Canon PowerShot SD400 (Digital IXUS 50 / IXY Digital 55)

Opinion: reat quality vids + pics, fits in pocket perfectly

I just bought this camera at Best Buy last week. The salesman said that he put it out about 5 minutes before I got there and that it wasn't technically supposed to be available for a week.

I had my mind made up that I was going to buy the SD300 (very similar 4 megapixel camera) but when I saw that the SD400 was only $50 more and finally available, I decided to go for the higher end camera.

My previous digital camera is about 4 years old and clunky by today's standards (Olympus Camedia 360). The thing that blew me away the most about this camera was the quality of the video recordings. One of my friends had another Canon digital elph and took some video recordings in the past. I thought they were ok but kind of pixelated and choppy. The SD400's videos are excellent, they are very crisp and smooth. Watching them on my laptop or the TV did not generate any pixelation when the video was recorded at the widest zoom. Digital zoom while recording videos will produce some pixelation.

It was a rainy, overcast day in Massachusetts when I bought this camera so I haven't had much to take pictures of yet. I shot a few in my house while I was there and I was definitely impressed with the quality.

The menu system was very logical and the learning curve for me was very flat. The camera displays the videos and pictures very quickly.

My first impressions of this camera are definitely the size (smaller than I thought), quality of images/video, and responsiveness of the camera when displaying images already taken.

I'll know more about the battery life and stitch assist later on as I take more pictures.

The other accessories that I purchased for this camera are: sd300 accessory kit (extra battery, case, wrist and neck strap) and a sandisk 512 mb SD Ultra memory card.

The only reason I didn't give this product a 10 was that I haven't used it enough yet and I'm sure I will find at least some small flaw.

Opinion: This is my initial impression of the camera, I have had for about 4 days now. Its very very small. It replaced my wife’s S230.
She really likes the size, she takes it everywhere. The quality is better than anticipated. Some reviews stated it was noisy…it is only in low light situations without the flash. Over all this is a good point and shoot ultra compact.
The flash is plenty strong for its size. I will try to post an updated review later but for now, we are really happy with the performance and quality of pictures. I don’t notice any softness in pictures.

Opinion: I love this Camera! I have had it less than a week and take it everywhere. Picture quality is incredible. Accurate fleshtones, and amazing detail highlight this camera. Yes there are many good cameras out there, but NONE I could find that can do all that SD400 does.

Here are my top 10 favorite things about this Camera..

10. Construction quality - Very good. Not as nice as the SD500, but still feels solid and very well made.

9. 2" screen - Big enough to really review your excellent pics. Very bright and clear. Also it is inset a little bit to prevent some scratches.

8. 5.0 Megapixels - Nice big images for cropping. Just shoot away and crop later.

7. SD compatible - Much better than Compact flash of last gen S500

6. Decent flash - for such a tiny camera. Its not perfect but very effective. Red eye is bad in normal moder, but is reduced pretty well with "red eye reduction" ON

5. Macro mode -Amazing! Focus down to about two inches and get incredible detail. Not many ultra compacts can come close in this area.

4. Size - This camera is tiny! Yet still feels well made and easy to hold. You will take it everywhere.

3. Fast! Fast! Fast! - turn it on and ready to go in 1 second! Shot to shot is very fast! Focusing is very fast. Shutter lag is almost non existent outside. Digic II chip is great!

2. Movie Mode - I never thought I would even care about it, but... the 640x480 Video is incredible and even has a 320x240 60 FPS mode. Some of the videos I have taken are about as good as some movie cams I have seen. You can even zoom with it and is only limited by the cards size and speed as to length. You can almost leave your movie camera behind if you only need small clips of whatever you are recording. It really is that good. No other Camera I have seen has this, and is one thing that really separates this camera from the others.

1. Picture quality - I cannot stress enough that while the SD400 does a graet job in so many areas it really excels in the area of image qualit. Let's face it, we all want a camera that takes good pictures and this one does. I have seen very little purple fringing, and edge softeness is very slight especially if you don't zoom. Look at some of the sample pictures from this site as well as the Canon site.

Other notes of interest. Red eye can be pretty harsh, but can be controlled fairly well with the red eye reduction mode, and of course you can always change it in software. Portrait mode also seems to do a decent job of softening the background artificially as if you had a very small aperature lense. Battery life seems to be fine, not great, but extra batteries are only $20 online if you look and is adequate.

Little things like the shot modes are nice but not why you buy this camera. though the skin tone lightening and darkening feature is actually pretty useful. I can't say that about all the modes though.

Oh, and definitely buy a fast SD card such as a 1 Gig Ultra II sandisk card. It will help take advantage of the Digic II chips speed in the movie mode, as well as shot to shot speed. This Camera is FAST! Hint... Costco has them cheap!

My gripes with this camera are very few and very much issues I can live with but I will mention them below just so others can be aware. Just in case they are a big deal to them.

Bottom line... The SD 400 is an easy choice. The SD500 by Canon is an incrdible 7.1 megapixel Camera that I owned and returned when I saw this camera. And that is saying something because that is one of the best built ultra compacts I have seen yet.

But... this SD400 does almost everything the SD 500 does(less the 7.1mp, better flash, smooth body and a couple of needless scene modes) in a form factor as small and light as any camera I have seen, but the best part is the ease of use, and excellent performance in areas such as Macro, Movie and of course Image Quality! Canon got it right with this one. see the SD300 review (yes, it is the 4MP version but most of it applies).

I give it an A to an A+

Opinion: Wow! I'm surprised at what a capable little camera this is. This Elph compliments my 350D and takes excellent photos for what I use it for. To date I haven't seen any corner softness. Images are sharp and accurately exposed, with accurage colour. Movie mode is fantastic and not something I used much before purchasing this camera. If you're looking for a small point and shoot, look no farther than the Elph SD400.