The Canon SD200 - An Introduction
I'm a reasonably advanced amateur who was in need of a point and shoot camera (yes, I can here the yelling and screaming now by people who believe that both point and shoots and digital are a disgrace to photography, much less a digital point and shoot). Why? One reason is that digital is cheap - it lets me take many "fun" shots and only print what I need, and two is that digital P&S can be *extremely* compact. Tight-jeans-pocketable compact in fact.
When shopping for a digital camera I had several requirements:
It must be tough
It must be tight-jeans-pocketable
It must be lightweight
It must be lightning fast
It must take good enough photographs for family snapshots and fun shots
It must use SD cards, have cheap batteries, and a good battery life
It must be relatively cute (yes, I'm a guy. yes, we can be fashion-concerned as well :) )
It absolutely must be under US $200
I was already a Canon fan, and I found that the SD200 seemed "just right" for me. It claims all these features and I will analyze them below. Suffice to say, this is one purchase I do NOT regret.
Is It Tough?
I'm glad to say that, YES, this camera is quite tough. That was one of my greatest concerns. It's not a camera that can really take a beating (like my Elan 7) but it is very sturdy. The majority of the housing is metal (presumably aluminum) and could take a reasonable bashing without a scratch, but there are some weak areas:
The Battery/Card Cover - In my opinion, this is the weakest area of the camera. It's made of very flimsy plastic and you need to make sure you slide it open all the way before lifting it or you could VERY easily break off a tiny plastic tab that holds it on. Just plain poor design, but also an area of the camera where poor design is forgivable. Just be gentle with it!
The Screen - Unlike many other cameras, the screen on this unit is not a hard screen, it just a normal, exposed LCD panel like on a typical computer monitor. It's nice that it's recessed to prevent scratches, but be careful where you put the camera - a purse with a sharp object or even keys and the screen could easily be toast (proverbially speaking of course)
Overall the construction of the camera is excellent, and these two weak areas require only a small degree of care to avoid damaging.
Is It Tight-Jeans-Pocketable?
Yes! This is one thin, tiny little camera and you can slip it in the pocket of your tightest jeans without it being terribly noticeable. A little thinner would be better, but this whole camera is thinner than a roll of film, so consider that! Very convenient to carry around, if not in your jeans, then in a purse or small bag. Pocketability is especially a concern for us guys as we can't carry purses, and it's great for us!
Is It Lightweight?
Yes! For a camera that has a mostly metal body, the weight is very similar to my
iPod mini. Quite impressive.
Is It Lightning-Fast?
Oh yeah, at least in the daylight. Sporting Canon's DIGIC II image processor, this camera starts up almost instantly and can shoot (with a reasonably fast card) 2.4 full-quality frames per second all the way to card capacity. With slower cards, it does pause a little. Still, extremely impressive!
Inside however, you've got another story. With only a useless little orange light for AF assist, low-light auto-focusing is a challenge for the camera, to say the least and as, like any point and shoot, there is no manual focus (other than lock infinity), this results in many missed shots. Not really an indoor camera, also due to the flash which I will mention below.
Is The Quality "Good Enough"?
YES! At only 3.2 MP, you might expect rather poor quality. But one must remember that at this class, optics matter as much as resolution in many ways. The quality blows away many 4MP images I have seen. Of course, they're not great for enlargements. I made a 12x18 (gotta love the $2.99 12x18 at Costco!) and yes, it was very pixelated. 8x10's are acceptable and 4x6 and 5x7 prints are very good. If I was buying today, I'd consider the newer, more expensive, versions of this camera which feature higher resolution sensors so I could get some nice enlargements. But for 99% of family snapshots, it's perfect. The optics are very good for a super-tiny point and shoot, and there's little distortion or chromatic aberration.
How Is The Battery Life?
Excellent. And the price is good too with third party batteries costing as little as $15. You just can't beat this camera in that arena. The battery is amazingly tiny and lightweight, and the included charger supports 100-240V, 50-60Hz so it'll work on just about any AC you can find in the world.
I've shot a full 512MB card (about 300 photos on full quality) without even getting a battery low message.
Is It Cute?
Sure is, this camera is tiny and cute - I especially like the ripple effect around the lens on the front. Yes, this short section is for those of us who value form :) I know many won't care, but this is a very beautiful little camera.
Is It Under $200?
Yup. $199 when I bought mine. I'm sure it's cheaper now.
Other Features
Of course, many of you have different needs and wants from me, so for the remainder of my review, I'll attempt to cover those issues which you might be more interested in.
The Flash
Yay for tiny, on-board electronic flashes! These little bundles of joy are the cause of "red eye" since they're too close to the lens and a major distraction at concerts when used by uneducated people who think their tiny flash will reach the stage - all it does is make it so their photo is exposed incorrectly.
Don't get me wrong, I like flash photography - when it's done with a proper flash, ideally bounced off the ceiling). This produces natural looking light with no red-eye.
Now that you know how I feel about tiny on-board flashes in general, I'll disappoint you further by stating this little thing (and it is tiny) is among the worst I've seen. Red-eye is a practically a guarantee since it's so close to the lens, and the range is no more than two meters at the most. I still use it as it's so pocketable, but a camera which can accept an external flash is unfortunately a necessary fact of life for good indoor and night photos. This camera is no exception to the laws of physics.
Screen
This camera features a HUGE, very clear screen - if somewhat fragile. Unfortunately, it's hard to judge your exposures based on it. They look far lighter on the camera than on my Mac calibrated to Gamma 1.8, and I can't imagine how far off they are from a Windows system calibrated to 2.2 or worse, not calibrated. Someone at Canon needs to seriously look at calibrating their screen to some standard gamma - 1.8 or 2.2, just something. It's far too light as-is.
Ergonomics
This is a sub-tiny camera :) Of course the ergonomics are terrible. It's not a comfortable camera to hold steady for long periods because there really is nothing to grip. That said, it's so lightweight that it's not bad and all the controls are placed where you fingers most naturally fall, so it's pretty good considering it's size.
Image Transfer
Finally, I time will come when you want your photos off the camera. I haven't used the included software. I just plugged the camera into my
iBook and iPhoto recognizes the camera immediately. Unfortunately, like many modern cameras, it does NOT show up as a drive on the desktop, which is a feature I quite like. Regardless, it works well.
Conclusion
If you're in the market for a cute, tiny, good quality, affordable digital camera, this is about as good as it gets. Sure, you can get a lot "better" camera for less money or the same. But you're giving up on the size, cuteness, and build quality. If "tight-jeans-pocketable" isn't on your list of needs, perhaps you would be better served by another camera. But if ultra-tiny is your want, the SD200 is your camera, no doubt about it!
