Canon Powershot SD400 5MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom by Canon
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Digital camera reviews of Canon Powershot SD400 5MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom
Digital camera Review: Fantastic Camera Loaded With Features
Summary: 5 Stars
My younger brother, who loves to take photographs, had been pestering me to get him a camera of his own. After a lengthy survey of the various brands, models and prices, I decided to get him a Canon PowerShot SD400.
He just loved my choice and I too must say that it is an amazing camera and performs exceptionally well. Being sleek and compact it is easy to carry while traveling. I was surprised when I read about the different features this small camera offers. The color swap feature is great, it is easy to navigate and you can customize various settings for shooting using the Automatic Mode. The battery life is just too good.
My brother had taken the camera with him for him 2-day camping trip and in spite of taking tons of snaps he didn't have to recharge it. Moreover it tells you how many more snaps the SD card can hold. The feature of adding voice comments to your pictures is just incredible. But one thing that surprised him was that the camera doesn't show the battery status and the date.
A few things which could have made SD400 a better one are: 1) the red-eye reduction mode - It didn't seem to work. 2) The outlet door that holds the battery and SD memory is very flimsy and looks as though it will break within no time. 3) Flash range is limited and the quality of pictures taken indoor is not so good. 5) The zoom doesn't work while using the video.
I've heard about E18 error, E16 error and certain repair problems for the SD400, but I didn't have any problems like that and on the whole my brother and I are happy with it. It is a perfect camera for a budding amateur or an average person and I would recommend the Canon SD400 to anyone who is looking out for a quality digital point and shoot camera under 400 bucks
Digital camera Review: Fantastic Stuff
Summary: 4 Stars
First off, why I didn't give it a 5:
There is no mode for raw pictures, and the settings for manual doesn't allow actual dialing in of iso's under 50.
That said, this is a terrific camera. Terrifically portable, really nicely made. Great ui/speed of use. I can hit the power button andshoot in what seems like a second. The pictures are pretty terrific. See here: <A href="http://egofood.blogspot.com/2005/04/my-new-camera-canon-sd400.html">on my weblog</a> for a sample image and some other impressions. You won't be wasting your money.
I did purchase a second battery, but I only started to need it after 100 or more pictures at a run, with a healthy use of flash. I haven't used it till death. Also, it being usb 2.0 is a very nice feature. Pictures d/l in no time.
Digital camera Review: Fast, compact, and cool
Summary: 5 Stars
The SD300 is extremely cool. It is very miniature, looks cool, feels sturdy and heavy in your hand with its stainless-steel case and metal buttons. It looks and feels durable as well. I perceive this camera as a piece of techno-jewelry from the aesthetical point of view - I am tempted to keep this camera just based on its looks and miniature size alone.
The camera has a retractable lens that extends and has a lens cover that opens when the camera is powered on. When the camera is powered off, the lens retracts and the lens cover closes.
The camera has an on/off button on the top deck as well as a zoom rocker, large shutter release button. The bottom of the camera has a metal threaded tripod mount and a battery and SD card compartment lid. The rear houses a bright 2-inch LCD monitor, an optical zooming viewfinder, control buttons and a cool-looking menu control metal disk with a select button in the middle.
There is also a sliding switch between review, movie and still picture taking modes. This sliding switch has very well-calibrated effort - not too flimsy yet not too stiff, unlike the previous Digital Elphs, which had very stiff controls. The side has a metal cover, underneath which you can find a USB jack, A/V jack and a DC power input jack.
Just as SD400, the SD300 is incredibly easy to use. I have not read the manual (I have not even opened it), but was able to use the camera and all its features in no time. The camera can be used by any member of the family and by photographers of all levels of expertise from novices to advanced ones (albeit it will not give you much control over the shutter speed or aperture).
The SD300 comes pre-set to Auto mode. You do not have to do anything other than point and shoot - the camera takes care of the rest. The camera uses 9-area intelligent autofocus. You press the shutter release button halfway to make camera focus and the camera shows you (on the LCD screen) where it focused by displaying one or more green rectangles. Then you take the picture by pressing the shutter release button all the way.
If you want more control, you can select Manual mode, which is not a real manual mode where you would be able to select the shutter speed and aperture, but rather a mode in which you get access to selection of several parameters. In Manual mode, you can set the ISO (50-400), white balance (several presets and custom), use exposure compensation to make pictures darker or brighter, use picture effects, color replacement effects, etc.
The camera gives you instant access to the flash mode selection (flash off, red-eye reduction, night portrait, auto flash), macro or landscape mode as well as drive mode (single frame, timer or burst/continuous shooting) at a push of a button.
The camera uses the latest version of Canon DiG!C processor - DIGIC II. It is the same processor used in larger Canon digital SLR cameras and it gives this Digital Elph amazing speed. The camera takes less than a second to power itself on in review mode and only about a second to power on and extend its lens in shooting mode. It feels instantaneous.
The SD300 can capture images at about 2-2.4 per second in burst mode (I used Kingston Elite Pro SD memory card). In single-frame mode, the camera could snap pictures as fast as I could push the shutter release button (1-1.2 seconds per picture). The focusing takes less than a second (in bright light or in dark environments) and the shutter lag, when pre-focused, is almost unnoticeable. The focusing is slightly slower at telephoto, but still under a second.
The zooming from wide angle to telephoto (or back) takes less than two seconds and is responsive, but has less steps than I would like.
According to Canon, the camera can take about 140 pictures on one charge of its miniature battery (400 with LCD off). I have not validated this claim, but I took more than 60 pictures and 8 minutes of video and the low battery warning has not appeared yet (the camera has no real battery status indicator).
The flash is rather bright for its size. It has an effective red-eye reduction mode and is sufficient at up to 10-12 feet away. It has a recycle time of about 7-10 seconds.
The camera produces excellent photo with well-exposed, sharp, contrasty and richly-colored images (see the samples). The sample photo can be seen at
http://www.review-shop.com/Canon_SD300/Canon_SD300_Sample_1_1.html
(you can copy and paste the above address into your browser's address area)
The skin colors are true to life and pleasing. The photos taken with the SD300 are sharp from corner to corner with only the very edges of the frame being slightly softer than the center. This will not be noticeable in printed pictures however since corners normally don't make it to the print due to the aspect ratio difference and other factors. Plus, the blurriness is so small, you have to enlarge the image to 100% on the computer screen to notice it.
Usually, the smaller the camera and the higher the optical zoom it can provide, the softer the image becomes, especially at the corners of the frame as it is difficult to produce compact optics with high zoom levels. Surprisingly, the lens on the SD300 is so good, there is only a small amount of blurring in corners. Overall, the lens produces sharp results at all zoom levels and has impressive 3x optical zoom range.
The image noise is absent at ISO 50 and cannot be found even in the shadows. It appears (slightly) at the ISO 100 in the shadows, gets more pronounced at ISO 200 and gets worse at ISO 400. Still, if you are printing 6x4 or 5x7 pictures, the noise should not be visible at all and will only be slightly visible at ISO 400 with larger prints. With 4-megapixel shots it produces, you can print your photos at up to 11x14 inches with good detail (ISO 50-200).
Recommendation: I highly recommend Canon SD300 if you want a miniature, cool yet capable camera with 4-megapixels that produces excellent photos with print sizes of up 11x14 inches. It is extremely fast, easy to use and, dear I repeat it again, simply cool.
If you want more control, you might want to check out slightly larger Canon PowerShot A520.
Digital camera Review: Feature Rich and Easy to Use(*)
Summary: 5 Stars
Disclaimer:
I've never owned a camera of nearly this quality before, so I don't have much basis for comparison. I can't tell you if this is better than some similar camera, since I haven't used any others.
That said, I'm really liking this camera.
Out of the box, it's very easy to figure out how to point-and-shoot and use basic functions with all possible adjustments set to the default "automatic" setting. After that, you'll have to hit up the manual. Due to the compact design, there's no room for a verbose menu system, so everything is icon-based. To figure out how to access more advanced features, you're going to have to reference the manual.
The manual is quite comprehensive, though, and handily indexed so I've been able to find what I wanted without much trouble. The manual also does a reasonable job of explaining not just how to adjust the settings, but what the different settings mean, e.g., "ISO 50" vs "ISO 400". It tells you how to change it and a brief explanation of why different settings may be desired.
The picture resolution is quite spectacular. In fact, if you're just looking to take casual pictures to send to family members over the internet or a camera to take standard-sized photos with, you could certainly get away with a cheaper camera. This camera takes pictures of sufficient resolution to print as a small poster! (Or a very large glossy print.)
The video mode is quite nice as well. With a 1 GB memory card, you can record over 15 minutes of video at maximum quality, or over 45 minutes of video at a medium quality (or over 2 hours of video at lowest quality). The video also includes sound, though I have doubts as to the quality of the built in microphone.
The built-in flash is great and it has a red-eye reducer. The optical + digital zoom is fairly impressive and there other other features such as rapid-fire picture snapping (where you hold down the button as the camera clicks away) and macro mode (allowing you to take a magnified shot of something really close to the lens).
Transferring data to your computer is also quite simple, with the included connections and software. You can also, of course, review stored images using the camera itself and erase whatever you want from there.
As the camera only comes with a very tiny memory card, I advise getting a bigger memory card and an extra battery when you buy this camera. I got the 1 GB card and can honostly say it's more space than I could ever possibly want. 1 GB holds hundreds of top quality pictures -- or almost 2000 pictures at 1600x1200 resolution!
There are cameras that take even higher resolution pictures than this one, but unless you know for a fact that you want to use your camera to print large posters, you truely don't need more than 5 megapixels.
Digital camera Review: Fine if you don't need more than a gig of space...
Summary: 3 Stars
This camera would easily earn 5 stars except for the fact that it is incompatible with certain SD memory cards. I bought a 4GB high speed card that works great in my cheap Nikon, but this camera informs me that there is a "memory card error" and that the card is locked. I called support, and the man informed me that my card had not been tested with the camera. When I asked for a list of cards that had been tested, he told me to check Google!
If you don't need as much capacity, I had great luck with this camera and a high speed 1 Gig card. Be warned of 'incompatibility' issues and incompetent support.