The Canon PowerShot SD800 Review
Posted by naratorn on March 20th, 2010
The Canon PowerShot SD800 looks very stylish with its compact structure and rounded edges. It features a retracting lens that enables it to slip into a pocket easily – and that’s a quality every casual camera user yearns for. But, make no mistake, the Canon PowerShot SD800 is not just for the casual user – it includes a 7.1 megapixel imager, a 28 mm 3.8× magnification optical zoom lens (Canon) capable of giving you wide-angle coverage.
But what takes the cake is the Image Stabilization (IS) technology. IS technology has two fantastic features: (i) it rigorously reduces the impact of the camera shaking when pictures are taken at slow shutter speeds, (ii) it allows you to shoot a reasonably clear image in dark conditions without any red-eye – in fact, even in darker condition that are four times that of your darkness-photography comfort levels. So, all enthusiasts who had to worry about lugging a tripod or about shooting in the dark can put their fears to rest.
The Canon PowerShot SD800 doesn’t stop at the IS technology – it also includes Face Detect technology that detects up to 9 faces in a single frame and automatically optimizes the focus and exposure when the shutter is half-pressed, resulting in great people shots.
The two biggies of the Canon PowerShot SD800 – the IS technology and the Face Detect feature – make it a must-have for any camera user who doesn’t want to bother about shutter speeds, apertures, the camera shaking and photographs getting fudged in the dark. These are concerns and problems faced by over 90% of all camera users and the Canon PowerShot SD800 is a heaven-sent camera for them.
On the physical front, the rounded corners and the slim-n-trim design make for comfortable handling and a good grip. As mentioned earlier, it also can be easily slipped into a pocket.
Now, we come to the ease of use while shooting pictures: The control icons on the Canon PowerShot SD800 are big enough to see and can be grasped quickly. There are just four buttons to learn and, in keeping with the character of the camera, these are easy to master. Plus, it features a large (2.5″) LCD display and an optical viewfinder – features that make this camera a pleasure to shoot with.
The Canon PowerShot SD800 has an automatic exposure system, which can still be tweaked around by serious users. The LCD is smart enough to flip the image if you decide to take a portrait picture (instead of the standard landscape setting) and the ISO sensitivity range is large – from 100 to 1,600! The image stabilization feature informs you if you were successful in capturing a picture, and that too is a very useful feature.
Pros
The biggest advantage of the Canon PowerShot SD800 is its image stabilization technology. You can do the Samba while shooting your pictures and still get a clear image! (Hey, that was a joke!) The lens is sharp, the flash is very powerful and the image quality is excellent – even the wide-angle and telephoto-mode pictures have minimal distortion. The 2.5″ smart LCD helps shoot better pictures as well as review them, while the optical viewfinder helps in viewing a picture even in bright light conditions. The video/movie functions very well and allows you to shoot in slow motion too. Oh yeah, the face detection system is really helpful in getting great shots of people even when surrounded by other objects.
At full-charge, the Canon PowerShot SD800 can shoot up to 270 pictures with the LCD on. To top it, the lightweight Canon PowerShot SD800 features USB 2.00 high-speed support and looks way too cool.
Cons
Well, all good things may not necessarily come to an end, but they do pause for some time. And that goes for the Canon PowerShot SD800 too. One big grunt against it is that though it is touted as a “no redeye” camera, redeye does show up here and there. Another grudge is that the zoom factor doesn’t show up on the LCD. The date and time printing appears on the 1600 × 200 resolution pictures and the 16 MB memory card is too small.
Conclusion
All said and done, the Canon PowerShot SD800 is a good piece and is designed for the common man who loves to take his photographs but doesn’t want to worry about aperture tuning, shutter speeds, and the small tweaks required for shooting the perfect picture.
It makes picture taking a simple task and isn’t that what everybody wants!
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
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