Canon PowerShot SD600 (Digital IXUS 60 / IXY Digital 70)

Opinion: ok... well i will start of by saying.. overall i do love my canon sd600... its been my
main camera for a while before i decided to buy a leica dlux4/panaonic lx3... i am a
huge fan of compact cameras.. and achieving d-slr results in the smallest
package....

my sd600 was a gift from my brother.. so i had to keep it and ended up using it
quite a bit because i felt i could bring it clubbing, partys, outside events, etc... it
has been dropped multiple times.. and even had lens error death screen but was
easily fixed by me and some online tutorials....

construction... gave it a 4 because mine have suffered some abuse.. but the damn
thing still works great.. besides the lens error which caused me to deduct 1 point...
the rest is history... this thing works.. it feels solid.. and lasted longer than any
other point and shoot ive owned..

features 3/ease of use 5... pretty standard canon ... wish it did exposure
bracketing.. but great manaual features and automatic modes are great... canon
layout is awesome and easy to learn....

image quality 2.5 ....i am very fluent with photoshop so all images are ususally
retouched for "better results". my camera with flash does have heavy vignetting at
all distances... even without flash... newer canon sd series look alot better than
mine and even with crop factor images are not the best..

Opinion: This is the worst Powershot I have used after A40 and A620; constantly blows the highlights and underexposes in flash mode. Images are only sharp athe base ISO; higher ISOs are unsuable.

Opinion: Pros: Good battery life, good handy small size. Great focus and exposure in high light situations. Good construction. I like that it has a viewfinder in addition to the LCD screen.

Cons: no manual controls, including flash. Cannot force the flash On for fill-in flash, it only has Auto and does not work for fill-in flash. No battery life indicator. Poor focusing in low light situations, very noisy/grainy images in low light situations, and high camera shake (can't control shutter speed). This is extremely frustrating. Slide button on rear to switch between photo, movie, slide mode is annoying and always needs to be checked because it moves so easily if anything touches it.

Opinion: Ive had this camera for about 9 months with no problems. Good pictures and battery life. I would want no other camera in its price / size range!

Opinion: I have been using this camera for well over an year now & have had no problem with the battery compartment or USB port doors. It is certainly much stronger than it looks :)

Opinion: I use this camera to supplement my Nikon dSLR. Officially it's my 'wife's' camera...but that was just so she'd let me buy another camera on top of the huge amounts I spend already!

I have very few complaints about this camera. It does the job that Canon created it for, which is to make the casual snapshooter happy by providing a good quality, light & compact camera that is easy to use, provides decent images and starts up in a snap.

Because of its size, I carry this camera around in my pocket almost all the time and it's never a burden. Outdoors in the sunlight, I can get fantastic, sharp images with good color and contrast using a customized setting. But images look fine in full auto as well.

Indoors, like a lot of other p&s cameras, IQ goes down significantly. You either have to use flash which can lead to some very artificial looking images or crank up the ISO and shoot without flash which will lead to grainy images. Although the flash seems to meter fine, it's very difficult with ANY camera to get nice looking images without bouncing your flash. My preference is to use no flash indoors and then use noise-removing software.

All-in-all, a very enjoyable camera to use thanks to its ease of use and respectable in-camera processing.

Opinion: I took this camera to Israel and Egypt to take once in a lifetime pictures and it performed very well under all types of conditions - cold, hot, night, day and dirt. It was extremely easy to use (I am a novice) and it took fantastic pictures. All who see my pictures are impressed. The camera is so light weight and it slips so easily into a pocket that at times I forgot where I had put it. I took a number of pictures from a moving tour bus and while not perfect, they were quite good - better than missing the shot altogether. I inadvertently sent it it through the Israeli x-ray machines at the Tel Aviv airport (some of the most powerful in the world) and it never missed a beat. I used the LCD monitor for 95% of my shots; only the desert sun at the pyramids overcame it. The menu screens are easy to understand, even for a novice like me. The battery charger worked well on 220V current and usually took less than an hour to re-charge. Overall it is a great value for the money. I would recommend it to anyone.

Opinion: Just bought this camera and I have to say that is is nice to finally have a small sleek camera. I owned a Cybershot P52 and that was bulky but it took great videos, I was looking for a digital camera and I was told this was it for the money. I got it at Staples and if you go to MSN,.com there is a $15 off coupon on their site and then they will price match circuit city for 199.99, out the door with a 1gb card and the camera was under 220 with tax :)

I have taken pictures with it at night at my fruitless plum tree that is bearing flowers right now and the detail on the image was OUTSTANDING. well worth the money.

Opinion: For the current pricing, this camera can't be beat IMO. It's such a fun camera to use. I can hold it in one hand and snap away. A 1Gb memory card is ample, even with the superfine large jpg files (you'll need to buy this separately).

The video is a nice extra, but don't buy this camera for the video - it works, but that's not what it's designed for primarily.

Certainly, as others have said in bright light there will be blown highlights when there's lots of contrast if you just shoot in auto mode in particular. But there's a histogram and so many other features that if you care about such things then you can easily adjust the settings to cater for it.

It's a point and shoot camera that fits in your pocket. Light, takes almost no space. I bought it for travel around the world. I'm taking my dslr with some nice lenses but wanted a pocket cam as well, for those spontaneous shots, hotel rooms, and fun. For quick shots that will be easy to post on a blog while I'm on the road. It surpasses my expectations.

It is what it is. If you want a full featured dslr then get one. If you want a small, delightful p&s that you can use to snap away, and with some great features for configuring for different situations - get this camera while it's still available - and at runout prices.

It will be a gift for my 87 year old mother when I get back from my trip. I know she'll just love it, and she'll be able to easily print her own pics at home.