Canon Powershot SD400 5MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom
by Canon
Our Price: $599.95
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Category: Digital Camera
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: CanonModel: 0557B001
Color: silver
Product features:
- 5-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 13 x 17-inch prints
- 3x optical zoom; 2.0-inch LCD display; ultra-compact design (.8 inches thick)
- Enhanced movie mode with fast 60-frame-per-second capture rate
- DIGIC II Image Processor provides fast, accurate image processing
- Powered by rechargeable Lithium-ion battery; stores images on SD memory card
- Adobe Photoshop CS5 Upgrade [Old Version]
- Serif PhotoPlus X3
- Adobe Photoshop CS4 Upgrade [OLD VERSION]
- Aperture 3
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon Powershot SD400 5MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom
Customer 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.
Description of Canon Powershot SD400 5MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom
Canon Powershot SD400 5MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical ZoomDigital Cameras
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