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).
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.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.I just spent a good 1/2 hour here reading reviews on the SD800 IS, and didn't agree with many of them so I had to write one myself. I have previously owned Canon's S400, S500 and SD550. I usually pass my previous cameras on to family so I can get the latest and greatest, and once again I am not sorry I did. I am extremely happy with my 800 IS. I quickly charged my battery, then took 60 photos or so using every feature I could find in the camera. Macro, flash, no flash, wide, telephoto, B/W, sepia, vivid, you name it. I couldn't take 1 bad photo even if I tried! I loved the results in all of them. My only complaints were test shots at ASA 800 and up. Yes, those will be very noisy and unusable, but when printed in a 4x6 size how bad will it be, really. Not much worse than film cameras at ASA 400 or 800. How many situations will you find yourself in needing that high an ASA rating? This camera is beautifully built, it looks and feels expensive and I think it's a quality built camera. It is not a tank like my old S400, and it's lighter than the SD550 but it does not feel or look cheap. This is an outstanding small camera. As for soft or blurry edges at the wide angle setting, NONSENSE. I just can't see it in my photos. If you are a previous Canon Digital elph owner and want to upgrade, go for the 800 IS. I picked this one over the 900 because I didn't like the looks of the 900, didn't care for 10 megapixels (when is it enough?), and the 900 did not have the IS feature, which is outstanding on my 800 IS. It really works! I took many photos indoors without flash, hand held and they were unbelievable, with excellent color balance. My flash photos seemed to cover the room just nicely too. I just loved every photo I took today with this camera. So, I don't know what all the whining and bickering is about, but this is one fine piece of camera engineering. As for the battery/SD card cover, yes, it's light and plastic, so open it carefully the way you should handle a $400 camera. There must be many clumsy people out there who break things. I never have, especially with my cameras. So, do I regret giving up my SD550 for this 800 IS? NOT ONE BIT! Both are outstanding cameras. I did a lot of research before forking over the cash for my next camera, and I'm glad it led me again to the Canon line. If you want one, treat yourself. I also hope I have made your selection easier for you. Between my wife and kids, my siblings, my nephews, brothers-in-law, you name it, they all have digital cameras now. We see many crappy photos, but almost never from those who went with the Canon Powershots. What does that tell you?
I have had my camera for more than one month now and I am still very happy with it. My wife has my previous SD550 so I've got the best of both worlds. That SD550 is also a great little camera, so I'm glad we've kept it. It just doesn't have Digic III or the IS feature, but that hasn't been a big issue. What I have now noticed is that for some reason I'm getting more red eye shots with these cameras. I have been taking a lot of photos of my young daughter and her dance class partners, and it seems to be more of a problem with children than adults for some reason. I have read that because of the small camera size, the flash is just too close to the lens and that is the reason. I don't really know but it could be true. I use a software program provided by Kodak Gallery to upload many photos at once, and it fixes that very quickly and easily so it is not a big issue to me. Also, some have written about the white spots that show up on photos. That I believe are dust particles in the air that come out magnified in photos, which is another common thing with these small digital cameras. Remember, at 7.1 MB you will see incredible details in your photos. If you have a digital camera, trying taking shots outdoors at night around a camp fire and you'll see what I mean. As for the round dust spots that show up, I just copy and paste a surrounding area without the spot and paste it over the spot and it's gone. There are many software programs that let you tweak your photos, so it's easy and fun to make corrections, which was virtually impossible with film photos.Sure, there are some legitimate quibbles about the SD800. For example, while generally solid in construction, the USB and video out are hidden behind a remarkably flimsy cover. In fact, when you pull back on the lid, it feels as if the slightest additional force would break it, although so far so good. And, yes, as some reviewers have noted, the mode changing dial might be difficult for someone with clumsy fingers.
You also should know that, while it has a manual mode, this is a not a camera for someone who wants to tweak apertures or shutter speed. It's a point and shoot, after all. That's the category. If you want more, look elsewhere. So, that isn't a complaint. It's just a caveat to those who aren't fully sure what they want out of their camera.
Also, some have complained about the camera being "only" 7.1 mega-pixels. This kind of "insight" doesn't really help when looking at cameras as light, small, and easy as the SD800. Certainly, if you need to make prints bigger than 16 x 20 (after cropping), then perhaps you should be concerned -and ought to be looking a something other than this point-and-click beauty. This camera is about a beautiful form factor, easy portability, and stunning pictures, not making posters.
These points being said, the SD800 is a very special camera. I've owned a number of digital cameras (Fuji, Nikon, and Canon), and checked out way too many cameras before I purchased the SD800. The picture quality is superb--the best I've seen under most conditions. It's incredibly fast on recharge, focus, flash, and picture snapping. It also has a wide-angle lens that grabs enough extra real estate (and people) to make far more stunning pictures than the typical lens on a point-and-shooter. The SD900's lens pales in comparison. I dare you to see for yourself!
As for overall build, this is a solid, virtually all metal camera. Would it survive a 12-foot fall? Maybe not. Few cameras would. My last Nikon broke on a 5-foot fall. That's life. Just keep it on a strap.
This is a great camera. The camera to get, in fact, if you want gorgeous pictures, a great lens, and more features than you can shake a stick at, including amazing optical image stabilization that really works, and software that identifies faces in a shot and makes sure they all look as great as they can.
