Show Me Your Pics (Canon's SD Range)

[Shane]

Hiya Everybody

Just about to purchase a new camera for an up and coming trip. Quite happy to tell you I will be purchasing an SD800, SD800IS or an SD900. Just to give my taste buds a taste I was hoping you could share some of your pictures!

Many Thanks

Shane

 

[Groucho]

Most reviews should have a gallery of sample pics. Not Disney pics, but enough to get a feel for the camera.

I did unload a bunch of pictures (spread over three memory cards!) last night from my wife's new SD600. They're pretty good for such a small camera but like most smaller PnS cameras, a bit soft and a little noisy in low light.

Given the choice between megapixels and IS, definitely go for the IS... out of the 150+ pictures we glanced at on the monitor, only a couple looked like they really had 6mp of information. The vast majority wouldn't lose anything if they were 4mp pictures, in fact, they might look a bit sharper. I think the more expensive SD ones all use the same sensor as this one, so you definitely won't be gaining anything going to the bigger number (just larger files.)

 

[Shane]

Thanks for your input Groucho.

Hmm, I would of thought theyd be a big jump in picture quality from the SD600 - SD900.

 

[Groucho]

I never looked closely at the SD900, but I know that it's got a good chunk more megapixels and I assume that it's the same sensor (there's really no room to put in a larger one?) - and at 6mp, that sensor is already well past its comfort zone. Possibly they worked miracles, but I doubt it.

If it were possible to get the quick response time and the IS of the more advanced SD range with a 4mp sensor, I'd prefer that, quite honestly... but I'm not in marketing.

 

[Cheeky in TN]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1296778

I posted some pics from my Sd800 in this thread. The image stabiliation in the sd800 was more benefit than the 10mp the SD900 offers. With the IS, the camera does take better night photography and zoom shots. I can not say enough good things about it. I had both the Sd800 and Rebel XTi at my last Disney trip and ended up using each camera alot.

 

[Groucho]

Turns out I was wrong - the SD900 does have a larger sensor. It's got a 7.18mm x 5.32 mm sensor (1/1.8) versus the 5.76mm x 4.29mm (1/2.5) sensor in the SD800, SD600, SD630, etc. The SD550 also uses the larger sensor.

An extra 1.42mm of width doesn't sound like much, but it adds up to just over 50% more surface area (38.2mm vs 24.71mm), which goes a long way towards improving the amount of data it can capture and the ability to hold down noise.

Of course, this is still a tiny sensor for capturing 10mp of data. Steve's Digicams was very impressed by the image quality (though much as I like the site, the reviews are often a little "soft" on the camera) and the samples look decent, and someone doing a user review on DPReview found much better image quality going from the SD800 to SD900 (upgrading from an SD550, with the larger sensor). On the other hand, a few other user reviews complain of substandard image quality.

I would say, though, that I might have to retract my statement. All else being equal, IS beats more mp, but when it's IS versus a larger sensor (probably too large for them to easily IS in a body that small), the decision gets a lot more complicated. The IS is handy, but the larger sensor will mean sharper photos all the time, and the ability to bump up ISO to get a faster shutter speed, making IS not quite as important.

 

[Shane]

Thanks for both your inputs, its really helping

I agree, we seem to be stuck in a market of MP's, and being myself and the novice photographer I am I would end up going for the latest with more MP's.

Anywho, more to the point. Having read the reviews on both Steve Digicams and DP Review the SD800 or 900 seems like a good choice, the SD900 has the larger sensor but no image stabalisation whats a real shame. Maybe it has some other sort of eletronc device to stop blurry shots (My biggest worry).

Thanks again, any more information would be great

UPDATE: Like you mentioned that 10MP is quite big for the sensor.

 

[Groucho]

With the bigger sensor, the SD900 will be able to go to a higher ISO level without as much noise as the SD800, so that will help with blurry photos. It will also help when photographing moving objects at night, where the IS won't help (like if trying to photograph Spectromagic.)

Of course, again, that's assuming that everything else is equal... but the higher MP count of the SD900 works again it. It's got around a 50% bigger sensor but also 43% more pixels to put on that sensor.

Still, IS is generally not as important on a short-zoom camera like the SD series... I guess I'd have to lean towards the SD900, assuming the price was fairly close.

I am totally embarrassed by Canon's press release for the SD900, though:

The camera's 10.0 Megapixel CCD sensor offers the highest resolution in the Digital IXUS range to date, providing enough detail for high quality poster size prints with room for creative cropping. A new Safety Zoom feature uses the high resolution to offer extra magnification without affecting image quality – up to 12x zoom when shooting Small size images. Users can also activate the Digital Tele-Converter for extra telephoto reach on all shots, similar to adding an optical tele-converter lens to the camera.

"Safety zoom"? That's just cropping! "Digital teleconverter"? That smells like the dreaded digital zoom to me!

 

[Shane]

Have a watch of this buddy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElmIw_KcYEw

Maybe I should be looking at a different brand. Keep in mind this is quite a big show in the UK

 

[Cheeky in TN]

According to the Canon site, both Cameras go to 1600 iso. I did not realize this, but the SD900 has a 35 mm lens versus the wider 28mm on the Sd800.

I would have to disagree on the IS not helping night shots. That is where it shines. Typically with the longer shutter length, you have blurred shots. The IS has helped offset the shutter speed to give crisper pictures (at least that has been my experience with the Sd800 and my IS lenses on the XTi).

 

[Groucho]

It's always good to check out the competition!

I am partial to Fuji as my first digicam was a Fuji 2800Zoom (2mp, 6x zoom), and it has stellar image quality for the time, and the pics generally still hold up very well.

Unfortunately they still insist on using those darn xD cards, and the ones in the class I was looking at (the $175-225 class) were getting middling reviews, hence our purchase of the SD600.

 

[Shane]

Looking for answers just makes me ask more questions

Extremely hard to choose. After watching that video its really put me off the SD900.

 

[Groucho]

I would have to disagree on the IS not helping night shots. That is where it shines. Typically with the longer shutter length, you have blurred shots. The IS has helped offset the shutter speed to give crisper pictures (at least that has been my experience with the Sd800 and my IS lenses on the XTi).

I said moving objects at night. The IS will certainly help for photographing a still object at night, but if you're trying to capture a moving object (like a Spectromagic float), the longer shutter speed, with or without IS, will still make for a blurred subject.

 

[Shane]

Groucho, what are your views of the Fuji F30fd / SD900 compared. I can forget about the Sony, I had the N1 and all my night shots were terrible, if they were not blurred (most of them were) the noise would be extremely bad.

 

[Groucho]

I haven't done any research on that Fuji and only some cursory research on the SD900, so I wouldn't want to comment as I just don't know enough to form an educated opinion on them.

My only real concern with Fuji is that they take the oddball xD card (similarly, Sony uses the Memory Stick) and I think most (all?) Fujis don't do sensor-based image stabilization - but image-quality wise, I've seen very good technical quality photos coming out of most and I would very seriously consider picking one up depending on the user comments and reviews I could find.

 

[Shane]

After lots and lots of reading, I really believe im after an extremely novice "Point and Shoot" camera, so im pretty sure that I will be purchasing either the SD800 or SD900. But then again that YouTube video really rocked the boat, I had the previous sony N1 what was extremely bad for blurry photos but they seem to have placed an image stabilsation in the N2... arrrrrrrrrr decisions!!!

Again, the only thing that is holding me back from the SD900 is no image stabalistion what in my experiance seems to come in very useful, although like you said the bigger lense/IS will help against blurry photos

Knowing me I'm sure I will end up going for the SD900 as the price is pretty much the same for both models, but before I do has anyone got any more input have blurry photos?

Here is a quation from the specification: "Face Detection AF/AE for precisely focused and exposed people shots NEW!" I know what face detection is but for novice users like myself "AF/AE" mean something important? If not im sure it will be fine as many users say Face Detection acts as a sort of image stabalisation.

Many Thanks

Shane

 

[Groucho]

I think that it means is that it will attempt to detect the face in the picture (and from that video, it looks like it may actually do a half-way decent job), and will attempt to autofocus and autoexpose for the face - like having an automatically-select focus point.

I don't know how well it works, but it sounds good in theory.

 

[Cheeky in TN]

I have not had much luck with Facial recognition. It seems to work sporadically.

Not sure if my earlier link worked, but his are a coiuple of pics from the SD800

This was a dark concert and I was zoomed way in to get an onstage shot

This was when he walked out towards the crowd so I was not as zoomed in

The actual pics are not as noisy as these, I think I did not shrink them correctly

 

[Shane]

Thanks for pictures.

I heard both cameras use Auto ISO so you cant change it, and it doesnt tell you what IS it used after its taken. If thats the case its a really big let down. I would prefer to have manual control on such a big feature like ISO

 

[Cheeky in TN]

You can set the camera to manual mode and control ISO. My EXIF data on the PC shows the shutter speed and the Fstop values, but not ISO. It also shows the zoom factor and whether the flash fired. I know the Aerosmith shots were taken at 1600 and the flash fired. Even though I was so far away, at that ISO the flash carried pretty well.

UPDATE: I just grabbed the camera to check the setting. The wheel (or whatever the round control is called) has ISO at the top. In manual mode, you can choose the ISO up to 1600. If you go manual and choose the ISO, the display will show the ISO, the focus setting, exposure comp, white balance setting, and flash status.