The Canon PowerShot SD450 Digital ELPH is the "little bother" to the SD550 we reviewed earlier this year. It has very similar specs, with the exception of being 5-megapixels compared to the SD550's 7-megapixels. This compact and durable model offers all of the features that users have come to expect from Canon, like a large resolute 2.5-inch LCD, high-quality 640x480 movie mode, along with various fully automatic exposure modes. There's the typical Auto mode, which the camera selects all options like shutter speed. aperture, ISO, White balance, etc. Users can also choose from 11 different scene specific modes: Digital Macro, Portrait, Night Snapshot, My Colors, Kids & Pets, Indoor, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, and Underwater (when used with the optional underwater case.) Manual mode is similar to Auto with access to more advanced settings such as ISO, White Balance, Metering and Color Effects.

Since the introduction of the S100 back in 2000, the first Digital ELPH from Canon, we have always been very impressed with the excellent design of these models. The SD450 continues Canon's tradition of sleek style and rigid design. Even though it is very compact (about the size of a deck of cards), it fits comfortably in your hands and one-handed shooting is a breeze; even for those of us with large hands. Your fingers fall naturally over the various controls on the back of the camera and we especially like the zoom controls being mounted around the shutter release. For times when using the self-timer to include yourself in group photos without benefit of a tripod, there are tiny little feet that are built into the bottom and side of the camera body, allowing it to be placed on an even surface; this is also useful for long exposures.

Its 2.5-inch LCD has both an anti-glare coating and brightness adjustment, making it usable even on the brightest of days. You can also opt to use the zoom-coupled optical viewfinder, just remember it only shows about 80-85% of the captured image. When shooting in low-light, the LCD "gains up" very well, allowing you to frame your subject. Playback mode was very useful, providing a large and bright display, image magnification of up to 10x, and a detail display mode that includes exposure settings and a histogram.

Shooting performance was very robust with power up until the first image captured took only 1.4 seconds! Shutter lag, the delay between depressing the shutter button and capturing an image, was almost instantaneous (less than 1/10 of a second) when pre-focused, and only 2/10 of a second including autofocus. In single image drive mode, the shot to shot delay averaged 1.3 seconds without flash, and at intervals of between 2 and 5 seconds with flash depending on subject distance. Using its continuous (burst) mode, I was able to capture frames in only 3.2 seconds. When shooting in burst mode, the LCD briefly displays the last image captured making it difficult to follow moving subjects; You'll achieve better results using the optical viewfinder. Our tests were done using a 32x Lexar 1GB SD card, Manual mode, Large SuperFine quality, preview off, flash off, and all other settings at default (unless otherwise noted.) Times may vary depending on lighting conditions, camera settings, media, etc.

As usual, Canon's 3x optical zoom lens is a very nice piece of glass. It has a flexible zoom range of 35-105mm (35mm equivalent), providing a moderately wide field of view for interior and scenic shots, and telephoto coverage useful for portraits and to bring your subjects up close and personal. We noticed moderate barrel distortion at wide angle, but no pin cushioning at telephoto. Chromatic aberrations are well controlled, with only the slightest amount of purple fringing detectable in high contrast areas. Overall, the lens produced tack sharp images, it's a perfect match for the 5-megapixel imager.

If you're looking for a 5-megapixel digicam with superb image quality, look no further than the SD450. If offers various image size choice for just about every application. Both Large superFine and Fine modes have plenty of resolution to create awesome 13×19-inch prints. The M2 (1600×1200) and S (640×480) modes are perfect when posting pictures on the web or sending them via email, where file sizes need to be as small as possible. There's also Postcard mode that is set to a 3:2 aspect ratio, which is ideal for printing 4×6-inch prints and not having to worry about cropping. Using Manual mode with the ISO set at 50, our outdoor samples were excellent. The majority of our images were sharp with very accurate color balance. The white balance system is on the money almost every time, even when shooting in very mixed lighting conditions. Noise levels are low in both high and low contrast areas, allowing for beautiful sky detail. The only downfall I found in our images was a small amount of edge softness on the left hand side of the picture. However, this can only be seen when viewing photos on a PC with the image blown up to 100%, but it is very unlikely to show up in any of your images.

The SD450 has a pretty good flash range of about 12 feet (at wide angle and ISO Auto), considering the tiny sized flash unit. This is sufficient for most low light shooting, however we feel you'll achieve the best results when shooting no more than 8 feet from the subject. When using ISO 50, I found that the effective range dropped to about 6 feet, and I captured our best individual portraits from about 4 feet away. Overall our people photos were sharp and displayed natural looking skin tones. Red-eye is always an issue with compact cameras because the lens is located so close to the lens. The Red-eye reduction flash mode did well at eliminating a larger majority of red-eye occurrence in our photos.

When wanting to record movies, the SD450 offers a variety of resolutions and frame rates to meet your needs. Fast Frame Rate shoots moving images at 60 frames per second at a resolution of 320×240, limiting the clip length to one minute. Standard movie mode offers a choice of resolutions (640×480 or 320×240) and frame rates of (15 or 30fps). Standard movie clips are not limited by time, but by size; you can record movies up to 1 gigabyte! At 640x480 and 30 fps, you'll be consuming nearly 2 megabytes per second, so make sure to get a large and fast SD memory card. Overall, our movie samples were excellent, showing minimal compression artifacts. The AF system did very well at keeping up with moving subjects. Because sound is recorded, the optical zoom cannot be used, however you can opt to use the digital zoom.

Because this camera is so compact, it requires an equally compact battery pack. Power is supplied by a proprietary, rechargeable Li-ion pack that's good for about 150 shots with full time use of the color LCD or up to 500 shots with the LCD off. I had no problems capturing our sample photos (over 80 images) and concluded our other tests (with extensive use of the LCD) on a single charge. However, even with such good battery life, we still recommend the purchase of a second pack because the camera cannot be powered by any other type of battery. Canon includes a very compact and portable AC charger that takes about two hours to charge a fully depleted pack. The charger plugs directly into an 100-240V AC outlet and has fold-away prongs, which is very convenient.

Bottom line - Canon has produced yet another winning digital combination of sleek compact design, speedy performance and great image quality. With the camera taking up less space than a deck of playing cards, it can be carried in almost any size pocket or handbag. The PowerShot SD450 has an MSRP of about $399, which we feel is an excellent value when compared to similar models of its class. So if you're in the market for an extremely pocketable 5-megapixel digicam, be sure to take a look at this model. If you find that you need more resolution for making larger prints, see our review of the PowerShot SD550, it includes all of the features found on the SD450 with a higher resolution 7.1-megapixel imager for only about $100 more!