Canon PowerShot SD700 IS

Reviewed June 2006

Characteristics

The PowerShot SD700 IS/IXUS 800 uses a 6.2 million pixel CCD that measures 1/1.5 inch diagonally, of which 6.0 million pixels are effective to capture the camera’s maximum image size of 2816 x 2112 pixels.

CCD sensitivity starts at 80 ISO and can be increased — only when the camera is set to the Manual mode — to 100, 200, 400 or 800 ISO. In addition, sensitivity can be set to either Auto ISO, which lets the camera adjust the CCD sensitivity as necessary, or to High ISO, which allows the camera to adjust sensitivity up to 800 ISO. While with any of the Scene modes, sensitivity is completely under the control of the camera.

The SD700 IS is equipped with a 4X optical zoom with a focal range of 5.8 to 23.2 mm, the equivalent of a 35 to 140 mm zoom in a 35 mm camera. Apertures start at f2.8 at the wide-angle end, and f5.5 at the telephoto end, closing down to f5.6 and f11 respectively.

The zoom lens includes an optical stabilization system (IS), which acts to cancel out involuntary camera movements, making it possible to capture a sharp image in less than ideal light, or when the zoom is at its maximum telephoto setting; and the image stabilizer mode can be selected in the Rec. Menu (see further).

The SD700 is also equipped with a 4X digital zoom which gradually crops the centre of the image as its “magnification” power is used, and then interpolates the cropped image section to the currently selected image size, engendering a loss of sharpness in the resulting image.

Shutter speeds cover from 1/1600 second down to 1 second, but vary with the shooting mode. With the Manual mode, the range extends down to 15 seconds once the Long Shutter option has been enabled in the Rec. Menu. Moreover, all exposures longer than 1.3 seconds are automatically processed for noise reduction.

The PowerShot SD700 IS can record images at any one of five sizes:

• Large = 2816 x 2112 pixels,
• Medium 1 = 2272 x 1704 pixels
• Medium 2 = 1600 x 1200 pixels,
• Small = 640 x 480 pixels.
• Widescreen = 2816 x 1584 pixels, an aspect ratio that corresponds to (16:9 — HDTV) screens.

Three levels of JPEG compression are available at all image sizes: Superfine, Fine, or Normal; and in addition a special format called Postcard captures a 1600 x 1200 pixel image using a Fine compression.

As explained in the Ergonomics section of the review, the FUNC. SET button at the centre of the 4-direction control displays the Function menu when the camera is set to a capture mode. The menu contains the most often needed settings during capture, but the number of options that can be modified depends on the shooting mode:

• Mode serves to choose additional capture modes, according to the shooting mode: Manual, Scene, or Movie:
  • The Manual mode offers Digital Zoom, My Colours, Stitch Assist to the right, or Stitch Assist to the left.
  • The Scene mode offers a choice of 11 Scene modes (see the Ergonomics section of the review for a list of the modes available).
  • The Movie mode allows selecting the type of movie to capture (see the Ergonomics section of the review for a list of the modes available).

• Exposure Compensation: serves to adjust compensation over a range of ± 2 EV in 1/3 EV increments. In addition, with the Manual mode only, pressing the Menu button replaces exposure compensation by the selection of the exposure time for the Long Shutter mode (between 1 and 15 seconds).
• White Balance: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten (incandescent), Fluorescent (warm-white, or cool-white), Fluorescent H (daylight) and Custom (for setting the white point under ambient light).

• My Colours provides options to change the way colours are recorded:
  • Off: processes the image normally.
  • Vivid: accentuates colour saturation.
  • Neutral: softens colour saturation.
  • Sepia: creates brown-tinted images.
  • Black and White: captures monochrome images.
  • Positive Film: intensifies blues, greens and reds much as positive films.
  • Lighter Skin Tone: makes skin tones lighter.
  • Darker Skin Tone: makes skin tones darker.
  • Vivid Blue: accentuates blues
  • Vivid Green: accentuates greens.
  • Vivid Red: accentuates reds.
  • Custom Colour: allows freely adjusting contrast, sharpness, saturation, colour balance towards blue, green or red, or adjusting skin tones.
• Metering controls the way the camera evaluates the frame:
  • Evaluative,
  • Centre-weighted,
  • or Spot.
• Compression: to select the level of JPEG compression (Superfine, Fine, Normal). With the camera set to the Movie mode, this option serves to set the Frame Rate to 30 fps or 15 fps (note that when the Fast Frame Rate movie is selected, the option is locked at 60 fps).
• Resolution: Large, Medium 1, Medium 2, Small, Postcard and Widescreen. And, when the camera is set to the Movie mode using the Standard movie or My Colours movie, this option offers the choice of frame size 640 (640 x 480 pixels) or 320 (320 x 240 pixels).

Aside from the Function menu, other settings are contained in the Rec. Menu, displayed when the MENU button is pressed. With the camera set to a capture mode, the complete menu is composed of three sections, each identified by a tab at the top of the screen: Rec. (Recording), Setup (see the Interface and Software section of the review for the contents of the Setup menu), and My Camera (see further). Whatever the mode, the last 2 sections are identical, and only the options contained in the first section vary.

The Rec. menu provides the following options:

• AiAF (On or Off) controls how the intelligent AF operates. When On, using 9 AF points, or when Off, using only the Centre AF.
• Self-timer: provides a choice of either a 2 or a 10 second delay after the shutter release has been pressed, or a Custom mode that allows setting the delay between 1 and 10 seconds, or 15, 20 or 30 seconds combined with the choice of capturing between 1 and 10 images in a series.
• AF Assist Beam (On or Off) controls the AF Assist lamp that automatically comes on when the ambient light is insufficient for the auto focus to operate reliably.

• Digital Zoom: controls the 4X digital zoom.
• Review decides whether or not a just-captured image is shown on the monitor, and how: Off, Hold (keeps the image on screen until a button is pressed), or 2 to 10 seconds.
• Grid Lines: superimposes grid lines on the monitor to help with composition.
• IS Mode provides three stabilization modes:
  • Continuous: the optical image stabilizer operates continuously.
  • Shoot Only: the stabilizer operates only when the image is captured, not while it is framed.
  • Panning: stabilizes only up and down movements, ideal for shooting subjects moving horizontally (not available with the Movie mode).
  • Off: to turn off stabilization when it is not required, such as when the camera is mounted on a tripod.
• Date Stamp: this option is only available when the image size is set to the Postcard format. The option allows the date or the date and time to be superimposed on the image permanently.
• Long Shutter: On or Off, decides if the Long Shutter option is available in the Function menu when the camera is set to the Manual mode.

Set to the Playback mode, the menu is composed of 4 sections: Play, Print, Setup, and My Camera, and the last two sections are identical to those of the capture menu. The Play section of the menu provides for:

• Transition: serves to select the transition effect between images when images are played back manually.

• Slide Show: serves to see a slide show of all the images on the memory card, or only of selected images selected by date, or by folder, or only photos marked for transfer, or only photos marked for printing, or only movies. In addition any one of three transposition effects can be used, and the length of the slide show can be preset, as well as whether or not the show will loop back to the beginning.

• My Colours: this option allows modifying already captured images using options similar to those offered in the capture mode (Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tones, Darker Skin Tones, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, or Vivid Red).
• Sound Memo: allows recording a sound memo up to up 60 seconds long. An option is offered to hear the recording afterwards, or to erase it.
• Protect: prevents images from being accidentally erased. Protection is applied by pressing the FUNC. SET for each image.
• Rotate: changes the orientation of an image by either 90° or 270°, also by pressing the FUNC. SET button.
• Erase All: erases all images from the memory card with the exception of those that have been protected.
• Transfer Order: serves to mark images for automatic transfer when the camera is connected via USB to a computer running Canon's software.

The second section of the menu is to select images for printing:

• Print: starts printing selected images when the camera is connected to a compatible printer.
• Select Images & Quantity: to select images from printing, and how many copies of each image will be printed.
• Select All Images: selects all the images on the memory card for printing.
• Clear All Selections: cancels all print orders.
• Print Settings decides the type of print to make: Index, of frame by frame, with or without the date, the file name, serves to reset all DPOF settings.

The fourth section of the Playback menu, and the third section when the camera is set to the capture mode, is the My Camera section which contains options to "personalize" the SD700 IS.

The start-up image, and any of the sounds produced by the camera (start-up, operation, self- timer, shutter) can be modified. Three themes — composed of a start-up image and a series of related sounds — are pre-loaded in the camera, and over 40 more can be uploaded to it, three at a time and including an image captured with the camera, when the SD700 IS is connected to a computer running the accompanying software.

A small plastic door at the top right side of the camera covers the two external connections of the SD700 IS.

Uppermost is the A/V (Audio/Video) Out jack for which the output signal can be set to NTSC or PAL in the Setup menu, making it possible to connect the camera to televisions the world over.

Below is the USB (USB 2.0 Hi-Speed) port, which serves to connect the camera to either a computer or a compatible printer.

As with all Canon SD cameras, the PowerShot SD700 IS is compatible with SD (Secure Digital) and MMC (MultiMedia) memory cards, although the use of SD cards is preferred. In North America the SD700 IS is retailed with a starter 16 MB SD card.

The chart below is intended to provide approximate image and movie capacities using the bundled 16 MB SD card, and an optional 512 MB card, more suited to the resolution of the camera:

The memory card slot is located behind the same door that covers the battery, the latter being held in place by a spring-loaded clip so that it cannot slide out while the card is accessed.

The battery that powers the SD700 IS is a rechargeable Lithium-Ion (NB-5L). The charger (CB-2LX) is included in the kit, and takes approximately 2 hours to recharge a fully depleted battery. In addition, a small opening with a soft plastic cover, located in the battery compartment's door, allows the wire of the optional AC adapter (CA-DC10) to exit so that the camera can be powered from household current.