Canon PowerShot SD400

Pros: nice features, small compact

Cons: Too many pixels for a sensor this small.. see below

Summary: This is a decent ultracompact camera. However, it has the worst image quality of Canon's entire SD line. The SD400 is a 5 megapixel camera and 5 million pixels is way too much for the small CCD sensor that this camera uses. This is the prime reason for the noisy pictures this camera creates. Most people say they don't need the 7.2 megapixels that the Sd400's big brother the SD500 has. This is true, but the SD500 is a much better choice for other reasons. Mainly the larger sensor that it uses. The SD500's larger sensor means that more light is able to get into the lens which in turn creates noticeably nicer and clearer photographs with much less digital noise. The SD500's flash has a 50% longer range than the SD400 (16ft vs 11ft) this is very important for party shots or properly lighting indoor shots. The 14% longer battery life of the SD500 is also another nice advantage. In my opinion the extra $100 you spend on the SD500 is well worth it for significantly better photos, a much stronger flash and longer battery life. If budget is a concern, then I would recommend the SD300 which is a step down from the SD400. The SD300 uses the same smaller CCD sensor as the SD400, but it has 4 megapixels instead of 5. Having 4 million pixels instead of 5 million pixels crammed into a sensor this small will definitlely create sharper images with less noise and unless you are printing pictures larger than 8x10's, 4 megapixels is plenty big.