Customer Rating:  
Summary: Hard to beat, Really hard to beat
Comment: I have been using this camera for over 18 months, and taken several thousands of pictures. I have a backpack full of DSLR equipment, tripod, prime lenses, and so on, but carry this little camera in a pocket so that I never miss a shot. Its handy to have, I pop it out of my pocket to record all my travels on a seconds notice. The size and weight fit fine in a front jeans pocket.
Key features:
-FAST start up, power button to photo lag is short enough to catch anything, much better than some competing cameras.
-Wide angle is just right, but don't forget to zoom in for most pictures
-Image Stabilization is not a gimmick, work great.
-COLORS! I use -2/3 exposure compensation, colors and exposure are great. Tip up or down to include more or less sky for quick adjustments on the fly, half press the shutter, then frame your shot.
-Tiny portable battery charger and excellent battery life.
The bad:
-Soft lens, especially at wide angles
-Front face and screen scratch easily when used as designed, carried in a pocket with keys and change, tossed in the center console, etc. No actual harm though, just cosmetic.
The useless:
-Auto mode. Never use it. Use manual, turn the flash off, add -2/3 or so EC for better exposure and colors.
-Viewfinder. Battery life is good enough that I don't bother shooting with the LCD turned off. Tiny, hard to use, inaccurate, dim.
I have taken dozens of identical pictures with this camera and my DSLR. I pop this baby out of my pocket, snap a shot, and slip it away again. The DSLR gets set up with expensive prime lenses, a tripod, and mirror lockup. Jpegs printed straight from each camera at 4x6 are HARD TO TELL APART. Now that is some high praise! However, when printed at 8x10 the difference is significant, and the canon is very soft. I'm using a Minolta 7D 6mp DSLR, it has MUCH more resolution than the 7.1mp canon (megapixels are positively meaningless). Fine color gradations are sometimes clearly better from the SLR, shadow areas appear much clearer, and noise is sometimes less.
To restate: At 4x6 the canon SD800IS performs almost exactly as good as a heavy bag full of $5,000 worth of professional equipment.
At 8x10, the difference is clear and obvious though and the SLR wins handily. At larger prints, the canon is unable to perform unless your subject lends itself to low resolution. Also, the little pocket camera cannot do super wide angles, long telephoto, blurred backgrounds, or other fancy setups. Its limited to standard shots. The IS works well, and you can brace the camera against fence posts, walls, or other fixed objects for longer shots.
I highly recommend this camera and its replacement, the SD880IS. A camera like this is a must have for anyone. The whole SD series are great cameras, between friends and family I have tried about five different models and they all do well. Differences are battery life, IS, wide angle, and handling quirks such as getting into manual mode.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It would be 5* but for one failing.
Comment: I've had this camera 1 year now. It's the Euro model [IXUS 850 IS] which is the same beast as the SD800. This camera was marketed as 'the serious photographer's side arm' & I think that's dead right. I've carried it with me pretty much the all the time, which is the whole point of owning it.
As a pro of 3 decades who owned & used all formats from 10" x 8" to 35mm, after a lot of thought & brain-numbing research, my compact digi camera had to posses 3 prime attributes. A few mega-pixels +/- was not an issue for a camera of this sort. The following points were paramount to me.
1] It had to be able to fit with ease into a shirt pocket. 2] It had to have an optical v/finder. The 'sleep-walker' posture of framing up with the screen is a no-no for a variety of reasons, not least of which is vastly increased battery drain. 3] It had to have a 28mm [35mm equiv] lens.
The camera has performed well beyond my expectations. It takes wonderful photos in a wide variety of conditions, some of which I found astonishing that it should produce anything at all, let alone images of such quality. If you run the results through a lab test or compare it with cameras much higher up the quality scale, you will find things to beef about. But for a camera of this type, in the sector it inhabits, it's amazing.
The deduction of 1 star comes about because the covers for the card/battery bay and the connections bay are woefully flimsy. Real care has to be taken every time these covers are opened/closed. I have a silicone 'skin' on my IXUS [which I very much recommend] and peeling apart the cut-out over the card bay and then gingerly opening the cover needs 100% concentration. One slip and you could easily tear the cover right off.
This camera is now no longer on Canon's current range and there is no direct replacement. The only camera that has a 28mm w/a has no v/finder.
I've complained to Canon about leaving a hole where this model used to be. There is no alternative but second-hand or 'new old stock' sellers. And note: some of these new cameras are now right back up to the original retail price! That's because, without going right to the top of the Canon compact range - the new G10, which is expensive and substantially larger - there's nothing else available.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't buy a Canon!
Comment: I got the fatal "Lens Error" after 10 months. This was a great camera, but I think a camera should last a little longer. This is a HUGE problem with Canon Powershots, and I really wish I had known about it BEFORE I bought this camera last Christmas. My camera is still under warranty, but they say that it is due to abuse and won't cover it. It was not abused, it just stopped working.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Lens error after 1 year!
Comment: I love the quality of Canon pictures, but after 1 year of use, we had the notorious "lens error". To repair it is more expensive than to buy a new camera. If you google lens error and canon, you will see that this is a common problem with canon cameras. So you are buying a good camera, but it won't last long.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Couldn't ask for more.
Comment: I purchased this camera about 18 months ago, and couldn't be more thrilled with it! It is compact enough to be carried in a purse or pocket, and the battery life is incredible - I've only had to battery 5 times since purchase, with very regular use. The image quality is great, and in some cases is actually better than my Canon XTi DSLR camera when it comes to low-light or candid and uncomposed shots.
The SD800 is by far the best point-and-shoot camera I have ever come across, and has made me a loyal Canon customer for life. Highly recommended!
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