Canon SD700-IS Compact PowerShot Digital Elph Serial No. 2628105xxx: One of the reasons that Canon as an enterprise excels in this new world of Digital Compact Cameras, is that they have the ability to move the technology that has been refined in their flagship professional equipment, to the semi-pro or consumer gear, and on down to their "pocket cameras." This camera is an excellent example of Canon bringing over several very important Pro features. The most obvious is the large, clear, high resolution LCD display; a similar display used in Canon's $4000 pro equipment. The other important feature is the use of their effective Image Stabilization, IS. Many of the reviews I have read recently do not give full credit or understanding of this very important "candid" photographic tool. When using this camera with IS switched on, one has the ability of taking good shots at 1/15 sec or even lower, assuming that your subject is not moving. Many shots can be taken with out the Flash. Read the manual packed with the camera and experiment with this feature; you will be surprised at how powerful and easy to use this feature is.For those wanting to know detailed features go to Phil Askey's site:For those wanting a quick & dirty review plus see some unedited images:This camera has a WOW factor for any class of user. I have used and/or own the best Canon digitals and this camera adds to a great line-up of cameras. As a teaching Pro, I for one like the strong flash, and the IS feature. Another feature I like is the Auto ISO feature. This is like committing heresy for a supposed Pro, wanting any AUTO features. Well too bad; sometimes, yes infrequently, I want to spend ALL my attention on the subject, and do not want any distractions with all these settings. I am a technology person, and read all the documentation two or three times. No matter, many sometimes I look for the Green Dot, telling me the camera is ready to AUTO expose and the Focus is spot-on ready... and I'll go full auto... It works well too. Some other notable features is the ability to turn on a GRID, superimposed on the LDC screen; this is very helpful if you are taking shots and desire to have the camera in synch with the horizon or an edge of a building. Another surprise feature, is when you are viewing shots, if you took a variety of portrait and landscape modes, when viewing shots, if you rotate the camera the image rotates automatically. What this means if you take a portrait shot, instead of seeing a much smaller thumbnail, just rotate the camera body and the portrait shot auto rotates to fill the LCD screen; very cool feature. The images shown are not fancy hand picked ones. They are straight from the camera with no editing whatsoever.
In comparing the Canon SD700-IS (N) Compact PowerShot Digital Elph with SONY's DSC-T30, which are similarly sized, priced and featured, both cameras take great videos and snap-shots in a variety of circumstances. I would rate this as a tie-vote overall. Feature wise, the T30 does have their bright 3" screen, and 7.2 million pixels, however, the SD700 (90 x 57 x 26 mm / 3.5 x 2.2 x 1 in) is 5mm shorter in overall size than the T30 at (95 x 57 x 23 mm /3.7 x 2.2 x 0.9 in); however, Canon's SD700 has a 4x zoom lens giving the equivalent of 35-140mm focal range. In shooting modes; the T30 is a bit more sensitive for low light images, having an ISO capability of Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1000 with the Canon having ISO capabilities of Auto, 80 ,100, 200, 400, 800. If you are into Macro modes, the T30 is a clear winner here in that it has two macro ranges letting you shoot to as close as 1cm. Also the focusing is superior at these close ranges, I had difficulty getting the Canon camera to focus at the point where I wanted it to focus, when taking the "bug shots." As I have stated before, picking a point-and-shoot camera is like buying sandals, a very personal choice. If you stick to the most popular brands (Canon, Sony, Nikon, Pentax, Panasonic, Casio) and buy a current new model, US$400/500; they all will take great shots once you are familiar with the controls, etc. Do not buy prior years' sale models. Too much is happening with digital, and 24 months (ago) is a whole generation in dog-years for cameras.
I've used my SD700 IS for several days now. Before receiving it I was concerned about the reviews on Amazon that talked about the noisy video problem. However, the first reviews were written before the camera was released in the US. So I crossed my fingers. I got my camera from Crutchfield. (By the way, their custom service was excellent!)
I have been unable to reproduce the noisy video problem. My videos are *not* noisy and sound good (for a camera of this size). I will say that if I turn up my computer's volume as loud as it will go...THEN there is some ambient background noise. But the volume is extremely loud at that point and I expect a tiny microphone to have some noise when played back at such a high level. For normal video shooting and playback, my SD700 sounds just great. I've tested it with an without the image stabilization activated and the videos do not have any excess noise. Also, my zoom is quiet! Anyway, my experience with the camera obviously differs from others'. Not sure if that helps you or not.
As far as the picture quality, I am also happy. Most of my shots so far have been indoors in the evening using the flash. Color saturation is fine and flash coverage is really good. (I'll upload some examples if I get a chance.)
Hindsight being 20/20, I'm not sure the image stabilization is something I needed. With a flash, it really isn't necessary and I've been an amateur photographer for many years so I know how to hold a camera. I'm sure the IS will be handy if I'm ever in a situation when I'm taking photos from a moving car, or letting someone else use the camera. But if I had to make the purchase all over again I'd probably get the SD600 or SD630 and save a few bucks.
It has a slew of settings including ISO 800, focus lock, flash lock, custom exposure and slow shutter setting. So although it lacks aperture and shutter priority there are still plenty of adjustments I can make in order to get a good shot (though this hasn't bee necessary so far).
PLUSES:
1. Looks beautiful and feels very solidly made when holding
2. Fast startup, fast refresh (I'm using a SanDisk 1GB Ultra II SD card)
3. Image Stabilization.
4. Quiet operation.
MINUSES:
1. Does not come with a case.
2. Does not have aperture or shutter priority modes.
3. Does not record MPEG format (video) or RAW (photo).
4. At close to $500, it's a bit spendy.
Buy Canon PowerShot SD700 IS 6MP Digital Elph Camera with 4x Image Stabilized Zoom Now
Stepping up from my Canon S40 to the Canon SD700 was the perfect choice for me. Since deciding that my old S40 wasn't up to pair with the versatility and compact size that I needed, I looked on Canon's website to see what new cameras were on the market. I compared three basically similarly built cameras: Canon's SD600, SD630 and SD700. Wow! I thought. List price of $499 for a camera? With the only difference being an added viewfinder, the color variations on the body and image stabilization?Is this camera really worth it?
Being a VERY touchy / feeling / must test something out in person kind of gal, I went to Costco and Ritz Camera before finding a floor model at Best Buy. There, I was able to compare the SD 700 with Sony's 8.1 megapixel contenders and Nikon's family of digital cameras. I poked. I prodded. I made movies. I rationalized. I bought it.
I haven't looked back in regret since.
This camera is a powerhouse: It's small, quick to start, and you can use digital zoom while recording in video mode. The internal color filters while in SCN mode are a big plus: the less time I have to spend in Adobe Photoshop, the better.
Plus, the SD700 can even fit into my smallest bag WITH my keys and my wallet. This feature alone makes me want to take it everywhere with me. You never know when opportunities to take photographs may arise. And yes, I actually DO like the fact that like the SD600, this camera has a viewfinder. Personally, I thought the size of the LCD screen in the SD630 was too large. The black contrast matting surrounding the preview LCD screen in the SD 700 is perfect and just right.
Like Cameron below me, my zoom is quiet and I do not have a noisy video problem. You can change the exposure settings and shutter settings in limited variables. So far, this has not been a problem for me.
This camera works great while synching with my iMac and iPhoto.
If I had to do it all over again (including my week of internet research and in store questions) I'd choose this camera in a second. It has everything I wanted in my upgrade and I'm very satisfied with it. If you buy this camera, I'm sure you'll feel the same way.Although not a big fan of early Canon digitals, images from friends convinced me that Canon had come a long way from its original crappy roots and this camera doesn't disappoint although there are some cons as well as pro's (aren't there always?!):
Pro's:
**Very light
**Sleek and stylish
**Battery lasts a very long time I've done a 4 day trip in Spain and a week in London before needing to charge the battery, and it will sit in the camera unused for up to 3 weeks before the charge goes completely so about 1Gb of images...
**Image stabiliser works well (more so in bright to moderate conditions than nighttime though)
**Excellent macro (2cm), although may take an attempt to focus or two for the camera
**Very good colour reproduction, although to really capture the blue of flowers (always a difficult subject with digital camera's tends to wash them out), you need to go into manual mode and make sure the camera is in 'Vivid blue' colour setting.
** Generally the scene modes are very good
Con's
**NO idea when the battery is going to run out an icon just suddenly appears when the battery is nearly depleted and a few pictures later, your battery has run out
** Was a little deceived by manual controls -I thought that meant I could control exposure etc, but only have limited EV control, colour control
**Very poor in extreme sunshine (e.g. high altitude) I find myself in a constant battle to stop the camera from overexposing. Even setting the EV to 2 stops into darkness does't stop the camera from overexposing
**No manual focus or ability to override focusing which can be a real pain as sometimes it focuses on the wrong thing and there is no way to nudge the focus over to the right object
** If you set the camera in macro/infinity mode, it goes back to automatic mode after taking one picture most of the time (there seems to be a few seconds delay so if taking a number of shots in quick succession, it will stay in macro/infinity, but the moment you pause to reacess the picture composition, it will slip back into automatic). This can be annoying, particularly in macro mode as I am frequently reassessing the image composition and suddenly find it can no longer focus 2cm from the flower and have to pull back and reapply the macro setting.
**Problematic if wanting to take night images. I found the best way was to set the camera in fireworks mode, but there is no other real way to do a 'long' exposure to capture (say) a night skyline.
I admit, I'm being picky because I have been using a digital camera which has manual override (Pentax Optio 750Z), but I wanted something that was even more compact and I guess somethings got sacrificed as a result. For the most part, this camera is an excellent little digital, will produce stunning results for people whether on automatic or 'manual' mode. The image stabiliser is superbe, particularly for those who are hesitant about always having 'shakey' hands. I really do recommend this camera for people just wanting a lovely little compact digital to take pictures of families, friends and holiday without any of the bulk.
Want Canon PowerShot SD700 IS 6MP Digital Elph Camera with 4x Image Stabilized Zoom Discount?
Since the day i purchased this camera, i havnt been able to put it down.Ability to take great low noise shots in darker situations (indoors, night ect..) with the flash turned off.
ISO settings are right at your fingertips.
Pictures come out exactly the way you see them on the LCD, they are perfect everytime.
Solid construction.
Good macro mode for its size.
Menu is very easy.
Changing settings is a breeze.
Image Stabilization makes a noticable difference when taking shots indoors.
Perfect size,.
This is the first digital camera i have actually used the video mode on. The videos are as clear as my video camera.The videos have to be seen.
I would highly reccomend this camera, It's the best I've owned and this is my 6th digital.This one will be with me for some time to come.
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