Cons: small flash, less manual features, external charger
The Bottom Line: This camera is excellent for a beginner wanting to easily snap pictures, but it's also great for the enthusiast who wants a pocket camera along with something bigger.
collegegrrl's Full Review: Canon PowerShot SD300 / IXUS 40 Digital Camera
I decided to go to a local camera shop one day after school, just to play with their extensive stock of high-end consumer digital cameras. My friend and I played with all the ultra-compact cameras, including the Optio S series of cameras (the ones that are small enough to fit in an Altoids tin).
I've been wanting a pocket camera for some time now. It occurred to me that I use my little low-quality Verizon camera phone more than I was using my full-featured Canon A60 digital camera!! Solution? Buy a new camera that is as small as my cell phone.
My biggest problem was that there were no tiny cameras from Canon...or so I thought. I've had my A60 for about nine months now, and the photo quality and clarity never ceases to amaze me.
Then I found this little guy, and his 3 megapixel brother, the SD200. The nexy day, while surfing some internet deal sites, I found a $45 off $400 coupon for Dell.com. $350 later, I was the proud owner of a brand-new Canon Powershot SD300, complete with a 512MB Sandisk Ultra II SD memory card.
Digic!!
Before I explain why you should buy this particular camera, allow me to give a short lesson on why you should always consider Canon digital cameras over other brands.
Not far too long ago, Canon developed a new digital camera processor, which they branded as "DIGIC Technology". I tend to liken the Digic processor to Intel's Centrino technology (sans the wireless card). Like the Pentium M processors and their accompanying chipsets, the Canon Digic processor is optimized for battery life, file reading and writing, and speed. The processor also takes extremely sharp, bright photos, even on lower quality settings. I've cropped and enlarged photos from my A60 (which is only 2 megapixels), and you can barely tell in a 4x6 printout that I cropped the photo at all. Pixelation is at a minimum with these cameras.
Then, just this past month, Canon introduced the first consumer cameras with their newer processor, the Digic II. The Digic II does everything the Digic does, but better...and we always need better. The SD200 was released in October; the SD300 was released just this November. Now that Canon finally had an ultra-compact digital camera, I was ready to upgrade.
In the box
The SD300 ships with a small assortment of accessories - a wrist strap, 16MB SecureDigital (SD) memory card, USB cable, video/audio cable, lithium-ion battery, and battery charger. Right out of the box, you can pop in the card and the battery, and you're ready to shoot pictures. It's recommended that you charge the battery overnight before using it for the first time. I, however, am extremely impatient, so I didn't do this (shame on me).
Appearance is (almost) everything
From the outset, this is a beautiful little camera. Almost the entire outer casing is made of metal, aside from a few plastic components where the A/V and USB ports are. On the face of the camera are (obviously) the 3x zoom lens, flash, optical viewfinder, and the AF assist/redeye lamp.
Moving to the top of the camera, we can see that its interface is very simplified compared to the PowerShot A series of cameras. The power button is located near the center of the top, and is flush with the surface of the camera. Next to the power button is the shutter button, around which is a ring that you can push to the left or the right. This ring serves to zoom in and out in record mode, or to zoom in and out of photos in playback mode.
One side of the camera is entirely bare except for two assembly screws. On the other side is a chrome-looking plastic plate with a ring for attaching the wrist strap. Above the wrist strap is a plastic door that flips open to reveal the A/V out (3.5mm minijack-type plug) and the USB 1.1 connection.
The bottom of the camera gives us a serial number, tripod mount, and a two-part little door that slides out and up to reveal the battery and SD slot. There's also a rubber flap on the door itself that opens for use with the A/C adapter kit (sold separately).
...Now we see the back of the camera, which is (of course) the most important part. Canon's a follower in the LCD market, having upgraded from a 1.x-inch display to the bright new 2-inch LCD. This makes setting up shots extremely easy. Above the LCD is the optical viewfinder, and two lights - green and orange. The green light glows when the camera has focused and is ready to shoot; the orange light glows if the lens can't focus on your subject.
To the right of the LCD are all the controls and buttons. A slider switch at the tob of the camera allows you to go between the three basic modes - playback, record movie, and record picture. Below this switch, from top to bottom, are the Menu button, four-way switch and Func./Set button, and Disp. button. Near the bottom, next to Disp., is a newer feature of Canon cameras - the Direct Print button. At the top right of the four-way switch are eight little holes that serve as the microphone for voice memos and video recordings.
Menu brings up *gasp* a menu! This menu feature has three parts - mode settings and options, camera/hardware settings, and My Camera settings. The mode settings change depending on the basic mode you're in, and allow you to do things like set the self timer (2 or 10 seconds), erase all the pictures on the card, turn off/on the digital zoom and the AiAf (artifically intelligent autofocus) assist beam. The hardware settings are more nuts and bolts, and let you change the LCD brightness, volume, powersave settings, etc.
Func./Set brings up Canon's well-developed Function menu. It also serves as the Set button in Menu mode, which is similar to clicking the mouse in Windows. The Function menu of the SD300 is very similar to other PowerShot digital cameras, allowing you to set the picture mode (auto, manual, digital macro, portrait, night shot, kids and pets, indoor, and underwater), exposure compensation, white balance, ISO speed (50, 100, 200, 400), photo effect (vivid, neutral, low sharpen, sepia, black and white), image compression level (super fine, fine, normal), and resolution (L 2272x1704, M1 1600x1200, M2 1024x768, S 640x480, Postcard 1600x1200). Postcard autosets the camera to take shots that are smaller in file size, but bigger in image size.
The Four-way Switch serves two purposes. In playback mode, when zooming in on a saved image, the switch lets you move around the photo. In record mode, however, it has four different functions. The top of the switch allows you to set the light metering - evaluative, center weighted, or point. The left position sets the focus to Macro, Landscape, or auto. To the right, the switch sets the flash mode - On, Off, Slow Synchro, Auto, and Red-eye Reduction. The bottom of the switch allows you to delete images (immediately after taking a picture, or in record mode), set the drive mode (turn on and off burst picture taking, which allows you to hold down the shutter and take multiple pictures in close succession), and turn on and off the self-timer.
Disp has three modes - LCD off, LCD on with no info, and LCD on with info. "With info" allows you to have all your picture-taking information around the edges of the display - ISO speed, focus setting, drive mode, etc.
Finally, the Direct Print button allows you to use the camera with any printer that supports the universal Direct Print protocol. I don't have such a printer, since I've found that digital pictures printed at a lab turn out much better than anything i could do at home. However, a Direct Print-capable printer means you can plug the camera in via USB to the printer itself, thereby eliminating the need for a computer to simply print out images.
Photography made easy
Taking pictures with this camera is beyond easy. Point, press the shutter halfway to focus, press all the way to take a picture. The macro mode allows you to get as little as 3 cm (1.2") close to your subject! Recording movies is just as easy, and with the new 60fps feature, you can record up to 60 seconds of video without any jerkiness or lag.
The supplied A/V cable plugs into the 3.5" minijack and ends in two male RCA-type plugs, for mono sound and composite video. This lets you playback photos and movies on your TV very easily.
A picture really is a thousand words
But what about the most important reason for buying a camera - the pictures? All in all, I'd have to say that this camera is excellent for taking photos of people, stuff for eBay, your cat, etc. I've used this camera some already to take photos of various rooms around my house, and the clarity is still very good, but be aware that the flash is smaller than on a full-size camera, so photos in large rooms with no subject (e.g. someone standing in front of you) won't turn out as well with this camera as with others.
You may read on other sites about purple fringing issues with this camera, when taking photos that have bright white against a dark background. I haven't seen this yet to be a huge, noticeable problem, and if it bothers you, it can easily be corrected in image-editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop. The most important thing to me is the overall quality of the picture, and this camera takes unbelievably sharp pictures. I rarely have photos printed from my digital images, since most of what I do is online (websites, eBay), or otherwise multimedia-oriented (PowerPoint, desktop publishing). However, I have seen 4x6 printouts from Olympus, Sony, Kodak, and Canon cameras, and Canon's clarity and vivid colors surpass any other camera brand I have used.
Although you may not think so, this camera is good even for the most die-hard photography enthusiast. A friend of mine owns a Canon EOS-20D SLR camera, and he picked up a Pentax Optio S3 last year (long before the SD300 was released!), because he knows that sometimes, you just want to take a picture. This camera is small enough to fit in your pocket or even your smallest evening handbag, and the tiny size coupled with the Digic II processor and features of this camera make it extremely hard to resist.
What cons?
The only manual features this camera is missing compared to the Canon PowerShot A series are manual focus, shutter speed, and aperture settings. Pentax has released the S5i, which is five megapixels and is price-comparable to the SD300, but unless you plan on blowing up your photos to the size of small posters, I recommend considering getting the SD300 instead. For $100 less, you can pick up the three-megapixel SD200, although the body of the camera is not quite as sexy as the SD300.
My only other complaints about this camera are that the battery can only be charged via an external charger, and the interface is still USB 1.1. USB 2.0 has been out for awhile now, and with transferring larger image files (the higher the resolution, the higher the file), as well as larger movie files, it would have been nice if this camera could do USB 2.0. However, I have a USB 2.0 8-in-one card reader, so this isn't a problem for me.
Non-OEM (Canon branded) batteries go for about $20 on eBay, and it's a good idea to consider getting a second battery, so you always have your camera ready to go, even if one battery is dead.
If you want to get more into the manual side of photography, consider the four-megapixel PowerShot A85, which has all the clarity of the SD300, but with several more manual features. For fun and general picture-taking, however, the SD300 just can't be beat. The Digic II processor is faster, so startup time is almost instantaneous, and a high-powered card (like the SanDisk Ultra II cards) means that writing pictures to the card is even faster than before.
The bottom line?
I wish everyone could have this camera. It makes taking photos even easier and more fun than before, simply because of its size and ease-of-use. The MSRP for this model is $399; the SD200 MSRP falls to $299. I've found most online stores sell the SD300 for around $350, and if you look around enough, you may be able to get an even better deal (bundled with a memory card, etc)!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 316.65 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
The ultra-sleek, ultra-slim Canon PowerShot SD300 delivers 4.0 megapixels of resolution--enough to make photo-quality 11-by-15-inch enlargements New l...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.