Canon PowerShot SD300: The Best Ultra-Compact in its Class?
by Stephen Caston on February 23, 2005 4:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
The Design: Canon SD300
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The front of the SD300 features a 3x optical zoom lens that has a 35mm equivalent range of 35 - 105mm. When the camera is powered on, the built-in lens cover opens and the lens extends. Directly above the lens is the viewfinder window. To the left is the AF-assist lamp, which also acts as the red-eye reduction and self-timer lamp. At the upper-right is the thin, built-in flash with a working range of 1.6' - 11.5' at wide angle and 1.6' - 6.6' at telephoto. Just to the left of the lens is a tiny microphone.
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The main power button is located on the top of the camera in the form of an On/Off button. A green lamp will light just below the button to indicate that the power is on. To the right of this is the zoom controller with the shutter button in the middle.
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Located on the bottom of the camera is a sliding hinged door that conceals the battery and SD card. We found this door to be fairly weak as it is made out of plastic. It certainly must be handled with more care than the rest of the body. The SD300 is bundled with an NB-4L Li-ion battery (3.7V 760 mAh) and 90-minute wall charger. To release the battery, you must slide a small clip to the side. The camera also comes with a 16MB SD card, but you will most likely want to upgrade to a larger capacity as the included card will only hold a handful of high resolution images. Directly in line with the lens is a metal tripod mount.
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The right side of the camera features a plastic terminal cover that conceals the USB and A/V connections. You will probably need a fingernail to open this cover as it is flush with the side of the body. Below this terminal cover is the post for the included wrist strap.
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Overall, we are very impressed with the design of the SD300. The camera is very small and light at only 4.6 oz. In fact, we forgot frequently that we had it in our pocket while we were walking around. The metal body gives it a solid and robust feel.
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Fricardo - Saturday, July 16, 2005 - link
"We are eagerly awaiting the release of the 5 megapixel PowerShot SD400 and we will certainly bring you a review"Sooo, the SD400 is out. And still no review?
brownba - Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - link
i love my sd300i've read about the lcd being fragile...
but that's just the 2% of disgruntled owners being loud, while teh 98% of happy owners are out taking great pictures
zoomsix - Wednesday, June 1, 2005 - link
Buyers Beware: the sd300 lcd breaks VERY EASY. Take special care when handling as even the slightest impact can break it, and canon WILL NOT replace it free of charge.IMO, this is reason enough not to buy the camera. The simple fact that it can break from something as simple as being in your pocket is screaming flawed design.
You won't see this in any reviews because reviewers only test the product... they don't actually have extended experience with it.
If you don't believe me, just search around.
You have been warned.
Cameraman - Wednesday, March 9, 2005 - link
Yet another flippin' awesome review, man! I can't even imagine buying a digital camera at this point without reading what you have to say about it. Thanks for all of the hard work, dude!Bookie - Monday, February 28, 2005 - link
I just got this camera last week to compliment my Dimage A1 and I've very impressed. The movie quality rocks. The pictures aren't quite as clear as my Dimage, but that's where the $400 price different comes in. I paid just over $300 for this camera. I really wanted to wait for next month to get either ther sd500 or sd600, but since I'm headed on a cruise next week I couldn't wait any longer, though I may ebay this after the trip and get one of the new ones depending on their street price. I also found replacement batteries (generic) for $12 online and picked up a couple of those.I did comparisons of this camera with the eLixims. Even though I could get the 5mp casio for the same price, it just didn't do as much as well as this camera. I also couldn't stand that they had to have that docking station to charge.
Brunnis - Saturday, February 26, 2005 - link
Okay, I think I've decided now. I'm buying the IXUS 40 (as it's apparently called here), along with a fast 1GB SD card and Canon's own camera bag. Should be really neat to have this camera the coming summer. :) I've read more reviews of it and they're all agreeing with this one!drwho9437 - Friday, February 25, 2005 - link
#21 they did I believe add a digital zoom in the SD500 but not an optical one. Though since the image is so small compaired to the sensor resolution it will probably work well. The auto focus system is designed to continously focus.stephencaston - Friday, February 25, 2005 - link
#22, yep IXUS 40 for the SD300 and IXUS 30 for the SD200.Brunnis - Friday, February 25, 2005 - link
This is pretty much what I've been looking for! I'm just wondering what the exact name is in europe. Would this be the Digital IXUS 40 (not 400!)?Jedi2155 - Friday, February 25, 2005 - link
I have a SD300 and I also use a Lexar 32x 1 GB on it. I've tried taken a movie sample with a full battery charge had it go till I filled the card to capacity. Thats about 8 minutes and 45(50 maybe) using a empty card @ 640x480 30 FPS. After that, I still managed to get a weeks worth of shots (about 10-20 a day) with a few more videos on the battery charge. Needless to say, I am impressed and decided to against buying a spare.I am irked about the inability to zoom in the movie mode but I heard they fixed that in the upcoming SD500......