX7 menu system to be very good. It's well organized, easy to read, and accomplishes most things without having to drill down very far. Most items are on the primary menus or the first sub-menus. Advanced color controls are further down. We'll look at a few of the menus now.
These first two images are from the Digital Video menu. It changes slightly depending on the source. You'll note there are three different tabs - Display settings (above), Image Adjustment (right) are two shown here.
Display Settings
Image Adjustment
Color Adjustment
Advanced Adjustment
From the Image adjustment menu, you can select from the various image modes, including Standard, Presentation, Movie&Photo, and sRGB.
The usual basic controls are present - Brightness, Contrast Sharpness and Gamma.
I love that Canon has put the Lamp mode on the same menu with all the color controls. That's not common, but that's exactly where I think it should be.
Below that are both the basic Color adjustment submenu shown here, with separate Gain and Offsets for red, green, and blue. This area is where you can get the color temperatures close to ideal, instead of the SX7's shift from cool to warm as it goes from dark to bright.
The Canon offers even more control of the image, with the Advanced adjustment sub-menu. I won't get into the individual controls, let's just say Canon is offering far more image control, especially color control than many home theater projectors, let alone business projectors, which tend to be thin, in the area of color correction.
All considered, not only are the Canon SX7's menus well laid out, but they offer extensive control over the projector.
I'm not really thrilled with the SX7's remote control. It is functional, but I find its edges a little uncomfortable. The remote does have a backlight, which is always nice. However I should point out that it's not overly bright, so it's not going to be much help unless the room is very dark, and considering the projector kicks out over 4000 lumens...it probably won't be in a really dark room.
From the top: The green power switch is typical - press once for on, two for off. An Auto Set button let's the projector set everything up, best it can, and, I might note, that includes auto focus - a nice touch.
On the next row, the Image button allows you to toggle through the various modes. There is an Input button, which also allows you to change modes, although I favor remotes that have discreet buttons for each input. The Auto PC, specifically adjusts the projector to different computer sources.
Right below that is the classic diamond shaped arrow key layout, with the Menu in the lower right corner. On the lower left, is the button to set the keystone adjustments.
Below that are a series of smaller, more packed in buttons. The next two on the left are the page up and down for presentation control. You need to also connect the Canon SX7 to the computer through the USB port to use this remote mousing feature. Next to that are digital zoom in and out, and on the right a Spot tool to highlight areas of your presentation. Below it is the mouse right click button.
Further down are a video mute (No Show), Audio Mute, Volume control, and on the last row, a Freeze button, a button to call up the a timer onto the screen. Great for rehearsing presentations, or monitoring the length of a presentation. Very cool. I don't recall ever seeing that on any other projectors except other Canon models.
Bottom Line: Not great, but some interesting features. Hardly a deal breaker!
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