I have bought the Canon PowerShot SD400 Digital Elph for only $270 using coupons after it was advertised in an Office Depot catalog for a price that was probably a mistake. The camera is no longer available at this price. But I have received mine and I am very impressed by its cool looks, ease of use and performance, albeit with some reservations that might prevent me from keeping it.

Pictures

The pictures of the Canon PowerShot SD400 as well as sample photos I took using it are available at the address below:

Click here to see the sample photos I took with this Canon SD400 camera and photos of the camera

What Is Canon PowerShot SD400?

The Canon PowerShot SD400 is a 5-Megapixel super-compact stylish digital camera with stainless steel case, a 3x optical zoom, a large 2-inch LCD screen, zooming optical viewfinder, acclaimed fast Canon DiG!C II (DIGIC 2) Image Processor, 9-area smart AiAF auto focus, powered by a small rechargeable battery.

The camera stores pictures on SD (Secure Digital) or MultiMedia memory cards (16 MB SD supplied) and features fast USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection to PC and Mac computers. It also supports direct printing (without computer) with PictBridge compatible printers.

Two Reviews

I will provide two reviews below. The first one (short version) will be targeted to people who don't want to read through multiple pages of text to figure out if the camera has what they want and if it performs well. It is targeted to a casual user rather than somebody who cares about the small details.

The second version will contain the description of the more advanced aspects for those who are interested in them. By separating this information, I hope to avoid boring casual shooters to death with information about things they might not need.

Short Review

The SD400 is extremely cool. It is very miniature, looks cool, feels sturdy and heavy in your hand with its stainless-steel case and metal buttons. It looks and feels durable as well. I perceive this camera as a piece of techno-jewelry from the aesthetical point of view - I am tempted to keep this camera just based on its looks and miniature size alone.

The camera has a retractable lens that extends and has a lens cover that opens when the camera is powered on. When the camera is powered off, the lens retracts and the lens cover closes.

The camera has an on/off button on the top deck as well as a zoom rocker, large shutter release button. The bottom of the camera has a metal threaded tripod mount and a battery and SD card compartment lid. The rear houses a bright 2-inch LCD monitor, an optical zooming viewfinder, control buttons and a cool-looking menu control metal disk with a select button in the middle.

There is also a sliding switch between review, movie and still picture taking modes. This sliding switch has very well-calibrated effort - not too flimsy yet not too stiff, unlike the previous Digital Elphs, which had very stiff controls. The side has a metal cover, underneath which you can find a USB jack, A/V jack and a DC power input jack.

The camera is incredibly easy to use. I have not read the manual (I have not even opened it), but was able to use the camera and all its features in no time. The camera can be used by any member of the family and by photographers of all levels of expertise from novices to advanced ones (albeit it will not give you much control over the shutter speed or aperture).

The SD400 comes pre-set to Auto mode. You do not have to do anything other than point and shoot - the camera takes care of the rest. The camera uses 9-area intelligent autofocus. You press the shutter release button halfway to make camera focus and the camera shows you (on the LCD screen) where it focused by displaying one or more green rectangles. Then you take the picture by pressing the shutter release button all the way.

If you want more control, you can select Manual mode, which is not a real manual mode where you would be able to select the shutter speed and aperture, but rather a mode in which you get access to selection of several parameters. In Manual mode, you can set the ISO (50-400), white balance (several presets and custom), use exposure compensation to make pictures darker or brighter, use picture effects, color replacement effects, etc.

The camera gives you instant access to the flash mode selection (flash off, red-eye reduction, night portrait, auto flash), macro or landscape mode as well as drive mode (single frame, timer or burst/continuous shooting) at a push of a button.

The camera uses the latest version of Canon DiG!C processor - DIGIC II. It is the same processor used in larger Canon digital SLR cameras and it gives this Digital Elph amazing speed. The camera takes less than a second to power itself on in review mode and only about a second to power on and extend its lens in shooting mode. It feels instantaneous.

The SD400 can capture images at about two per second in burst mode (I used Kingston Elite Pro SD memory card). In single-frame mode, the camera could snap pictures as fast as I could push the shutter release button. The focusing takes less than a second and the shutter lag, when pre-focused, is almost unnoticeable. The zooming from wide angle to telephoto (or back) takes less than two seconds and is responsive, but has less steps than I would like.

According to Canon, the camera can take about 150 pictures on one charge of its miniature battery (400 with LCD off). I have not validated this claim, but I took more than 70 pictures and the low battery warning has not appeared yet (the camera has no real battery status indicator).

The flash is rather bright for its size. It has an effective red-eye reduction mode and is sufficient at up to 10-12 feet away. It has a recycle time of about 7-10 seconds.

The camera produces excellent photo with well-exposed, sharp, contrasty and richly-colored images (see the samples). The sample photo can be seen below (click for full-size view)

The skin colors are true to life and pleasing. The photos taken with the SD400 are sharp from corner to corner with only the very edges of the frame being slightly softer than the center. This will not be noticeable in printed pictures however since corners normally don't make it to the print due to the aspect ratio difference and other factors. Plus, the blurriness is so small, you have to enlarge the image to 100% on the computer screen to notice it.

Usually, the smaller the camera and the higher the optical zoom it can provide, the softer the image becomes, especially at the corners of the frame as it is difficult to produce compact optics with high zoom levels. Surprisingly, the lens on the SD400 is so good, there is only a small amount of blurring in corners. Overall, the lens produces sharp results at all zoom levels and has impressive 3x optical zoom range.

The image noise is absent at ISO 50 and cannot be found even in the shadows. It appears (slightly) at the ISO 100 in the shadows, gets more pronounced at ISO 200 and gets worse at ISO 400. Still, if you are printing 6x4 or 5x7 pictures, the noise should not be visible at all and will only be slightly visible at ISO 400 with larger prints. With 5-megapixel shots it produces, you can print your photos at up to 11x14 inches with good detail (ISO 50-200).

Recommendation: I highly recommend Canon SD400 if you want a miniature, cool yet capable camera with 5-megapixels that produces excellent photos with print sizes of up 11x14 inches. It is extremely fast, easy to use and, dear I repeat it again, simply cool.

If you want more control, you might want to check out slightly larger Canon PowerShot A520.

Full Review

Features and Specifications

• Ultra-compact and durable stainless steel body (3.4x2.1x0.81 inches)
• 5 Megapixel 1/2.5-inch CCD sensor for up to 2592×1944 resolution
• 2.0" color LCD with Night Display function
• 3x optical 5.8-17.4 mm (35-105mm equivalent) f/2.8-4.9 zoom with digital Macro capability
• Shutter speeds of 15 seconds to 1/1500 second
• Auto noise reduction with 1.3 sec or longer shutter speeds
• Auto ISO or selectable ISO 50-400
• Evaluative, Center-Weighted or Spot metering
• Exposure compensation: +/-2EV in 1/3-step increments (in Manual mode)
• White Balance: Auto, 5 presets or Custom
• Photo Effects: Low Sharpening, Vivid Color, Neutral, Sepia and B&W
• My Colors - customize your colors while shooting
• Advanced TTL AiAF 9-point autofocus system with focus-assist lamp
• Program AE automatic, Manual and Scene exposure modes (Manual is not "real" Manual - see below)
• Continuous 2fps shooting until memory is full (with fast SD cards)
• Movie mode with sound 640x480, 320x240 or 160x120 with clips up to 3 minutes each
• Built-in microphone and speaker
• Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery and charger included (charger works with 110-240V 50/60Hz)
• Secure Digital (SD) card storage, 16MB supplied
• High-speed USB 2.0 connectivity for PC and Mac
• Direct print and PictBridge Compliant

More on Features and Controls

The PowerShot SD400 is a replacement for the popular 5-Megapixel Canon PowerShot S500. It is a completely different camera however. It is more cool-looking, much more compact, much faster in operation and easier to use.

The camera uses a very small rechargeable battery that looks like my Nokia cell phone battery. The camera has a bright low-light focus assist illuminator that helps it focus in low light.

The camera features selectable Evaluative, Center-Weighted and Spot metering modes. The camera has a built-in flash that is quite powerful or its size and has a red-eye reduction function. The SD400 has a shutter speed range of 15-1/1,500 sec and selectable ISO of 50-400 as well as Auto ISO.

The camera also has a Macro mode where it can focus as close as 1.2 inches (3 cm) at wide angle or 1 ft (30 cm) at telephoto. The available movie mode records movies with sound (the camera has a microphone and a speaker) at 640x480, 320x240 or 160x120 with movie clip lengths of up to 3 minutes.

The aperture range is f/2.8-5.6 at wide angle, f/4.9-10 at telephoto. It seems that the aperture is a two-step type with no fine control over aperture. The camera doesn't let you control the aperture or the shutter speed directly, but even if you select landscape mode or try shooting in different lighting conditions, you will soon discover that your resultant photos have only one of two aperture values at any given focal length. For example, I only get f/2.8 or f/5.6 at wide angle.

This might explain the fact that there is not indication of the aperture (or shutter speed) on the screen during the shooting or even in preview. I believe Canon is trying to conceal the fact that the aperture is of cheaper, two-step non-adjustable type.

Perhaps they had to use this kind of aperture control not because of the cost reasons alone, but because of the size constraints as well. In any case, although it works OK for most situations, it would be nice to have indication of these parameters to be able to estimate if the picture will come out blurry or not. It is rather useful to know the shutter speed when shooting handheld or while shooting fast-moving objects. And it is good to know the aperture while shooting at telephoto to figure out if the background will be blurry or not.

You can use the exposure compensation in the manual mode and it comes in handy in the sunset hours as the camera overexposes the picture trying to preserve the shadow detail.

There are a bunch of scene modes as well, which help the camera tweak the focusing and exposure settings according to the type of scene.

More on Image Quality

The SD400 produces contrasty photos that have a pleasing "Canon" color with slight oversaturation and nice blue skies - the kind of color consumers like. The dynamic range of the photos seems to be slightly limited (as in other consumer-level digicams), but seems to be slightly wider than average for consimer-level digital cameras. In harsh lighting conditions, the highlights can be blown out, but the shadow detail is rather good. Overall, the dynamic range is very good, comparing to other compact camera of similar price.

The complete absence of noise at ISO 50 was a pleasant surprise as was very minimal amount of noise in the shadows at ISO 100. But the noise at ISO 400 makes the ISO 400 barely unusable at any size over 5x7 inches.

I was not able to find much chromatic aberration (purple fringing) in the areas of high contrast.

Color and Picture Effects

You can adjust color saturation by selecting Vivid or Neutral color in addition to the standard setting. In Vivid mode, the saturation is increased and I find that it provides too much saturation. I don't use this mode. In the Neutral mode, the saturation is decreased. I find it useful mainly in the low light conditions to reduce noise and make images more true-to-life.

Also available Black and White, Sepia and Low Sharpening effects. The former two are nothing to write home about - just regular modes that are quite useful if you want to give your photos an old look. The Low Sharpening effect reduces in-camera sharpening and lets you sharpen your photos later, in software (e.g. Photoshop). This gives you more control over sharpening.

Additionally, there are modes called Vivid Green, Vivid Red and Vivid Blue. They do exactly that - make the stated color vivid.

Also, the SD400 has funky color effects. You can replace some colors with others - a feature I don&'t care for.

Image Quality Settings

The camera lets you select between Super Fine, Fine and Normal compression levels (regardless of resolution). You can detect occasional JPEG artifacts in the mode of highest compression and some fine detail may be lost. But the two lower-compression modes (Fine and Superfine) are rather good.

White Balance

The camera's automatic white balance is usually quite accurate with the exception of the incandescent lighting, where you are better off either selecting Incandescent white balance setting or using the available manual white balance. I used the incandescent setting in my macro shot of a dollar bill to make paper appear white. In auto mode it was yellowish.

Focusing

You let camera focus using its AiAF 9-area focusing system and the camera will show you green rectangles over the areas where it focused so that you can confirm the focus areas. There is no manual focusing provision.

The left arrow button switches the camera to Macro mode (and also to landscape in manual mode).

Camera Sounds

The camera is rather quiet in operation aside from the scraping/scratching sounds when focusing, especially as you reach the telephoto end of the zoom. I heard the same sounds while using the Canon PowerShot A520 and A510, so this is no anomaly. My Panasonic FZ5 makes similar sounds, but they are quieter.

Macro

The PowerShot SD400 can take good macro pictures. It can capture (with no flash) a minimum area of about 1x0.8-inch and features a sharp image. A very good macro performance, considering the size of the camera.

You need light to illuminate the shooting area and/or a tripod, however: the flash when engaged at such a close distance can overexpose the image and leave a pronounced shadow in the lower right corner. See the sample macro shots below (click for full-size images):

Build Quality and Ergonomics

The camera has a solid feel and excellent build quality. The camera a bit too small but for its size it is convenient to hold and its compact size lets you put it in a jacket pocket or a purse easily. In fact, it is so small, you can put it in a shirt pocket. The major controls are within easy reach and the tactile response is good.

Tripod Mount

The camera has a metal tripod mount. It is useful if you want to take macro pictures or pictures with long exposures (e.g. nighttime). The camera has a timer (2-second or 10-second), which you should use to avoid blurry images when the camera is on the tripod. The camera has noise reduction that is activated with exposures longer than 1.3 seconds and takes a picture with the shutter closed and then subtracts it from the original picture, thereby eliminating hot pixels.

Menu System

I have not read the manual, yet was able to use the camera in all modes. Usually, I am not a big fan of Canon menus but this Digital Elph is very easy to use. Not only I find the menus intuitive, they also appear very fast (instantaneously), unlike the menus on Canon A520 and A510, which take about a second to appear.

The camera is extremely fast and responsive. The large bright LCD screen shows pictograms of selected modes (e.g. Macro, Flash mode, etc.) appear large and legible on the screen and then move to the side of the screen. A very cool and useful feature, especially for people with impaired vision.

LCD and Viewfinder

The SD400 has a 2-inch non-articulated (fixed) LCD screen and an optical zooming viewfinder. The LCD coverage as about 100% - you can see exactly what will be recorded. The viewfinder, however, cover only about 80% of what will be recorded. The LCD is bright, fluid, has good visibility in sunlight or darkness and very good resolution.

Computer Connectivity

The camera uses USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection to transfer pictures to a computer. You can also remove the SD memory card and use a memory card reader (if you have one), but I use the camera with the USB cable supplied. The file transfer is very fast at about 2,500 KB/s. The annoying part is that you have to install a driver to be able to use the camera with your computer (I never had to install a driver for Panasonic or Olympus cameras I used). And I do not use the software that was provided with the camera since I have Adobe Photoshop CS2.

Histogram

The camera can display a histogram in the review mode to show you if you have overexposed the highlights or underexposed the shadows. I useful feature when you don't trust the LCD.

Bottom Line

I highly recommend Canon PowerShot SD400 if you want a miniature, cool yet capable camera with 5-megapixels that produces excellent photos with print sizes of up 11x14 inches. It is extremely fast, easy to use and, dear I repeat it again, simply cool.

If you want more control, you might want to check out slightly larger Canon PowerShot A520.

Recommended
Yes

Product Rating
(Excellent)

This review is also available at Epinions.com: Canon PowerShot Digital ELPH SD400 Digital Camera Review on Epinions.com

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