Canon PowerShot SD800 IS 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Image-Stabilized Optical Zoom by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon PowerShot SD800 IS 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Image-Stabilized Optical Zoom
Digital camera Review: ..preety cool....
Summary: 5 Stars
This camera takes excellent photos at daylight and night. Its night mode is pretty Good but sometimes it gets a little fuzzy while taking indoor low light photos. IS is awesome and so are other options. But you cannot change settings such as aperture and other advanced settings...Digital camera Review: 2 YRS and STILL GOING STRONG
Summary: 5 Stars
i have had the sd800 for two years now. i've taken thousands of pictures, both portrait and landscape. they turn out fantastic. i've had several enlarged to 8x10 to hang on the wall. the camera has been dropped, bounced, manipulated by a one year old, used by teenagers, taken camping, etc. it has never failed me yet. the original battery is still going strong. the only problems i've had is that low light pictures occasionally don't turn out as clear as they could, but i'd say 95% of them have been fine. i am disappointed that canon no longer makes this model because i wanted to get some for my teens for christmas. the features are fun and easy to use. i've taken pics at the aquarium and they turn out really sharp. the color switching feature is a lot of fun and i've had fun with the kids and nature pics using the color replace feature. this camera has really taken a lot of bumps and still keeps going!Digital camera Review: 5 Stars?....C'mon
Summary: 3 Stars
5 stars means this camera is perfect, and it's certainly not that. Haven't these people ever used any other cameras?
Let's start with the good.
1)A 28mm lens is a great feature. The spotlight review says it's the only one. Wrong! Panasonic had one way before Canon. Ricoh too.
2) In good light the camera takes good pictures - colors are good, I haven't had too many blown highlights
3) Image Stabilization makes the videos nice and smooth
4) Design is nice, but that's subjective
The not so good
1) Average low light performance. OIS doesn't help much when you have to limit exposure to ISO200 without getting noisy/grainy pictures
2) Flash performance is terrible. Try a Fuji with intelligent flash and you'll know in an instant what I mean. The flash is weak and if you're close to someone they get blown away and the background is black. Red eye is pretty bad.
3) If you want to put it on Auto and shoot, you can - outdoors. Indoors you have to go to manual mode and limit the ISO to 200 max (I limit mine to 100). If you don't you are guaranteed to get grainy pictures.
4) Build quality. Came with 1 dead pixel on the LCD, after 3 hours of use it had two. We'll see how many at 11 months and 29 days when I call Canon. :) LCD is pushed in at the upper right corner. Came from the factory like that and is a common problem.
5) Picture sharpness. Pretty disappointing. Even in bright light many times the pictures just are that clear. This camera gets knocked for that. Go to dpreview dot com's Canon Talk forum and you'll see others complaining.
I actually tried to return this camera, but Dell messed up the order so I got stuck with it before I moved out of country.
The awesome feature is the 28mm lens. If you aren't interested in that get the SD700 if you can't get clear pics by hand holding a shot - if you can - get the SD900 (or SD750 and SD1000 are showing the same image quality as the SD800) or a Fuji F-series. (indoors Fuji will blow any Canon SD away)
Panasonic has the FX30 which matches this Canon for features, but it's low light performance might even be worse - but the video size is 33% bigger. Also worth checking out.
I guess I feel if I'm spending pretty much the most on a point-and-shoot I expect superior quality, and the Canon SD800IS fails to deliver. Good, not the best.
Digital camera Review: 800 vs 700 settled toss up
Summary: 4 Stars
When comparing the elph IS features, if all other things are roughly equal except what I mention here, it was tough, but I chose the 700. I bought the 700 for it's longer than average 4x zoom on a point & shoot. Then I thought maybe I should try the 800 because of the wide angle, new processor, and higher ISO and megapixels. But, even with the 3.8x zoom, because the 800 lens starts off lower already (28mm eqv.) to get the wide angle, it's max range of 4.6-17.3mm zoom does not even come close to the 700's 5.8 -23.2 max opt. range..plus though somewhat useless, the digital range is less too and the small bump up in MP doesn't compensate. If you find you are always wanting to get more in a shot, get the 800 with the wideangle; as the other features are better. For the shots I usually take, I find I crave the higher zoom so much that the other upgrades were not as important to me. If, like me, you think you'd be bothered by not being able to zoom in as closely, get the 700. If I want more in the shot, I can just stich assist.Digital camera Review: 800 vs. 870
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my second Elph, my first being an S400 that I had loved for 4 years. When it finally died I started hunting for another Elph. After researching what Canon had to offer I decided that the two features I most wanted were the 28mm wide angle, and the image stabilization. So that left me two choices, the SD800 and the SD870. After comparing both models I chose the 800 for the following reasons:
Size: It's slightly smaller and lighter than the 870. I travel for work every week, so I wanted something small and easy to pack and carry in my bag or my pocket without drawing attention to myself as I would with a large camera.
Price: For $100 less (at the time) I got basically the same great features as the 870. The 7.1 MP and the 2.5 inch screen on the 800 are more than enough for my needs and not really worth the extra money for the 870.
Cosmetics and controls: I like the way the 800 looks compared to the 870. For some people this may not be a big deal, but I just couldn't get myself to like the look of the 870 with the black plastic trim, nor did I like the layout of the buttons and controls. The 800 looks great and I found the controls easier to navigate than the 870, but it's really personal preference. It feels comfortable in my hands, but it can be a bit slippery, so I have to be careful to always use the wrist strap. Another thing I do like on the 800 (that the 870 doesn't have) is an indicator light to show when the power is on.
Image Quality: Excellent, though I am still experimenting with this. I am taking good pictures in both the manual and auto modes, with and without flash. I find that generally I am able to take good photos without flash due to the image stablization, but it's not a miracle worker. When I have to resort to using the flash it darkens the background quite a bit even though the subject in the foreground is illuminated, so I prefer not using the flash if possible. That being said, when I do use the flash I haven't had any problem so far with redeye, which was quite problematic with my old S400.
Movie Mode: This is a big improvement from my S400. The image and audio quality are excellent. I know some reviewers complained about the sound quality, but I had taken a video of my cat, and when I played it back after downloading on my computer, my cat (who was sitting in the room with me during the playback) heard me calling him on the video and came to me thinking I was actually calling him (and that's pretty good for a cat who never comes when called!)
Wide Angle: Once you get a camera with a wide angle 28mm lens, you'll never want the standard 35mm wide angle again! I am able to get amazing shots without having to back up all the way to the edge of the Earth. Soft corners? I haven't noticed them. But then I'm not trying to blow up my photos to hang in an art gallery.
Con: The only negative I've noticed was that on one occasion when shooting indoors under artificial lighting, blue vertical lines were running through the image (I was shooting a movie at the time). I have played with this and noticed the lines came up in any shooting mode and only when shooting towards the light source (usually a ceiling light). I thought it was a flaw with my camera, but my roommate's SD400 does the same thing. So it seems to be a design flaw. This hasn't been a major problem, however, as 99.9% if the images are fine. It probably has something to do with the type of light source and the angle I'm shooting relative to the light, because if I move a step to one side or the other the lines go away. This really is such a minor problem that it's not worth downgrading my review from 5 stars.
Overall, a great camera, and with the prices coming down it's a great value! There are a lot of features I have yet to use, and I am actually reading the manual to take full advantage of what this camera has to offer. The 870 may have a couple more minor bells and whistles, but I'm happy with my choice. As one who likes to take lots of pictures and videos during my travels and at home with my family and friends, this camera serves me well.