The Canon SD430 packs a lot
of photographic power into a very small package. The SD430
offers a 5-megapixel resolution, a 3X zoom, a 2-inch LCD monitor
and an optical viewfinder. More importantly, however, the
SD430 captures very well-exposed, sharp and faithful images.
For example, the SD430 is able to capture the strong orange
light of the setting sun intensified by smoke coming from
a distant forest fire; a type of composition that many other
cameras would either over or under expose quite easily.
In fact, the image quality of
the SD430 is excellent throughout the focal length range of
the zoom. Wide angle shots are sharp from edge to edge and corner
to corner. A bit of barrel distortion can be seen when the subject
is nearby, and when it contains vertical or horizontal elements
that end up near the edges of the frame, but the distortion
is slight and rarely detracts from the photo; while at the telephoto
end there is no observable pincushion distortion. Similarly,
there is no serious chromatic aberration from wide angle to
telephoto.
Photos captured with natural
light, and at sensitivities of 50 or 100 ISO, show no trace
of noise. Increasing the sensitivity, a bit of noise can be
seen in photos captured at the 200 ISO level, but it remains
quite minimal. With 400 ISO images, noise can be more readily
detected.
Still, even at this sensitivity, images tend to contain relatively
little noise if they were captured outdoors with good ambient
light, making it possible to obtain higher shutter speeds
when necessary, by increasing the sensitivity.
Flash photos, however, tend to
be noisier. At 50 as well as 100 ISO, some noise can be seen
in shadows areas that have not received enough light from
the small flash. As always, at higher sensitivities noise
increases and the graininess of the image can be very noticeable
at 400 ISO.
Aperture: f4, shutter speed: 1/160 sec.,
50 ISO.
Aside from its excellent image
quality, the SD430 stands out by its WiFi compatibility. Setting
up the camera to work with either a wireless network (infrastructure)
or in a peer-to-peer configuration that allows it to communicate
directly with, for example, a wireless capable notebook computer,
is remarkably easy. The wireless section of the Software and
Wireless Guide walks the user through the configuration process
in clearly understandable steps, designed to fit a variety
of configurations. And connection to a Canon printer, using
the WA-1N Wireless Print Adapter is similarly very simple.
Connected to a wireless network,
the camera can be used to shoot and transfer images automatically
to a computer on the network, the photos appearing on screen
if desired.
If at first the usefulness
of the wireless capability of the SD430 is not obvious, after
all, plugging in a small USB cable to print photos directly
to a printer is not that onerous, transferring images directly,
and quite quickly, to a computer can be very handy. The computer
makes it possible to inspect the image in great detail —
something that is not as easy on a camera monitor —
and re-shoot if needed; and allows a much greater freedom
of movement, the ability of the camera to transfer the image
to the computer being only limited by the range of the wireless
access point.
Moreover, the image is instantly
safe, the computer acting as a back-up to the memory card.
So, while the SD430 would have benefited from a bit stronger
built-in flash, in all other areas, including its wireless
capability, the SD430 is impressive. Well-finished, easy to
carry, sufficiently flexible to capture a wide range of subjects,
the SD430 should be suitable for a wide number of people,
and would even satisfy the needs of SLR users looking for
a second, more compact camera.
Image Quality
