Canon PowerShot SD200 (Digital IXUS 30 / IXY Digital 40)

Opinion: This camera is my boyfriends but I have used it quite a bit. For what is (3mp), it takes fine pictures. VERY ease to use and its nice and "pocketable." Screen is relatively big too.

Opinion: Very small and stylish camera.
Excellent speed overall, AF too. Good AF in low light even if AF assist beem disabled. Very speedy flash recharging.

Impresive image quality - very nice colors, excelent autoWB (even in room), superb macro, great clarity and detaility, low noise up to iso200. Resolution enough to print really excellent 8''x12''.

Only by card limited continues shooting at ~2.4f/s and video (wtih audio) even 640x480 at 30f/s.

Opinion: BEWARE - Known problems with this camera as well as the SD400. First is the dreaded "E18" error, which happened to me the first day after receiving the camera. According to Canon support this is where the camera lens stops communicating with the body, making the camera a brick. It's a very common problem with this camera, just search the web and see all the thousands of occurrances.

The next major issue is the new updated LCD's. They are EXTREMELY fragile. I went to turn it on last night and the LCD appears to be cracked, it just lights up white. It has never been dropped or impacted that I know of, it has been in a case on top of my desk. I searched online and found out this is hapening to a huge number of people. Lots of websites are devoted to this problem, and the reviews on other sites like amazon have lots of people complaining about it. Canon will not cover this under warranty either, even though it is obviously a problem.

If it weren't for these problems it would be a decent camera, but these are BIG problems in my opinion. For those reasons I would not recommend this camera to anybody.

Opinion: I bought this camera just 3 day's ago. It was a real bargain, just 199 Euro. In comparison with my old camera, a hp 618, it is really fast but I thinck which camera isn't.
The 2"display is very usefull and bright enough even in the sun.
All buttons are in place and the menu is easy to use.
I already love the camera and hope to make a lot of beautifull pictures with it.

Opinion: I really love this little thing. It's so small that I now really take it with me anywhere, and that gives me opportunity to take picture I'd never have taken with my A80, let alone 10D...

And it's FAST. I could take marathon shots and it took a series of an approaching person all well in focus. It's no fast DSLR yet, but it gets close to the ideal practical and versatile usage.

Compared to the A80, pictures are just slightly less detailed, and though the A80 is famous for its relative good noise ratio, it is the fast focusing and responsiveness that gets me the pictures in the end (and where the A80 leaves me alone).

There is indeed purple fringing around contrasts, but part of it is sensor related. Simply set exposure to -1/3 or -2/3 under contrasty circumstances and you will see less of it.

The 'neutral' mode helps to decrease too much contrast which is a bit of a habit of most little digicams.

It is perhaps the first digicam that for me has enough qualities to compete with my good old 10D (but it isn't the same...one can do art with that one ;-)

Btw. My lens is pretty sharp; just a bit softness in the corners, but that is something you won't notice quickly as long you don't do architecture photography.

Opinion: I purchased this camera 3 months ago and have been using it extensively in my travels.

Construction:
Excellent Canon construction though not as sleek as it's older brother the SD300 (or the newer models recently announced). However it has a very well built, sturdy metallic body.

The 2.0" LCD screen is almost 100% accurate and fluid. Similar to other LCD screens, it suffers in bright daylight.

Features:
Easy to use.
Auto-focus works well in low-light and is extremely fast compared to other Canon digicams. Less than one second for most photos.

Nine point AiAF is useful for people not accustomed to spot-focusing (also available) and focus-lock.

AF/Exposure lock functions possible.

Spot, centre-weighted and evaluative metering options.

Image quality:
Accurate, beautiful colour saturation typical of Canon digicams.
Purple fringing *see below* a problem.

Ease of use:
Anybody could turn this camera on and take photos in auto-mode.

Value for money:
Cheap in the US and European countries and will get cheaper! Good value for money for an ultra-compact.

Opinion: Upgrading from the Minolta Dmage XT 2003...This is a good camera in size. I didn't buy this camera to take professional quality...didn't assume it would monopolize the market with astounding effects...I wanted small and light so I could hide it in my pocket and go. With that said, take into consideration that this canon allows me to interchange my SD cards with my palm and the reverse.

One could go all year comparing camera notes. It's what satisfies your needs and camera habits. The picture quality is pretty good. I've taken snaps of my artwork and uploaded the images to an online album. Those that have viewed consider them professional shots. And for that, this camera has done its job.

Opinion: - very bad lens (soft image at corners)
- very good autofocus (fast, works well in low light, useful "infinity" mode)
- don't display shutter speed in record/play mode
- can't choose the aperture
- shutter release button not soft enough (can make the camera shake at slow speed)
- very good movie vga mode (but no mpeg4, which meens heavy files !)
- reliable exposure and white balance
- deliver sharp image (corners excepted !)
- quite expensive for a only 3 Mp camera

Opinion: I've been very impressed with indoor photographs. Very good focus and auto white balance. While the features are somewhat limited in terms of manual capability, its an excellent "event" snapshot camera. Was a gift for my wife, and she loves it.