Any happy SD700IS owners?

[vi edit]

I've got a 300D but want a pocket sized carry along. Looking to spend no more than $300.

I'm a self professed Canon fanboi so my biases lean that way. The SD700 looks like a decent little camera. Compact but still has a peephole viewfinder so you aren't *required* to use the screen. Also has IS for a little help shooting in harsh lighting conditions and under full zoom.

Looks good on paper. Any owners that care to chime in? Other suggestions?

 

[countryboy]

While I'm sure the 700IS is nice, i think it will be over $300.

The SD630 is a great camera, no peephole (who uses those on compacts?), and a huge LCD.

It is also under $300 last I checked. I really love mine.

I guess it just depends on how bad you want IS.

ps. I"m a huge canon fanboy too

 

[countryboy]

Nevermind, SD700IS/Sd630 have dropped a LOT since I bought mine 🙁

SD630 cheapest price I found was $260 shipped from butterfly photo

Sd700IS lowest price $297 shipped from butterfly photo as well.

found these by a quick search on pricegrabber.

I'd still go with the SD630 and a good 1 or 2 GB memory card, a canon PSC-90 model case and an extra battery. That really shouldn't put you much over 300

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

The placement of the viewfinder kind of sucks if you really expect to use it a lot - my nose ends up hitting the LCD screen. The viewfinder also just sort of sucks in general 😛

Manual controls are lacking.

The movie mode has some annoying noise in the background.

I put a sample movie in here if you want to find out what I mean.
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=1948502&enterthread=y (rather the Rat bit me in the Internet one linked in that one)

Other than those things, it's a nice little compact camera.

 

[Pshawn5]

pretty much agree with what YOyoYOhowsDAjello said. just like 2 months after i bought mine, canon brought out the sd800IS and sd900. all depends on how much you want to spend and if you want the latest and greatest.

though i <3 my sd700IS

 

[RagingBITCH]

I have a SD600. Love the camera but was thinking of going with the 700IS or the 630. Dell was running a 20% off on those cameras - each was under $300.

 

[vi edit]

Looks like the only difference between the SD700 and the SD800 is 800 vs 1600 ISO. Is there really anything else?

The SD900 offers more megapixels (10 vs 7) which really isn't an issue. I'm not sold on MP and even 7 is more than I'll really ever need. Hell, the 6.3 on my 300D is plenty sufficient. The SD900 has higher resolution video (1024x768 vs 640x480) which is cool, but just sucks up more card space. Nice, but again not necessary.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
Looks like the only difference between the SD700 and the SD800 is 800 vs 1600 ISO. Is there really anything else?

The SD900 offers more megapixels (10 vs 7) which really isn't an issue. I'm not sold on MP and even 7 is more than I'll really ever need. Hell, the 6.3 on my 300D is plenty sufficient. The SD900 has higher resolution video (1024x768 vs 640x480) which is cool, but just sucks up more card space. Nice, but again not necessary.

Do the 800 and 900 have IS?

The high quality video mode on my 700 makes huge files. That ~30 second rat clip is like 60mb. I would be excited about 1024x768 movies if they managed to make the files smaller size.

 

[Dacalo]

I would stay away from SD700. There is a reason why 800 and 900 were released quickly after 700's release. A lot of users have complained about how it processes colors and its noise in movie mode.

EDIT: I would suggest going with SD600 or SD630. SD630's huge LCD screen is stunning, and the pictures are great.

 

[randomlinh]

does the sd700 use the new digic chip the sd800 uses?

the IS makes the camera pretty hefty from what I've heard. Fits in your pocket but will weigh it down. But that gets to a personal preference on whether or not you care. I'd like the SD6xx for my mom.. the one w/ the huge 3.0" LCD. She would never use the viewfinder. Only problem is it has a black backing... clashes too much IMO.

 

[vi edit]

The SD6XX's use the "Digic II" chip. The SD700IS does as well.

The SD800IS and the SD900 use the "Digic III". Both of these are getting beyond my desired price range.

The SD630 looks like a decent buy. I prefer the rounded shape to it over the boxy SD600 and it's predecessors.

 

[Anonemous]

I have the SD700 IS, it takes decent movies and pictures with the IS. It's a step up from the SD500 I upgraded from but the differences are barely noticeable. The only difference I can see from the SD700 and SD800 is that one has a higher megapixel as well as the digic III chip. One also has the ISO1600 mode while the other has a max of 800.


edit: The IS doesn't really help much in full zoom in my experience.

 

[vi edit]

FWIW, the "user" reviews on the SD800IS aren't looking real good. Seems like it took a step back in build quality switching over more plastic than metal for the casing.

The more I read, the more I lead towards the SD630.

 

[Dacalo]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
The more I read, the more I lead towards the SD630.

Do it, it's a great camera and the price is right.

 

[vi edit]

Went to Best Buy tonight. Ended up going with the SD800IS. They did some sort of weird pricing for it and I got the camera + a 1 gig SD card (match from Circuit City) for $315 OTD.

Only had a few minutes to mess around with it. So far it's a nice little camera. Light, sturdy, and a lot more ergonomic than the SD600 IMHO. My only complaints this far are long term durability of the battery/memory card door and too high of an ISO/Noise at the auto settings.

Will take some tweaking to get things tuned in.

I heavily debated getting a Casio EXILIM EX-S600. It was user friendly, cheap, incredibly small & light and had a better movie function. The cradle was a nice feature too for charging. But image quality of pictures was a bit of a concern, as was long term reliability.

I'll get a chance to play around a lot more with the SD800IS later this weekend and will post some results 🙂