Canon PowerShot SD800 IS

If you're looking for steady, long-zoom shooting then the PowerShot SD800 gives you just this.

Engineered with a wide-angle 3.8x zoom lens with integrated Image Stabilizer technology means the Canon Powershot SD800 IS Digital ELPH will make your shots picture perfect, so the results are clear and sharp thanks to the "shake-free" functionality of this camera. There's no complex fiddling with manual features, which gives you the time to focus and prepare to shoot your subject.

One thing I love about this camera is the DIGIC III image processor. Now that may sound gobbledy-gook to you, but in laypersons term it means that the Canon Powershot SD800 IS delivers superior image quality, ultra-responsive performance and an extended battery life! There's nothing worse than setting up the perfect shot only to find your power supply has drained away. That won't be happening with your SD800.

Geek-speak aside, the DIGIC III means that you also end up with extremely high definition on the LCD monitor. Now here's where this little camera rocks. Thanks to DIGIC III, facial recognition just took a leap because it allows the Powershot SD800 to find all the faces in a frame, and then set the most suitable focus point.

This is done by pressing the shutter button half-way. You'll also find that exposure and flash are rigorously controlled to make certain that proper illumination of all the faces and the overall scene happen. Unfortunately this is something other cameras fail to focus on (no pun intended!). Chances are you've seen this happen when looking at a photo, the faces often appear darkened or over exposed, not with the Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Elph they don't.

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The Canon PowerShot SD800 IS has a 2.5-inch LCD monitor. This means you can actually see what kind of shot you just took, whether you're shooting, reviewing or just showing off your images.


Because the 2.5-inch LCD screen is high-resoultion it gives you crisp, clear pictures and a far wider viewing angle to make shooting, playback and using the camera's menu functions incredibly convenient.

And what about viewing your shots at night? Don't worry, because the LCD also comes with a handy Night Display feature for viewing in low light.

The Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital ELPH offers you a new ISO 1600 as well as High ISO Auto settings. This substantially reduces camera shake and sharpens subjects in low-light situations. However although this is a useful feature in certain situations I recommend that you don't go over an ISO 800 otherwise you'll simply increase the "noise" of the photo, meaning that your pictures will become grainy and show distortion. But in low level lighting having a range up to ISO1600 can be very useful.

Want to take movies as well? Now you can because the Canon PowerShot SD800 IS now has an improved movie mode which allows you to shoot superior quality, full motion 1-minute movies at 60 frames-per-second (fps) QVGA (320x240).

If space is tight for you, you have the option of also shooting up to 1 hour or 4GB movies at 30fps VGA (640x480). And if shooting a movie and sending it as an e-mail attachment to your friends and loved ones is something you want to consider doing, then you also have the extra advantage of shooting up to 3-minute movies using the 15 fps Compact Movie Mode.

• A variety of shooting modes which give you the flexibility to take the best photos possible under various conditions.


• The camera pre-selects the right settings so you can focus on taking brilliant photos, and not have to fiddle about with awkward manual settings.


• If manual settings are something you want to play with, then you have basic manula settings like ISO speed, exposure compensation and white balance.


• One cool feature of this model is the ability to retain the color of a single image and make surrounding images monochrome. OK that might be a bit arty for you, but I'm sure the inner artists will be crying out for you to play around with this.


• You can also do what's known in the trade as a "color-swap", meaning you can change the color of a persons shirt or dress. Fancy special effects are now at your fingertips.


• How about zooming in to some iddy-biddy critter and taking a larger than life close-up? It's simple with the one-button functionality of the Canon PowerShot SD800.


• Panoramas your thing? Well if so they are so easy to do with this camera. Simply stich a sequence of shots together and Voila! Instant panoramas. Your friends are going to be jealous as hell!


• In Special Scene Mode you simply select a preset for Portraits, Foliage (my favorite because I'm a nature-nut), Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Aquarium, Underwater (important: you can't actually swim with this camera, but you can get an optional waterprooof marine case the Canon AW-DC40 which is an essential requirement for taking underwater shots!), Indoor, Kids & Pets, Night Snapshot.


• The camera comes with a simple Print/Share button to make direct printing easier than ever, as well as transferring your images to your computer whether it's Windows® or MacIntosh®.

Buy Canon Powershot SD800
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