The Design: Olympus IR-300
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The front of the Olympus IR-300 features a 3x optical zoom with a 38 - 114mm (35mm equivalent) focal range. To the right of the lens is a red access lamp that illuminates whenever data is being written to the flash card. It will also blink to indicate that a self-timer is in progress. Above this lamp are the microphone and built-in flash.
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The back of the IR-300 is kept very simple. The LCD monitor is 2.0" with 207K pixels. On the right side of the LCD monitor is a Menu button and a remote control receiver. The remote control is not included with the camera, but can be purchased separately for approximately $40. Below the remote control receiver is a 4-way controller with a separate OK button in the middle. At the bottom of the camera are the Erase and Custom/Print buttons.
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On the top of the IR-300 is the main mode switch that changes the camera's mode from Record, Movie, and Play. Up and to the right of the mode switch are the main power button and the shutter button. Surrounding the shutter button is the zoom controller that operates the optical zoom in Record mode as well as the magnification of images in Play mode.
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On the bottom left of the camera is a metal tripod mount. In the middle, you can see the connection for the included charging dock. On the right side is the sliding hinged door that conceals the compartment for the flash card and battery. The IR-300 does not come with an xD-Picture card. However, the camera does have 15 MB of internal memory. We highly recommend picking up at least a 256 MB xD-Picture card to get started. The battery is a rechargeable LI-40B Lithium-ion (3.7V 660mAh).
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There's not much to see on the right side of the camera. From here, we can see the side of the card activity/self-timer lamp.
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On the left side of the camera is a built-in speaker for playing audio from voice memos and video clips. There is also a post for the included wrist strap.
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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!