Canon PowerShot SD430

Reviewed August 2006

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

Set to 50 ISO, the PowerShot SD430 yielded a flash shot of the still life that is a touch too dark. Therefore, an exposure compensation of +1/3 EV was used to capture a slightly brighter image.

The flash lit the subject evenly, and there was no serious light falloff in the corners of the frame.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

With the zoom set to the maximum telephoto setting, the maximum aperture available to the camera is f4.9. To compensate, the sensitivity is set to 100 ISO, which avoids using exposure compensation.

The image the SD430 captured sustained a compression of 6.4:1. The camera captured an excellent level of detail, and at 100 ISO, the image had no noticeable noise.

MACRO PHOTO

The SD430 is equipped with two macro modes: the Standard macro mode and the Digital Macro mode.

The Standard macro mode allows the camera to focus on a subject that is as close as 3 cm (1.2 inch) from the front element of the lens when the zoom is at the wide-angle end, capturing a field of view of approximately 3.7 cm (1.5 inches). While at the telephoto end of the zoom, the camera is able to focus on a subject that is 30 cm (12 inches) from the front element of the lens, capturing a field of view of 10.8 cm (4.3 inches).

Digital Macro

The SD430'sDigital Macro mode makes use of the digital zoom to further magnify the subject. Seen at 100% on a monitor (see below), digital macro images are considerably coarser than those captured with the standard macro mode (see above). Nevertheless, when printed, or slightly reduced in size, the images are quite useable. It is worth pointing out, however, that the same effect can be obtained by cropping a standard macro.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately show the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

Good sharpness and life-like colours were two of the most notable characteristics of the wide angle shot of the building as captured by the SD430. Also notable was the absence of any serious barrel distortion, or of any chromatic aberration.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

The telephoto photo of the building was likewise colour accurate, sharp — the little yellow sign on the right door of the building is almost legible — and well-exposed. Moreover the shadowed portions of the building showed little or no noise. Nevertheless, with the image quality set to Superfine, the compression applied to the image is approximately 7:1, a level of compression that is usually reserved for a middle level.

NIGHT PHOTO

As this camera is capable of a long exposure, a photo taken at night is included.

Capturing the downtown lights with the SD430 is a real treat. The exposure range in the Manual mode can be up to 15 seconds — long enough to capture bright and interesting images of some rather dark subjects — and the noise reduction system, in combination with the low sensitivity to noise the SD430 exhibits at 50 ISO, produce near noise-free images.

Not only does the SD430 capture excellent images at night, it also has a metal tripod mount which, unlike the plastic ones that are common on many compacts, provides a very tight grip on the tripod.

At 50 ISO and with a 10 second exposure, the SD430 captures an excellent image that reveals many details that cannot be seen with the naked eye, yet which still looks like a night shot.