Canon PowerShot SD300 Digital ELPH reviewed
By
Dave Etchells
(Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - 12:22 EST)
Good image quality and user-friendly design has become synonymous with the ELPH name, and is the reason why the line is so popular with a wide range of consumers.
Extending the brand name's excellent reputation in the film world, members of the digital ELPH series have always impressed me with their quality and versatility. The SD300's tiny and now slimmer design is a definite plus, and its range of features gives it an edge over many other subcompact point-and-shoot digicams in the marketplace.
Although actual exposure control remains automatic, the ability to adjust ISO, White Balance, and access longer shutter times significantly increases the camera's shooting range. Thanks to its high-speed DIGIC-II processing chip, it's also very responsive for a subcompact digicam, and its movie capability goes far beyond what I'm accustomed to seeing from subcompact digicam models.
Overall, all of us at IR found it to be an exceptionally enjoyable camera to use, and we loved its beautiful "Canon" color. It wasn't all roses though, as at least our sample of the SD300 showed significant softness in the corners of its images.
Overall, it was a tough call as to how to rate this model. Everyone who got their hands on it flat-out loved the camera, but the soft corners gave us pause. In the end, I named it a "Dave's Pick," but with the caveat that readers check out our sample images from it to decide for themselves about its soft corners. Check it out, this is a beautiful little camera, but maybe only if you pay more attention to the centers of your photos than to the edges. (Which, admittedly, most consumers do.)
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