The Design: Canon PowerShot SD400
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The front of the Canon PowerShot SD400 features its telescoping optical zoom lens, which translates to a 35 - 105mm equivalent (35mm) zoom range. Directly above the lens is the viewfinder window and to the left is the AF-assist lamp. This lamp illuminates to help the camera focus when there is not enough ambient light. At the upper right is the built-in flash, which has the farthest flash range of all the cameras in this article when the lens is set to its widest position. Just to the left of the lens is a tiny microphone.
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The back of the SD400 features a 2.0" LCD monitor with 118K pixels. Above and to the right of the LCD monitor is the optical viewfinder along with two indicator lamps that illuminate depending on the camera's AF/flash status. At the top right is the camera's main mode switch. This allows you to select the camera mode from Play, Movie, and Record. Just below this are the Menu button, the camera's speaker, and a 4-way controller with a separate Set button in the middle. This 4-way controller not only allows you to navigate through menus, but each direction also corresponds to a shooting option (AF, Metering, Flash, Drive). Below the 4-way controller are the Display and Print/Share buttons.
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On the top of the camera, we can see the main power button. Just below the power button, there is a small lamp that illuminates when the camera is powered on. To the right of this is the shutter button, which is surrounded by the zoom controller. In Record mode, sliding the zoom controller to the left will cause the lens to zoom out. Sliding the zoom controller to the right causes the lens to zoom in.
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On the bottom of the SD400 is its metal tripod mount, which is located directly under the lens. To the left of this is a sliding hinged door that conceals the battery compartment. The camera uses SD cards as a means of storage. Inside the box, you will find a nearly useless 16 MB starter card. We highly recommend getting at least a 256 MB SD card right away because the 5 megapixel images produced by the SD400 are about 3 MB each. The camera uses a NB-4L Lithium-ion battery (3.7V 760mAh), which is recharged using the supplied wall charger.
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On the right side of the camera is a post for the included wrist strap. Also, we can find a well-concealed tab that hides/protects the A/V-out and USB ports.
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R3MF - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
< owns a panasonic fx8, and loves it.sciwizam - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
Nice, I just ordered a SD400 yesterday!bigpow - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
Panasonic FX7 >> Canon SD400 & it's cheaperFricardo - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
Heh. Just a day or two after I asked for an SD400 review you guys come up with this. Thanks.astralusion - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
excellent review...i'd been waiting for a full sd400 review, also just wanted to say that your selection of Duke for your sample pictures was an excellent choice.UNCjigga - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
As a long-time Canon customer, no surprise here. Right now, Canon makes the best consumer-level digicams period. Sony may be close to catching up, and Nikon may have been the shizznit a few years ago, but right now Canon has a considerable lead.I really want to get the SD400...but I'm wondering if I should hold out for a newer Canon with wifi.
Johnmcl7 - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
I've been really impressed with Canon's pocket cameras, I bought their Ixus 500 (the European version of the SD500 I think) as I wanted a camera I could keep in my pocket and have with me all the time, as much as I like my big Fuji it's simply to o big to carry over my shoulder all the time. It's great it takes CF cards, so it can share with the Fuji plus it doesn't leave me regretting too much that I didn't take the Fuji.The build quality does feel good but it's really let me down recently, there's a little bit of plastic which broke on the door which holds the memory card door shut, so the camera has had to go back for repair - really missed having it to hand while out at the weekend, looking forward to getting it back.
John
blwest - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
#4 both of those cameras suck more than the Olympus and would thus be a waste of time to review. A piece of %$@#$ is a piece of @#$#@.cheesus - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
I agree -- great review. However, I was a bit disappointed to see that the Panasonic FX-7 was left out of the review. It's a similarly-priced 5MP ultracompact that has some of the best resolution and color reproduction I've seen. Also comes with optical image stabilization, which i can't say for the other cameras here. I understand that you can't review every ultracompact, but I think the FX-7 beats the SD400 in terms of image quality any day.Larso - Monday, July 18, 2005 - link
Yes, great review. But it fails to recognize one weakness with the Canon SD400, that sharpness is lacking in the corners of the image (at wideangle).I decided to buy the camera anyway because of its excellent performance and nice case, and I'm extremely happy with it!