Vincent Ferrari
01-22-2007, 04:00 PM
<img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ferrari_sd800front.jpg" /><br /><br /><b>Product Category:</b> Point and Shoot Digital Camera<br /><b>Manufacturer:</b> <a href="http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=14227">Canon</a><br /><b>Where to Buy:</b> <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/digitalmediathoughts-20/detail/B000HAOVGM/103-9581613-5121420">Digital Media Thoughts Amazon.com Affiliate Store</a><br /><b>Price:</b> $449 USD<br /><b>System Requirements:</b> N/A<br /><b>Specifications:</b> 7.1 Megapixel sensor, 28-105mm lens, 3.8x Optical Zoom, Optical Image Stabilization, 2.5" LCD, PictBridge capable, USB 2.0 connection, 3.52 x 2.28 x 0.99 in. / 89.5 x 58.0 x 25.1mm (more detailed specifications <a href="http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelTechSpecsAct&fcategoryid=145&modelid=14227">here</a>.)<br /><br /><b>Pros</b><li> Small pocketable size;<br /><li> Excellent color reproduction;<br /><li> Optical image stabilization;<br /><li> Video can be shot at 640 x 480;<b>Cons</b><li> Average low-light performance;<br /><li> Images are noisy at ISOs higher than 400;<br /><li> Autofocus is a bit slow at times;<br /><li> Zooming in video is digital instead of optical;<br /><li> No manual control of aperture or shutter;<br /><li> A bit chunky compared to other compact cameras<b>Summary</b><br />After shooting with my Rebel XT exclusively for almost a year, I decided that having a point and shoot again would be a good idea as I was trashing my Rebel by carrying it around everyday. After a few recommendations (not the least of which was Jason's) I grabbed a Canon Powershot SD-800IS. I've never been happier with a point and shoot, but it's not without its problems.<br /><br />Read on for the full review!<!><br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>What's in the box?</b></span><br />Canon wouldn't win any prizes for being overgenerous with their box contents...<br /><br /><b>Includes:</b><li> Manual;<br /><li> Software CD;<br /><li> 16 Megabyte SD card (really, Canon, why bother?);<br /><li> RCA cable (use it to hook the camera up to a television);<br /><li> Wrist strap;<br /><li> Mini-usb cable<span><b>First Impressions:</b></span><br />When you first hold the SD-800 in your hand, the first thing you notice is that it's not as slender as some of the higher-end digital cameras out there, and it's certainly a bit heavier. In fact, there is a certain "chunkiness" to it. That being said, it fits comfortably in your hand and is easy to operate with one hand. My only gripe ergonomically is with the awful power button. It's flush with the case, and nearly impossible to use. I often find myself holding the camera with one hand and pressing the power button with the fingernail of my pointer finger to turn it on. Not good, Canon.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ferrari_sd800powerbutton.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 1: The world's worst power button. For some reason, and I can only guess it's for sleekness, they made the power button flush with the case.</i><br /><br />Another thing you'll notice is that the viewfinder is extremely small. Frankly, on a point and shoot camera you shouldn't be framing any shots through the optical viewfinder anyway, but it's still worthy of note.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ferrari_sd800back.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 2: The back of the SD800. Simple controls, a good-sized LCD, and an overly small viewfinder adorn the back of the case.</i><br /><br />The screen is a good size for a smaller point and shoot. At 2.5", pictures are easy to frame and detail is easy to see. All in all, the SD800 is a very nice camera in a very nice package.<br /><br /><span><b>Out and About</b></span><br />On the first day I took the camera out for a real spin, the first thing I noticed was how responsive it was. You can go from power-on to taking your first shot extremely quickly, a welcome change from most of the point and shoot cameras I've used over the years.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ferrari_sd800_figure1.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 3: Even in odd lighting conditions like the NYC Subway, the SD800 is pretty sharp and takes excellent photos.</i><br /><br />Another thing you can't help but notice is how good the image stabilization works when taking night shots. The picture below was taken, handheld, in Queens, New York.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ferrari_sd800_figure2.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 4: The fact that you can take a shot like this, handheld, is a testament to how well the optical image stabilization actually works.</i><br /><br />You can see that there's no visible signs of motion shake despite using a 1/4 second shutter and ISO 100 while slightly zoomed in order to fill the frame with the subject. In other words, the camera is extremely stable when taking pictures in most conditions. The shot below is also handheld, from my office roof and slightly zoomed:<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ferrari_sd800_figure3.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 5: Slight zoom of the NYC skyline at dusk; a tricky shot without some kind of IS.</i><br /><br />After my first night out with it, I was very impressed. Usually these were shots I could only get with my Rebel, but the SD800 was starting to win me over.<br /><br />I also liked the choice of color modes in the camera. Although I tend to leave it on "Vivid" which makes colors pop a little more, you can set it for Neutral, B&W, Sepia, Darker Skin-tones, Lighter Skin-tones, enhance Red Green or Blue individually, and even set custom colors. A word of warning, though. You're better off leaving Black and White for your software to handle. Chances are it'll do a better job anyway!<br /><br />After shooting a few shots on "opening night," I also realized just how fast this camera was ready to take another shot. Performance is excellent, and the camera is ready almost immediately to take another shot.<br /><br />Finally, the video. One of the nice things about this camera is the relatively high-resolution video. At 640 x 480 with 30 frames per second, video is really good. The SD800 does have a built-in microphone, and with a 2 gigabyte card, it can capture a little over 16 minutes of high quality video. At the lower 320 x 240 setting, you add an additional 16 minutes, all at 30 frames per second.<br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>It's Not All Roses...</b></span><br />Canon specs the SD800 as being able to go as high as ISO 1600, but in my experience, shooting at an ISO of 400 or higher borders on unusable because of noise issues. Below is an example shot demonstrating the ISO range of the SD800 (click to see the full-sized version).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ferrari_sd800_isocomparisonlarge.jpg"><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ferrari_sd800_figure4.jpg" /></a><br /><i>Figure 6: You can see as you move further up the ISO range, the quality takes a definite hit.</i><br /><br />As you can see pretty clearly in the full-sized comparison the noise issue is very prevalent at the higher ISOs. Despite the fact that 400, 800, and 1600 are almost off-limits as far as noise goes, the camera does do a very good job of adjusting aperture and shutter speeds to make shooting at lower ISOs less painful. I've also had good relatively good luck cleaning up the noisiness with Neat Image, so if you don't mind a bit of extra processing at the end, you can get satisfactory results even at the higher range.<br /><br />In video mode, the camera is quite good. The problem you run into, however, is that when you zoom in and out while shooting video, it's not done optically, but digitally. While it's nice that Canon thought to allow users to zoom at all during video shooting (3 prior cameras I've had wouldn't let you do it at all), the digital artifacting on zoom is unbelievably bad. So bad, in fact, that you're probably better off not zooming at all.<br /><br />Another gripe is that the lens is very close to the flash, which means you're destined to have to deal with redeye. Being someone who rarely uses the flash, I don't find it to be that big of a problem, but your results may vary. Seeing as it's really easy to remove redeye anyway, it's more of annoyance than a problem.<br /><br />My last gripe is something Jason actually noticed. Apparently, if you shut the camera down while in manual mode, it "forgets" your settings except for the flash setting (on / off / redeye reduced). For example, if you've set the focal length for landscape or macro, you have to reset it when you turn the camera back on. That seems like a silly oversight on Canon's part, and hopefully a firmware update is forthcoming to remedy it.<br /><br /><span><b>The Neatest Feature</b></span><br />The neatest feature of the SD800 is the Face Detection that's built in. In a nutshell, when it's turned on, you simply point the camera at a human face, and it knows that it's seeing a face. On the LCD, you'll see a special set of cross-hairs surround your subjects face (or faces, as the case may be). It's amazing to watch as the camera will constantly move the cross-hairs as your subject moves around your screen. <br /><br />Face Detection will detect faces and adjust exposure and flash settings accordingly. The theory is that you won't end up blowing out details and turning your subject into an overexposed featureless ghost. Does it work? Well, actually, it does, and while it may not save you if you're too close and use the flash, it makes a difference in situations where you have no choice but to use the flash. It's just as big a help when you have a picture to take with multiple faces since the camera will help you get equal exposure for all your subjects.<br /><br />Overall, this is one of a very small number of features I've seen that could be considered "gimmicky" that actually do pretty much what they claim to.<br /><br /><span><b>Durability</b></span><br />Lest you think that the SD800 is merely pretty, you'd be sorely mistaken. One morning, as I was getting ready for work, I grabbed my jacket off the couch and out of the inside breast pocket fell my then-one-day-old SD800. Needless to say, I was crushed. It made a sickening snap as it hit my beautiful parquet floor and I thought for sure I'd go to turn it on and find it smashed to bits. I reached down, saw that all the necessary bits were still in place, and threw it in my jacket pocket.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ferrari_sd800_figure5.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 7: This picture was taken the same morning I dropped the camera. There were no ill-effects, thankfully.</i><br /><br />On the train platform, I took the camera out to get it ready for my usual en-route-to-work photo sessions and the case had shifted where the front of the case was under the back of the case. I thought this was the end. I gently nudged the case apart and it snapped back together in perfect position. Everything was right back the way it should be as if nothing had happened. I proceeded to take the picture above and everything was 100% normal. A sigh of relief came out immediately, and I thanked my stars that I hadn't set a world record for fastest destruction of a beautiful new gadget ever.<br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>Included Software</b></span><br />I'm only writing this part in the interest of getting the story out there, but I really can't say with any degree of certainty whether or not the included software is worth a damn. I'm a Mac user and when it comes to photo management, I use iPhoto. For editing, I use Photoshop CS2, and for Panorama building, I use Calico. In the end, I have no need for the software and it hasn't been opened. I will say that taking the USB cable and hooking it up to my Mac resulted in iPhoto popping up a mere two seconds later and offering to import my photos for me. Frankly, that's plug and play in action, and installing the software seemed a waste of time at that point.<br /><br /><span><b>Bottom Line</b></span><br />I like this camera a lot. When Jason recommended it, I decided it would be a good fit for me, and so far I haven't been disappointed with any of it. I would like some of the features to be more refined than they are, though.<br /><br />For one thing, I'd like the video mode to use the 3.8x optical zoom and, somehow, I'd like to be able to record at a resolution higher than 640x480 seeing as the camera is a 7.1 Megapixel camera.<br /><br />For another, I'd like more manual control. Honestly, I know situations where I'll need it and for those, I take my Rebel XT with me, however I <b>always</b> have my SD800 with me, so if I find myself in one of "those" situations, I'd still like to be able to compensate as needed.<br /><br />I'm not thrilled with the charger; I'd much rather the battery charge in the camera, but I guess the benefit is that I can charge one and use another at the same time.<br /><br />While I'm on the subject of battery life, though, I'd be seriously missing an important point if I didn't mention the ridiculously good battery life. At times, I've gone a week (roughly 150-200 shots with daily use) without needing a recharge (not that I'd know I needed one since the battery gives no indication of its charge level, but the camera still worked) and that's with framing every single picture through the LCD as well as reviewing them on the screen. That's impressive no matter how you slice it.<br /><br />All in all, I'd recommend this camera to anyone looking for a step above the generic point and shoots that are out there. It is a bit on the pricey side, but I do honestly believe you get what you pay for. If Canon can convince me to use a point and shoot, they can definitely convince others. Buy this one without hesitation. Even though there are some annoyances, the good parts far outweigh the bad.<br /><br />(You can see more of my SD800 shots including full-sized versions of the ones used here <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vincenzof/sets/72157594408304925/">on my Flickr stream.</a>)<br /><br /><i>Vincent M. Ferrari is a blogger, photographer wannabe, digital media junkie, and Apple fanboy from the Bronx, New York. His most famous accomplishment is canceling his AOL account which got him an inordinate amount of fame, something he still brags about to all his friends. When he's not taking down multi-billion dollar corporations, he's writing on his <a href="http://www.insignificantthoughts.com">own blog</a>, taking photos, and working on the show notes for the <a href="http://www.twit.tv/ilz">Twit.tv Network's iLifeZone</a> podcast.</i>