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Canon PowerShot SD800 IS
Reviewed by
Will Greenwald
on 10/03/2006
camera on top sides back

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The good: Good focal range for lens; quick performance; optical image stabilization; attractive design.

The bad: Few manual controls; extremely noisy photos at ISO 1,600.

The bottom line: A slim, stylish body, a wide-angle lens, very good photo quality, and snappy performance make the Canon PowerShot SD800 IS a great point-and-shoot.

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CNET editors' review

  • CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
    Detailed editors' rating
      Design : 8.0
      Features : 7.0
      Performance : 8.0
      Image quality : 8.0
      Overall score: 7.8 (3.5 stars)
  • Reviewed by:
    Will Greenwald
  • Edited by:
    Lori Grunin
  • Reviewed on: 10/03/2006
  • Released on: 10/01/2006
Last spring, Canon impressed us with its stylish high-end shooter, the 6-megapixel PowerShot SD700 IS. It had a great lens and produced great images, all in an attractive, pocketable, metal body. With the follow-up Canon PowerShot SD800 IS, the company improves upon its previous design by squeezing in a wider lens and a higher resolution sensor.

The 7-megapixel camera's tiny body is shiny, curvy, and very attractive. But it may be just a bit too stylish for its own good. For instance, the power button is a tiny, illuminated half-oval built flush into the top panel; without actually pressing it, you might easily mistake it for an indicator light or a design flaw.

Canon PowerShot SD800
The Canon PowerShot SD800's mode dial curves slightly outward, flowing into the design of the camera, making a comfortable resting spot for your thumb. But it feels slightly slippery when switching camera modes.

Beyond those quirks, though, the SD800 IS is a standard, straightforwardly designed Canon shooter, with a four-way navigation switch, additional buttons, and the shutter-release/zoom-rocker mechanism we've grown used to. The small, all-metal body weighs slightly more than six ounces, and at an inch thick, is just the right size for most pockets. Though small, the camera still has enough room on its body to hold both a 2.5-inch LCD and an optical viewfinder, a rare and welcome feature on an ultracompact.

The SD800's most prominent feature is its image-stabilized, f/2.8-to-f/5.8, 28mm-to-105mm-equivalent lens. The 3.8X zoom range offers the flexibility of wide-angle focal lengths, while still providing a bit more zoom power than the average 3X point-and-shoot lens. Though the SD700 IS had a 4X zoom lens, the SD800's 28mm-equivalent wide shot more than makes up for the slightly smaller telephoto factor.

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Reviews from around the WebPowered by alaTest

  • alaTest.com

    Editors' rating: 90

    Summary: alaTest has collected and analyzed 1838 reviews of Canon IXUS 850 IS / PowerShot SD800 IS / IXY 900 IS from international magazines and websites. Experts rate this product 80/100 and users 86/100. Comparing these reviews to 555170 other Digital Compact Cameras reviews gives this product an overall alaScore™ 90/100 = Excellent.

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  • dpinterface.com

    Editors' rating: 76

    Summary: The very compact Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital ELPH packs a lot into that casing with 7 megapixels, a wide-angle image stabilized zoom lens and many other nice features. The large 2.5 inch LCD on the back is high in resolution and has good ...

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  • dpreview.com

    Editors' rating: 80

    Summary: The SD 700 IS was perhaps my favorite point and shoot camera of last year, ticking all the right boxes (small, stylish, reliable, good output, easy to use) and showing that, for all the grumbling about Canon's dominance of this market, when they get ...

    Read full review

  • tech.co.uk

    Editors' rating: 80

    Summary: A victory for substance over style. Many people may buy the 850 IS because it looks fantastic, but they'll get great images too

    Read full review

  • digicamreview.co.uk

    Read full review

  • techradar.com

    Editors' rating: 90

    Read full review

Canon PowerShot SD800 IS

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