Canon PowerShot SD800 IS 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Image-Stabilized Optical Zoom (OLD MODEL)

Hello All, I'm typing this review because I'd like to give my input and experience (limited) with this camera.I'm not a professional photographer or anything of that sort. I'm a digital artist, and I needed a camera to take reference photos and textures for use in 3D programs such as Maya. This is actually my very first digital camera. I did a ton of research, and came to this conclusion after many, many hours of reviewing. Thanks everyone for your great reviews.On to my review.The first thing I noticed about this camera was how pretty it was - It was packaged beautifully, arrived promptly and with all the desired and mentioned extra's included. There are various metallic accents around the lens, and on the top and bottom of the camera. Buttons are also chrome like, the photo's of the camera don't do it justice. But besides physical appearance, I've had nothing but positive experiences with my camera thus far.I was concerned about some of the negative reviews, the lens problems, and boggled by the choices of SD Elphs (SD 850, SD 1000, SD 700, SD 750, SD THAT, SD This, it was kind of overwhelming, especially to someone who had no idea what they were getting into.) I Eventually decided that any lens problems were in the minority, and that any (IF) issues down the road occured, I'd just deal with them, there's a whole support website devoted to fixing the problem, so I really didn't think it would be a problem. *Knocks on wood*Here are the various reasons I decided upon this camera out of all the other versions.1. Reviews. The majority of reviews were very positive, and in terms of the ratio of good vs. bad, it came out like so:475 good reviews (5 and 4 star) Versus 26 bad reviews (2 and 1 star) not counting the three star reviews.Reason #2. Photo Examples. Out of all the photos I saw taken by this camera, on the amazon website and others, the photo quality seemed to be great. This has proven true thus far from a personal viewpoint, all my photos of my cat and family turn out well lighted and sharp, and I find the flash works well, however sometimes turning it off auto is needed. (Because sometimes the camera thinks it "needs" the flash, when in fact the photo would look better without it.)Reason #3. Features and Extras. This Camera has a bagoogle of stuff to play with. All kinds of scene modes, Color swap and Color accent features, which can also be applied to video) as well as light distorting filters that I haven't really experimented with yet. The fact this camera has a wide angle lens is also a big plus. The color swap mode is more addictive than tetris or pong on a boring day. I've seen myself green, hulk style (SO much fun, really...Imagine a short video with you ripping your shirt off.) Friends white cars turned pink, hair turned green, etc. I'm sure soon enough I'll have people saying "OKAY, You've seen my skin blue, put the fricking camera down."Reason #4. Practicality and Navigation: This Camera, and all its bagoogles of features, are integrated into the camera beautifully. I don't find them detracting from my photo-shooting experiences, because they're tucked out of the way, and don't clutter things up. However, when you need them, you need but flip a switch to summon a plethora of options available, such as ISO and Scene Modes.Reason #5. It's pretty, Yeah, it's got a green light that emanates from the top of the camera, it really looks nice.Reason #6. Macro. I bought this camera originally as a means of obtaining textures and reference photos. A lot of the textures I need are macros (Skin, dirt, etc) and I found this camera to have a very professional macro that seems to focus very well, even when almost touching the camera to the surface of whatever it is you're shooting.That's all! That's why I chose this camera. I believe this camera would be a great choice for anyone who's not a megapixelfile, or too picky about having a ton of manual choices. For the shutterbug who doesn't want to get too involved and caught up in all the complexities that a camera can present, I think this little Bugger will serve you well for simply taking good photos.Thanks for reading! : )PS: I bought an 8 GB SDHC Card along with this camera - search for transcend 8 GB in amazon. For 35 bucks or so 8 GB is great, and the card is compatible with this camera and very reliable. : )PS #2: I'll be sure to come back and edit this review as I spend more time with my camera.

I had two major requirements when I bought this camera -1. A 28mm focal length on the wide angle side2. It had fit easily into my pocketThis camera fits both requirements well.The 28mm requirement is the result of many years of taking pictures of family, friends, scenery - having that extra angle of view compared with the 35mm or 38mm more generally offered opens up many possibilities. If you haven't experienced the difference, give it a try before you buy.Another feature of a camera I discovered, when lugging a 35mm reflex with a big zoom lens on it (the proverbial potato masher) was that it didn't matter how good the camera was if it was at home when I wanted to take the picture. Thus the pocket-size requirement.I have taken thousands of pictures over the years, moved from film to digital, and now see the cameras getting smaller and smaller - and doing more and more.Happily, it all comes together in this package. It takes wonderful pictures - Canon seems to have figured out the software as well as anyone - and it's easy to use. Not lots of settings and adjustments, but I've had cameras with them available and never used them.The anti-shake feature is a miracle. You can use any focal length in almost any light where the camera will work without flash, and not worry about the shakes.One general comment - in the Auto mode, the camera will increase the ISO setting as the light falls, trying not to turn to flash. But at ISO settings much above 100, the resulting pictures are noticeably grainy, and at 800 and 1600, they are pretty ugly. I shoot in Manual mode, just to keep the ISO constant, set at 100. And the flash is really quite good for a little guy like this. In the rare case where a higher ISO is a better solution, you can set it at other values, up to 1600, and fire away - and accept the consequences. Sometimes a grainy picture is better than no picture at all.I got a neat little case at Staples, made by Case Logic, which fits the camera snugly, and offers some foam protection. It has been dropped numerous times in the case, and it just happily bounces and comes back for more.The camera spends a lot of time in my pocket, and having it handy enables taking lots more pictures, in fun circumstances. When people don't expect you to have a camera, you can catch them out better than when you have to do "Hey, hold that until I go get my camera", or "Dang, I wish I had brought my camera".For comparison, Panasonic has just brought out this camera Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3S 7.2MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver)which also has a 28m wide angle. The 10x zoom goes well beyond the 4x on the Canon, but the Panasonic is enough larger to make it a bit less of a pocket-fitter. The longer telephoto is attractive, though, and it has the required anti-shake.For cameras of this pixel count, it's interesting to note that you can put almost 1500 pictures on a single 2GB SD card. On a trip? That's 100 pictures a day for two weeks - not bad. And the cards aren't expensive.So, for my requirements, this camera is near ideal, and I'm very happy with it. No real gripes at all.