Canon PowerShot SD790 IS Silver 10 MP 3.0" 230K LCD 3X Optical Zoom Digital Camera

Almost perfect

Reviewed By: littleguy on 6/22/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: I spent weeks reviewing the purchase of my next camera and finally chose this one. I am very happy with my choice.

Like all Canons, it has a great sensor with excellent color rendition and good noise properties. The image stabilization is a must-have for me and my wife, since we have shaky hands. Unexpectedly, I really like the scene settings, common to most Canons. They do a great job with exposure and white balance. I used the sunset mode all over the place in Sedona, AZ and got incredibly vivid, rich shots of the beautiful scenery there. I love the durable all-metal construction and the clean aesthetic. No glossy black plastic to show finger smudges. Face detection is great, and now includes white balance so skin tones are always rendered properly. The macro feature is incredible - it can take pictures 1" away from the subject. Very fast startup, shutter delay, frames per second, and flash recycle time. The wheel is quite handy for scrolling through hundreds of photos.

Cons: Noticeable barrel distortion at widest angle. I noticed this when taking landscapes at the Grand Canyon -- the horizon was noticeably curved when I framed it above the 1/3 gridline. I never noticed this on my previous Canon with similar wide-angle equivalent. Surprised to see it since the widest angle is barely considered wide-angle. Not enough of a con to keep it from a 5-star rating.

Other Thoughts: The only real thing lacking on this camera is a wider angle lens, which I was well aware of before purchase. Note that nearly all Canon models are in the same boat and lack the wider angle lens. If wide angle is critical (e.g. you take a lot of indoor shots), consider the Canon 870. But the all-metal construction, the clean aesthetic, and some software enhancements give this model the edge over the 870 for me (megapixels should NOT be a deciding factor).

I strongly recommend the Dolica 3" screen protectors for this camera. Get a few in case you screw up the installation. Since the screen is flush with the back housing, there's virtually no natural protection provided by the housing (unlike your eyes, which are protected by the protruding orbital bones of your skull). Not only does the Dolica product protect the screen well, but it is relatively very easy to install and is actually easier to wipe finger smudges off it than the bare screen.

22 out of 22 people found this review helpful. Did you?

Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!

Great Camera

Reviewed By: Computer Guy on 6/21/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Love this camera. The main selling point for me was the lack of the useless optical viewfinder (that little window on the camera that you can look through if for some insane reason you don't want to use the LCD). I never ever used that stupid little look-thru on last digital camera in all the years I used it; it just takes up space. Without it, they were able to fit a 3" LCD on this camera, and it looks fantastic. Now when I take a picture of someone, and they want to see how it came out, they can see it very clearly on the large LCD. 10 megapixels is great. I hear people argue that there's no reason to go above 8, but now that I'm using a 10 megapixel camera its my opinion that the world is ready for it. :)

Cons: 3x optical zoom is pretty weak. That's standard for almost the whole PowerShot SD line though. And at the highest resolution, you can just crop the photos down to what you wanted to zoom in on, and you'll still have a ridiculously high resolution picture. My last camera was a Sony, and I didn't know that other brand name cameras don't include the gimicky features like night vision/night shot. For whatever reason, I just assumed this camera would have a night vision/night shot setting (which I love). Not a big deal.

Other Thoughts: I got a Transcend 16GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SD/SDHC) Flash Card w/Compact Card Reader S5 Model TS16GSDHC6- S5W for this camera and it works great. After I copy the pictures to my computer, I leave them on the camera so that people can look at them. The color change and color accent features are really fun to use, and you can create some really amazing artsy pictures with them. The scroll wheel button is just annoying for everyone...but anything you can do by spinning the wheel, you can do by pushing it on the top, bottom, left, and right because it functions both ways. So its not an issue.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you?

Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!

Great image quality + FAST!

Reviewed By: fredrxson on 4/22/2008

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

Pros: Auto settings handle different shot conditions remarkably well
Image quality - esp low light
Super-fast start up, time between shots & menu response
Large, bright & vivid LCD
Good battery life

Cons: Scroll wheel navigation cumbersome; will take time to get the hang of it
LCD screen is flush with back of camera and really needs some kind of protection/cover as previously mentioned (mine already has a noticable scratch)
Red-eye reduction not always 100% effective

Other Thoughts: Coming back to Canon after trying several other brands of point-and-shoot cameras. Granted, the 790IS is the latest & greatest, but there is simply no comparison when it comes to image quality - the Canon is superb. This camera is really smart when using the auto settings and takes great pics regardless of the ambient conditions. The manual settings are all there, but are probably overkill for most users. Bottom line for me: the image quality, speed and LCD display make this a winner

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful. Did you?

Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!

Great Camera

Reviewed By: ArN on 2/5/2009

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: -Great point and shoot pictures
-Good battery life (350+ pics on one charge)
-Nice weight to it (doesn't feel cheapy)
-Not much bigger than my cellphone.
-Quick startup time (~1second)
-Quick read/write speeds
-Has more features than I know what to do with

Cons: None!

Other Thoughts: I'm no camera guru and I'm sure those who are could find problems with this camera and its features, however, ignorance is bliss (you don't miss features if you don't know about them or need them). Overall very happy with this purchase. I considered the SD1100 for it's price point but found this on sale for not much more. Most of the time i just leave it in auto mode and the pictures come out better than i could ask for. Night mode and high ISO mode work great too for dim light. Took a picture of a group sitting around a campfire at night and was surprised at the result - crystal clear image with nobody over or under exposed. Great camera for the price.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you?

Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!

very awesome camera

Reviewed By: Macy on 1/31/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

Pros: this camera is perfect. whether you are a beginner or are very good at photography, this camera will work for you.
it is easy to learn how to use, with, of course a lot of presets for people who don't know how to use exposure, shutter speed, etc. But it also has a manual setting wherein you can totally customize how you want your picture.
i have tried other cameras that are around the same price and none of them can compare. it has a wonderful image stabilizer so even when you are super shaky you can still get a crisp clean picture. the zoom is amazing, even in digital zoom you can get a picture that isnt grainy and has very crisp colors and lots of detail (assuming you have it on the correct settings for exposure and whatnot), it takes wonderful macro pictures and has a great digital macro setting with once again crisp colors and details. it also has some fun settings for color accent and color swap.
Great batt life also.
I would tell you more good things but I don't have anymore

Cons: People will always want to borrow your camera because it will own theirs :)

Other Thoughts: READ THE MANUAL. There are so many cool features, it really pays to read the manual and know how to use them instead of slowly finding out all of the cool things it can do over a long period of time.
Really, an awesome camera.
Nicely sized LCD, also, that gives you an excellent idea of what it will look like on your computer or when you print it out.
I haven't played around with the software included yet because i really dont have a reason too because i prefer to just use photoshop, but it looks like it would work reasonably well.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Did you?

Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!

Reviewed By: on 1/31/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: less than 1 day

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: This is one the BEST camera I have ever used! I never liked to take pictures because they would never turn out right. rather it be blurry or just flash was too bright. This camera can make an armature take pictures like a pro. The camera handles my small shaking just fine with no blur. it has face finder (that's not something i was looking for but its a plus) the continuous setting works like a charm! overall just a good photographer newbie cam =)

Cons: The wheel to "scroll" through camera modes.

Other Thoughts: a scrolling controller on how sensitive the wheel is? maybe custom power up/down, picture capture sounds and power up/down images. rather then themes that are stock.

Did you find this review helpful?

Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided!