Product Description

Canon SD800 IS Digital ELPH raises the bar. There's everything you'd expect from a camera of this caliber: A 7.1 megapixel CCD to render images in magnificent detail and a DIGIC III Image Processor for stellar quality and fast operation. Yet what sets the SD800 IS Digital ELPH apart is its Wide-angle 3.8x optical zoom with Image Stabilizer technology for rock steady zooms. The Canon SD800 IS Digital ELPH is the Digital ELPH that's a step ahead.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5122 in Camera & Photo
• Brand: Canon
• Model: 1270B001
• Dimensions: 1.00" h x 2.30" w x 3.50" l, .45 pounds
• Display size: 2.5

Features

• 7.1-megapixel CCD give you images of uncompromising texture and detail
• 3.8x image-stabilized wide zoom; 2.5-inch LCD display
• 9-point AiAF, single point AF, Flexizone AF, and Face-priority AF
• Stores images on SD cards; powered by Lithium-ion rechargeable battery NB-5L
• Now supports SDHC cards (Secure Digital cards with over 2 GB capacity)

Manufacturer Description
Manufacturer Description

This is the Digital Elph that's raising the bar. There's everything you'd expect from a camera of this caliber: a 7.1-megapixel CCD to render images in magnificent detail, and a DIGIC III Image Processor for stellar quality and fast operation. Yet what sets the SD800 IS Digital Elph apart is its wide-angle, 3.8x optical zoom with Image Stabilizer technology for rock-steady zooms. The Canon SD800 IS Digital Elph, it's the Digital Elph that's a step ahead.

PowerShot SD800 IS Digital Elph Highlights

7.1-megapixel Digital Elph with elegant stainless steel Perpetual Curve design The PowerShot SD800 IS features a high-resolution, 7.1-megapixel CCD to give you images of uncompromising texture and detail. With it, you'll capture what others miss - the delicate strands of a baby's hair, the intricate petals of a wild flower. Plus the camera is as beautiful to hold as the images it takes. The Perpetual Curve design has the look of fine sculpture. Yet it's practical, too. Its unique form is engineered for the shape of your hand.

3.8x optical zoom in action

Wide-angle 28-105mm (35mm equivalent) 3.8x optical zoom with Optical Image Stabilizer technology Engineered with Canon's sophisticated wide-angle 3.8x zoom lens with integrated Image Stabilizer technology, the SD800 IS Digital Elph gives you the "shake-free" performance that makes your pictures sharp and clear. No matter how close you zoom in, the SD800 IS Digital Elph keeps everything stable. All you have to think about is your subject.

DIGIC III Image Processor with Face Detection technology The DIGIC III Image Processor is the latest advancement to Canon's proprietary DIGIC technology, delivering superior image quality, ultra-responsive performance and extended battery life. DIGIC III provides a speedier interface for the SD800 IS Digital Elph's SD memory card, as well as higher definition for its LCD monitor.

Face Detection makes it easy to snap the perfect picture

DIGIC III also empowers new Face Detection AF/AE, which finds all the faces in the frame and sets the most suitable focus point, when the shutter button is depressed half-way. Exposure and flash are controlled to ensure proper illumination of both the faces and the overall scene, eliminating the common problem of darkened or overexposed faces.

iSAPS Technology is an entirely original scene-recognition technology developed for digital cameras by Canon. Using an internal database of thousands of different photos, iSAPS works with the fast DIGIC III Image Processor to improve focus speed and accuracy, as well as exposure and white balance.

Large 2.5-inch LCD monitor with wide viewing angle The SD800's 2.5-inch LCD monitor gives you the big picture, whether you're shooting, reviewing or showing off your images. This high-resolution screen offers a crisp, clear picture and wider viewing angle to make shooting, playback and using the camera's menu functions especially convenient. The clear and bright LCD also features Night Display mode for easy viewing in low light.

ISO 1600 to reduce image blur and expand low-light shooting capability The PowerShot SD800 IS Digital Elph features new ISO 1600 and High ISO Auto settings that reduce the effects of camera shake and sharpen subjects in low-light situations, giving you greater flexibility for shooting.

Improved Movie Mode with fast frame rate With the SD800 IS's Improved Movie Mode, you can shoot extremely high-quality, full-motion movies at 60 fps QVGA (320 x240). When you want to save space, you've also got Standard Recording that lets you shoot at 30 fps VGA (640 x 480). There's even a 15 fps Compact Movie Mode that's ideal for creating movies you can attach to emails.

Print/Share button The PowerShot SD800 IS Digital Elph's Print/Share button makes direct printing easier than ever. Simply connect the SD800 IS Digital Elph to a Canon CP, SElphY or PIXMA Photo Printer or any PictBridge compatible photo printer, press the lighted Print/Share button and print! Also use the Print/Share button to transfer images to a computer (Windows and Macintosh).

Print your own photos in 28 different sizes or use the Movie Print function to output multiple stills from a recorded movie on a single sheet with a Canon SElphY Compact Photo Printer.

Direct Photo Printers
For desktop large-format printing, try one of the Direct Photo Printers that allow you to print without a computer in one of two ways: plug your compatible PowerShot camera into the Direct Photo Printer using the supplied USB interface cable, or simply insert a memory card into the supplied adapter. You can also connect the printer to your computer for more options. Print high-resolution, borderless images as postcards or 8.5 x 11-inch sheets within minutes.

Compact Photo Printers
Compact Photo Printers let you produce versatile, fun 4 x 6-inch postcards, 4 x 8-inch wide greeting cards or credit-card size prints in just two easy steps: connect and press/print. Control the printer right from your camera's LCD monitor. You get durable, dye-sublimated prints quickly with or without borders. Assorted paper types let you create mini or credit card size labels. You can even take the SElphY ES1 and CP730 Compact Photo Printers to a party or an outdoor picnic using an optional rechargeable battery.

Customer Reviews

I really like this camera
In my opinion, this camera is worthy of a 5 star rating, one of the few I've ever given.

My experience with cameras in this class started with a Canon S-100, which I upgraded later to a Canon S-400, both of which proved to be excellent for my on-the-go photography needs. My only criticism with this class of cameras was that they lacked two features I really wanted:
1. wide angle lens
2. image stabilization
I guess the Canon folks read my mind with the introduction of the SD-800, and after reading a number of positive technical reviews for the camera on the web, I purchased one as an upgrade for my beloved S-400. I was particularly suspicious regarding image stabilization, since my only prior experience with a camera using this technology had been disappointing (Canon S-1, a larger 10x zoom model).

As might be expected with the advances in memory technology, the SD-800 takes movies at a higher resolutioni (640x480) than the S-400 (320x240) and has a higher maximum pixel count (7.1 vs 4.0). It also uses the smaller SD memory cards as opposed to the bulkier CF cards for the S-400, and the lithium battery pack has a different form factor (which means you can't reuse stuff from an earlier model).

What I consider to be the 2 real upgrade features for this camera, the wide angle lens and the image stabilization, are what truly distinguishes it from its competition. I've had this camera for about a month now and can happily report it is a significant advance over the S-400. The image stabilization is a dream. With the S-400 I had to rely on bracing the camera in many circumstances where with the SD-800 I can count on sharp images just holding it out, composing, and taking the shot. In a recent work session where my group had accumulated a great deal of writing on a wide white board along the side of a narrow conference room, I was able to capture in a single, sharply focused shot the entire board, something the S-400 would have taken 2 shots to achieve followed by a photo stitch. There is some distortion at the outer edges, but I personally don't see this as a drawback given the advantages to getting the whole image (after all you can crop the picture if the rather small amount of distortion truly bothers you).

What else? Well, the camera is lighter and more comfortably contoured than the S-400. It does retain the view finder (thank heavens ... there are simply circumstances where this is the only reasonable way to compose a shot). A single door is used for both memory and battery (vs. 2 doors on the S-400). As others have reported, the door has a flimsy feel, but my first camera in this line (the S-100) had a similar door and I never broke it. Anyway, the USB-2 picture download pretty much eliminates needing to pop out memory cards to get a faster download speed via a card reader. I did invest in a 4Gb high speed SD card since maximum movie length is 4Gb at 640x480, 30 frames per second, or about 25 minutes worth of pretty darn good movie taking. My experience to date is that with this level of capability and convenience I doubt I will every use my cam corder again for family movies.

Out of the box I found the controls and interface to be easier and more intuitive than the S-400. I have all the capabilities I had with the S-400, plus some "gee-whiz" features I've had fun with but I doubt I will use routinely (e.g., color swap). I can also recommend Canon's leather case for this camera. It provides an extremely easy way to carry the camera on your belt (it uses a belt loop, which I think is far superior to a belt clip). I was initially put off by the magnetic flap used with this case, but now agree it's a superior design (their earller cases used Velcro).

Very good value for money
I'm a professional photographer who shoots with two Nikon SLRs and an array of Nikon lenses; some of the lenses alone cost five times the price of the Canon SD800. But I got tired of lugging heavy camera equipment around for family and travel photos and general grab shots. So when I'm not working, the SD800 is what I use.

It's not perfect for sure. To name just a few annoyances: it suffers from red-eye effect when you take flash pictures of people; like all point-and-shoot cameras, it has noticeable shutter lag; it has rather a lot of image noise at ISO settings over 200; and its 'manual' mode doesn't let you set an aperture value or a shutter speed. I also notice quite a bit of lens aberration, which becomes especially evident when pictures include straight lines, such as doorways; the SD800 gives them a slight curve.

But maybe all that is the wrong way to look at it. For a $375 featherweight camera, this thing can't and shouldn't be expected to deliver SLR-like quality or features. And what the SD800 DOES do well is more important: It takes lush, pleasing pictures with very good color fidelity (a Canon trademark) and with minimal thought and fuss required from the photographer.

It's also a very pleasant camera from a usability point of view, and not just because it slips easily into a shirt pocket or into the nicely made but optional Canon belt case ($15). The SD800 has only nine controls (buttons and dials), which is usually a recipe for confusion as functions either tend to get hidden deep inside menus, or require counterintuitive pushes of several buttons to access. But the camera is more logically laid out and designed than any compact I've ever shot with. I only had to crack the manual for a couple of advanced tricks, like photo-stitch and color-swap. The rest of the SD800's operation is pretty much self-evident.

I appreciate that the power button is recessed; whenever I tried to stuff my old Canon Powershot G6 into my pocket, or pry it out, that camera would turn itself on due to the poor placement and design of the power switch. It got annoying enough that I sold it. There are no such design goofs on or in the SD800.

The camera's proprietary battery provides lots of juice, the screen (which is as big as on my $1,600 Nikon D200) is bright and clear, the image stabilization works really well, and the range of the lens is just right (being able to shoot at 28mm -- respectable wide angle -- is a wonderful thing, very uncommon among point-and-shoots, whose lenses typically start at 35mm).

All told, I quite smitten with this nice-looking, well-thought-out little picture-taking machine. Considering that it also takes decent video footage, the combination of quality, features, and value is, in my book, untouched by any other digital compact currently on the market.

Takes fantastic photos, but has some design issues.
This is my fourth camera from the Canon Digital Elph line (previously, I had an S330, S400 and SD400). They have always taken great photos, and Canon has truly earned my repeat business (I also had a Digital Rebel and now I have an 20D).

I've had the SD800 for a few days now. Like its predecessors, it takes fantastic photos. The image stabilizer works wonderfully, and the camera functions quite well (and faster than most compact cameras). Other reviewers have spoken about the photo quality, and you can also get detailed technical reviews elsewhere on the internet, so I won't get into that here. What I want to focus on is the functionality of the design of this camera.

Digital Elphs used to be chunks of stainless steel. I dropped my S330 from a 12ft balcony, and it emerged unscathed. This is the first camera I've had that felt like it is going to break at any moment. It is larger and clunkier than the previous generation of Elphs (e.g., it is 36% larger than the SD200/300/400), and feels "plastic-y" and cheap (despite the fact that it looks nice). The buttons are small and offer minimal feedback, so it is easy to press the wrong button, especially if you have large fingers (and even if you have only average fingers). The "mode select" dial switches between Auto, Manual, Scene, Movie and Playback modes, but it is difficult to move. The dial is stiff and has only a small raised ridge on one side, making it difficult to set the dial to the proper mode on the first try. In sum, the design of this camera makes it operation more difficult than necessary; not something I expected from a camera from Canon, espectilly one at this cost.

This camera takes amazing photos, but Canon needs to brush up on their design. For a brief moment I considered returning this camera and keeping my SD400, but this camera's features are too good to pass up. I suppose everyone will get used to the poor design, but for this amount of money, none of us should have to.