Canon PowerShot SD850 IS Digital Camera Review
By Emily Raymond
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
August 23, 2007
Canon’s SD digital cameras may be slim and trendy, but, as exemplified by the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS, the manufacturer is putting some real muscle behind the pretty faces. The 8-megapixel SD850 IS has a slick inch-thick body packed with 11 Scene modes, a Movie mode, Face Detection technology, and a 4x optical zoom lens with an Optical Image Stabilization system.
”Slick” doesn’t refer to its suave nature – although it has that too. It more refers to the actual tactile feel of the camera. The SD850 IS’s body has a slippery surface that handles similarly to a wet bar of soap. There is no hand grip on this tiny digital camera either, so be sure to string the wrist strap onto the camera’s right side so it doesn’t hit the pavement. Wearing a rubber glove wouldn't hurt either.
The camera body measures 3.6 x 2.2 x 1 inch and has a 2.5-inch LCD screen on the back. The screen looks great with its smooth 230,000-pixel resolution and wide viewing angles, certainly better than the Canon SD700 predecessor with its 173,000 pixels. It gets greased up easily with fingerprints that reflect in the sunlight, but a wipe with the edge of a T-shirt will fix that. The big LCD doesn’t leave room for much else, although Canon did include an optical viewfinder. Too bad it’s too small to be of real use.
The “IS” in the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS’s title stands for “image stabilization,” a feature that compensates for slight bumps and jiggles from shaky hands. The 4x optical zoom lens benefits from this stabilization system, and its effects are best seen in the Movie mode. The SD850's lens isn't as long as the Sony T100's 5x zoom, but beats out the Panasonic FX55's 3.6x and Nikon S500's 3x lenses. All three of those digital cameras have optical image stabilization systems.
In Movie mode, 640 x 480-pixel videos can be recorded. The optical zoom doesn’t function while recording, like on most digital cameras, but the image stabilization does its job by keeping the video steady. The Movie mode is also enhanced by the clear audio and availability of controls like white balance and color effects.
Canon has an extensive list of color effects, from the basics like sepia and black & white to the more exotic Color Swap and Accent modes. These color effects are not only available in movies, but also pictures and in Playback mode. Listed among the Scene modes is a new sort of effect: Creative Light Effect mode. This lets you choose from a list of tacky shapes like music notes and hearts. That shape then replaces the tiny highlights in pictures, such as the shimmer on new cars.
That mode seems cool – the same way pegged pants were cool in 1987. This looks like a trend that will pass quickly and probably be omitted from future digital cameras for fear of looking out-of-date. There is another trendy feature on the SD850, but it seems to be here to stay: face detection. This recognizes up to nine faces at a time and meters the exposure from them so faces are in focus and perfectly lit every time. The fresher $349 Panasonic FX55 has a revamped system that can recognize 15 faces at a time. The Canon SD850 is still more effective at focusing on faces than the $299 Nikon S500 though, which isn't very quick to detect smiling relatives.
The Canon PowerShot SD850 IS is a sexy but slippery camera with a host of automated modes. It has some legit features, like face detection and an optically stabilized 4x zoom lens, but also some hyped-out features such as the light effects and color swapping. The 8-megapixel SD850 retails for $399, which is a hefty sum to pay, even for these specs. If you can afford it, it’s a great digital camera. It takes excellent pictures and that’s what matters most. But if you’re on a budget, there are other great cameras to look at.
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