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Steve's Conclusion
By Matt Metzker
Steve's SnapShot |
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Pros |
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Cons |
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Timing Test Results |
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Bottom Line |
| When I started with this camera, I was not a fan of the touch screen feature. However, Canon has won me over with this one, thanks to a very responsive system. The images taken from the SD3500 were of excellent quality and the camera feels well built and sturdy. |
Pick This Up If... |
| You
are looking for a high quality compact digital camera with excellent image
quality that is easy enough for anyone to pick up and start shooting
with, and is loaded with great features. |
Canon's new PowerShot SD3500 IS Digital ELPH is a compact digital camera featuring a 14-Megapixel imaging sensor, DIGIC 4 image processor, 3.5-inch PureColor LCD touch screen with an auto scene selection mode, program mode and HD video capture. This camera is easy enough for anyone in the home or office to pick up and start shooting with, even if they have no previous experience with a digital camera. Not to mention the SD3500 is packed with high-end features.
Canon's
Auto mode will automatically choose the correct "scene" mode for
your current shooting situation. The PowerShot SD3500 chooses
its scene mode based on 13 predefined shooting situations to make sure
it has the right settings for your subject.
The
SD3500 has a good feel to it and I was able to shoot with it
comfortably with two hands. Having a touch screen makes it difficult to do
any quick-draw one handed shots. I found gripping the camera with two
fingers on each hand worked best; also known as the "pinch" technique. One drawback is the placement of the
flash. Several times my left hand would block the flash when shooting
indoors and in low light. I was and am usually skeptical of touch
screens, but Canon has won me over. The touch screen responded well to
my inputs, even before going through the calibration, and the more I used
it the more I liked it. I found the touch screen to be very interactive when I learned about the "swipe" shortcuts. These are four shortcuts in playback mode that can be set-up to do several different actions. I used the Delete swipe several times and it worked well. What you do when wanting to delete an image is drag your finger from the top of the touch screen and when you get to the center, drag to the left. This will then bring up the Delete command. Sweeping from top to the right will perform another function as will sweeping from the bottom up and then to the right or left. In addition, the clarity of the TruColor LCD
was very good.
Performance
from the SD3500 is great for a ultra-compact camera. From the time
you press the power button, the camera takes about 2 seconds before it can
capture its first image. The camera's shutter lag was instantaneous when the camera is pre-focused but took about 2/10 of a second when
allowing the autofocus to work. When shooting without the flash, the
camera's shot-to-shot delay took 2.6 seconds, and jumps to 4.7 seconds when using the flash. Using the camera's
continuous shooting mode, we were able to get about 0.85fps without the flash and .47-fps with the flash. All of our tests
were completed using a Class 6 SCHC card, rechargeable
Ni-MH battery, Program mode, ISO Auto, Flash off and all other
settings at the factory defaults unless noted otherwise. All times may
vary depending on lighting, camera settings, media, etc.
Outdoors,
the SD3500 was able to capture some great photos. I was really happy with the shot of
the cannon, with a rich blue sky and colors of the flag were quite
vivid. The theater shot looked really good and if there was any
aberrations we usually look to the wires; we saw a few, but only
noticed them at 100% magnification. Looking at the theater shot, I did
notice that as you go away from the focal point, the bricks seem to
blur and lose detail. The fore-mentioned is mostly discernible due to
looking at the image on my computer screen at 100%. In a smaller print,
the detail change would be so minuscule that no one would think to notice it
anyway. Overall I thought that the SD3500 did well during the sunny
winter day we were out testing it.
Our indoor images
show
similar results to our outdoor samples. I was quite happy with the
detail that the camera was able to pick up, especially in the portrait
shots. Looking at them in 100%, the camera had no problem picking up
the smallest details in skin tones, hair and such. When looking at our
standard M&M test shots, I was impressed with what the camera did
at all the different ISO settings. As would be suspected the images get
that "grainy" look to them at the higher ISO settings starting at
around ISO 800, but the good news is that it only goes to ISO 1600; and
you will see that even the ISO 1600 image could make a great 4x6-inch print.
Canon seems to have abandon the 3200 setting which I will not be losing
sleep over, as that setting, industry wide, seems to produce mostly
unusable pictures in the consumer point and shoot category. I must
note here that when using the Low-Light scene mode, I did take a
picture where the camera used ISO 3200, but I guess that is at the
camera's discretion as I did not choose it.
The
SD3500 has a built in flash and for me this is the one major complaint
I have. First and foremost is the placement. It is up very tight to the
corner, right about where one would put their fingers when holding the
camera. More often than not my finger blocked or partially blocked the
flash when taking a picture. It became very frustrating. I finally had
to switch to a less comfortable two finger "pinch" grip to keep my
fingers from being part of the scene. After all that, I was not very
happy with the flash performance. While it would light up my subject
when aiming at the kids, it was always very dark behind them which gave
the picture an unbalanced feel. In the M&M tests, the flash worked
good when the camera was set at ISO Auto, but when we set the ISO to
80, it was very dark. With a price tag at around 330 bucks, this flash
could be better. However, we have to note that with tiny cameras come tiny flash units. The SD3500 didn't perform any less than a similar cameras in this category.
Canon has some special Scene
modes to mention. They have the standard stuff that is pretty common
place to find on cameras these days. Where Canon chose to veer away is
with some artistic effects. Color Accent and Color Swap have a similar
principle, but were a lot of fun to play with. In Color Accent, you can
choose a color (by tapping that spot on the touch screen) in your
scene, set the degree of variance for that color, and the camera will only capture that color from the scene, everything else will turn out black & white. In
the Color Swap mode, you can do just that. Do you wish the sweater your
daughter is wearing matched the red flowers? this mode can make it
happen. Fisheye and Miniature Effects are picture distortion effects. I
didn't see much use for fisheye, but the miniature impressed me. I
wasn't sure how well it would work, but as you can see in the samples
page it is quite effective. Creative Light Effect was my least favorite.
CLE is supposed to take the glow from lights or from fireworks and
convert them to shapes such as hearts or stars. The problem I had was
that to get a sample, shooting without the flash blurred everything,
and shooting with the flash light up the scene too much. Low light is
the last one I wanted to mention. We are seeing this pop up a lot in
other cameras and I like this scene mode to manage indoor shooting
scenes. I think it does a great job on the SD3500.
I was pleased with the video functions, the SD3500 is equipped with HD video and an HDMI port to connect the camera to that
Hi-Def. television. You can even set the video to shoot in wide screen
format. The video we got was pretty solid. As is pretty standard on the
point and shoot cameras, the optical zoom does not work during filming.
If you must zoom, there is digital zoom, but image quality will suffer
if you use it. For anyone new to these reviews, let me briefly explain
why. Digital zoom is sort of a misnomer, in reality you are not
zooming, but enlarging what the camera sees. This results in a more
pixelated image. The recording sizes for movies are HD 1280x720, 640x480 and a smaller size 320x240 option.
Powering the SD3500 is a 3.7V Li-Ion battery pack. Canon's website claims that you should get about 220 shots on a fully charged battery. In our use during testing we didn't make the 220 mark, but as a review is built I am constantly turning the camera on and off and letting it just sit idle as I look at pictures, and review functions. With all that said, someone using the camera as intended should be satisfied with the battery's ability. And with the external charger, purchasing a second battery will keep you shooting for hours.
Bottom Line - I am happy to recommend the SD3500. It is on the high end as far as price goes, but I believe that it will be money well spent. You will love the interactive touch screen and more importantly you will be happy with the image quality. On the other side, with its wide angle 24-mm lens, a panoramic scene mode instead of the Fisheye mode would have been a wiser choice in my opinion. With a street price of $329.99US or less, the SD3500 IS offers a great value in the touchscreen, point-n-shoot market.
Visitors of Steves can visit the stores below for real-time pricing and availability. You can also find hot, soon to expire online offers on a variety of cameras and accessories at our very own Camera Deals page.
| Zagg invisibleSHIELD for the Canon PowerShot SD3500IS Screen Protector - ZAGG | |||
| Product | Price | Information | Seller Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
 Seller: ZAGGproducts | $25 | Condition: New In Stock: Yes |  121 reviews |
