Canon PowerShot SD800 IS

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CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
Detailed editors' rating

Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 102 reviews
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Product summary

The good: Good focal range for lens; quick performance; optical image stabilization; attractive design.

The bad The bad: Few manual controls; extremely noisy photos at ISO 1,600.

The bottom line: A slim, stylish body, a wide-angle lens, very good photo quality, and snappy performance make the Canon PowerShot SD800 IS a great point-and-shoot.

Specifications: Digital camera type: Compact; Resolution: 7.1 megapixels; Optical zoom: 3.8 x; See full specs

Price range: $399.95

CNET editors' review

Reviewed by: Will Greenwald
Edited by: Lori Grunin
Reviewed on: 10/03/2006
Released on: 10/01/2006

Last spring, Canon impressed us with its stylish high-end shooter, the 6-megapixel PowerShot SD700 IS. It had a great lens and produced great images, all in an attractive, pocketable, metal body. With the follow-up Canon PowerShot SD800 IS, the company improves upon its previous design by squeezing in a wider lens and a higher resolution sensor.

The 7-megapixel camera's tiny body is shiny, curvy, and very attractive. But it may be just a bit too stylish for its own good. For instance, the power button is a tiny, illuminated half-oval built flush into the top panel; without actually pressing it, you might easily mistake it for an indicator light or a design flaw.

The Canon PowerShot SD800's mode dial curves slightly outward, flowing into the design of the camera, making a comfortable resting spot for your thumb. But it feels slightly slippery when switching camera modes.

Beyond those quirks, though, the SD800 IS is a standard, straightforwardly designed Canon shooter, with a four-way navigation switch, additional buttons, and the shutter-release/zoom-rocker mechanism we've grown used to. The small, all-metal body weighs slightly more than six ounces, and at an inch thick, is just the right size for most pockets. Though small, the camera still has enough room on its body to hold both a 2.5-inch LCD and an optical viewfinder, a rare and welcome feature on an ultracompact.

The SD800's most prominent feature is its image-stabilized, f/2.8-to-f/5.8, 28mm-to-105mm-equivalent lens. The 3.8X zoom range offers the flexibility of wide-angle focal lengths, while still providing a bit more zoom power than the average 3X point-and-shoot lens. Though the SD700 IS had a 4X zoom lens, the SD800's 28mm-equivalent wide shot more than makes up for the slightly smaller telephoto factor.

See more CNET content tagged:: Canon Inc.,; Canon PowerShot,; lens,; shot,; camera

User reviews

Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 102 reviews
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Showing 3 of 102 user reviewsSee all 102 user reviews
2.0 stars

79 out of 103 people found this review helpful

"Image Stabilization fuels the hype of this one trick pony."

by zerohalcyon on October 11, 2006

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4.5 stars

35 out of 35 people found this review helpful

"best point and shoot digital I've ever used"

by macfly76 on October 19, 2006

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4.5 stars

32 out of 33 people found this review helpful

"A perfect second camera"

by jhlien on October 22, 2006

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Canon PowerShot SD800 IS

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Where to buy

Canon PowerShot SD800 IS: $399.95

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	$399.95	Yes
Amazon.com Marketplace	$399.95	Yes

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Reviews from
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photographypress.co.uk

Editors' rating: 80

Summary: The IXUS 850IS offers some neat new touches and a million extra pixels, superb build, a nice wider-angle zoom lens and great image quality at lower sensitivities

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tech.co.uk

Editors' rating: 80

Summary: A victory for substance over style. Many people may buy the 850 IS because it looks fantastic, but they'll get great images too

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techradar.com

Editors' rating: 90

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neocamera.com

Editors' rating: 100

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dcresource.com

Summary: If you want a stylish, ultra-compact camera with a wide-angle lens, then the Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital ELPH is definitely a good choice. There are some image quality tradeoffs that come from having a tiny camera with this kind of lens, but the typi

Read full review