small & stylish, best Elph yet!

I own a Canon S30 that I bought a few years ago... after being dropped a lot, it works as often as it doesn't and thus began the process of finding a replacement. I took the middle road when I purchased my first digi-cam, meaning that I got a medium size camera. It's a comprimise between the ultra-compact market and SLR size cameras. After much use, I found that I should have just bought an ultra compact to tote with me everywhere, and a Digital SLR for when I know I will be shooting.

So here I am, having completed the first part of that buying process and I decided on the SD-300 from Canon. When you first take it out of the packaging, you'll notice how A) small it is B) how shiny it is & C) how big the screen is.

The camera is really dimunitive... There are very few camera's on the market with 3x optical zoom & 4MP or better of resolution that are this small. I literally put the camera in my front pocket and walk around the entire day not even thinking about it, until a photo-op appears. Then I quickly reach for the camera, turn it on (very fast startup) and fire away (almost no shutter lag and can take as many continuous shots in a row as the storage media allows.

The write speed of the SD card (the memory media this camera uses) is critically important to that end. If the card writes too slowly, you'll exhaust the buffer and the camera will stop taking pictures to catch up on the writing duties. If you get a card that is rated at 60x or better, you should have no issues with not being able to fill up the entire card with 1 shutter press. Shot to shot time will depend on how quick the card writes data also. So the faster your card, the quicker you can take individual shots.

The movie mode is finally fantastic on a Canon camera. Not only can you shoot as much movie as the memory card can hold (earlier models only allowed 30 second clips at 320x240 resolution) This model will A) allow you to shoot unlimited movie (so long as the card has free room) B) has a higher resolution mode 640x480 at a 30 frames per second. There is even an "action mode" that will only allow 1 minute of footage, but shot at 60 frames per second.

The picture quality is quite good. Shooting anything with a slower shutter (night mode or controllable shutter) requires a tripod in the worst way. The camera has a decent heft because it's mostly metal, but its still so small that it's quite easy to shift tiny amounts, which will blur your photo. (not to mention, it's just a good practice to shoot with a tripod)

The camera feels solid in your hand and has ample room for my fingers (people with big hands might disagree) The function buttons are all easy enough to figure out as well as use on the fly. The big 2" screen is wonderful to look at. Canon reports 140 shots per battery charge with the screen on, but close to 300-400 shots if the screen remains off.

The only 2 complaints I have so far are the AV port cover & the battery cover. They are the only 2 noticable pieces on this camera that aren't sturdy metal. The AV port cover is pretty chrome plastic and fits well with the camera, giving it an almost stealth look that blends with the rest of the chrome trim on the camera. However when you pop out the cover, it remains hinged to a rather stiff piece of plastic still inside the camera. In order to plug the supplied AV-USB plug into the camera, you need to bend the cover out of the way. I think over time, this piece of plastic could get worn out and break off. The battery cover is also cheap plastic and actually feels cheap (where as the AV port cover feels sturdy to the touch). Take care when changing the battery or memory card, because if the cover isn't pulled all the way to the open position before flipping it open, it will get caught up on itself and probably break off.

The camera comes supplied with some software that is useful if you don't have any other digital camera accessories (like photoshop etc.). The one useful program they include is photostitch. This program can be used when you utilize the stitch assist mode on the camera to make panoramic shots.

One other downside, is that lack of full manual controls. You cannot adjust your aperture (depth of field) at all. It's fully automatic and you have no say in the matter. There is also no mode for action shots. So no way to compensate for needing a faster shutter speed. You can however adjust for a longer shutter speed 1-15 seconds and control the "film speed" with an ISO of 50-400.