Despite what you hear... Size does matter.

So you’re thinking about the SD300 huh? Good choice. Very good choice. We just bought the SD300 in December of 2004. I researched cameras for about a month before deciding on this one. What’s funny is, I decided on this camera the day I discovered it. You can read reviews until you’re blue in the face, but you absolutely have to go out to the local stores and try them out. Many times the perfect camera on paper turns out to be a dud once you play around with it. The SD300 is my 3rd digital camera. My first was an Olympus 1.4MP from 1998. The second (and still working) is a 3.1MP Canon G1. I was one of the first people in the country to own that camera, and it has been a true workhorse. The reason we wanted a new camera is because the G1 is so bulky. Not only that, but its shutter lag makes me want to throw it over a cliff sometimes. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing the perfect shot, pressing the shutter at the exact moment, and your camera doesn’t fire! AAAGGGGGGG! Lastly, this camera is mainly for my wife to use to take photos of our constantly moving toddler. The G1 just won’t take a non-blurry photo of moving subjects. So we wanted a camera that my non-technical wife could use.

Enter my top criteria: Portable size, fast performance, easy to use. After reading numerous reviews, I was starting to lean towards a Sony. They seemed to have less shutter lag than most point-and-shoot cameras. A trip to my local Best Buy proved otherwise. The Sony’s were quick to take a shot, but you had a nice blurry subject! The other issues I found with many brands (other than Canon) is that they felt cheap. I also couldn’t take decent photos in the stores, and the LCD screens on the back of today’s current crop of cameras are horrible. They looked blurry and low resolution. I was in quite a quandary because I couldn’t find a single camera that met my needs. Well I had the idea to take my G1 into a different Best Buy to compare new with old. I was quite surprised to find Best Buy #2 had twice the selection of cameras on hand as the first one! I kept looking at the other brands because I had all but written Canon off for this purchase. – Mainly because my mother-in-law just bought an A85, and she is not pleased with the severe shutter lag on her camera either. After making a few trips around the Best Buy camera island, I kept finding myself in front of the Canon’s. They looked better, and felt better than all the other brands. It was then that I saw the tiny little SD300 looking up at me. I instantly thought – “If that camera didn’t have shutter lag, that would be ideal!” Well a sales rep approached me, and I explained my dilemma. He instantly pointed out the SD200 and SD300 as having Canon’s new DIGIC II processor and that they were higher performance than the great majority of point-and-shoots on the market. After playing around with one for a few minutes, I was sold. But being the anal person I am, I still had to read some reviews on it first. So after reading several reviews, I logged on to Best Buy’s site and low & behold, the SD300 was $40 cheaper online! So I paid for it online, and an hour later, did an in-store pickup. I also purchased a 512mb SD card so I could take some video clips.

This camera is fun to use. You actually WANT to take pictures with it. You will FIND subject matter to digitize. I’ve taken hundreds of photos in the first month of ownership. I haven’t even turned my poor G1 on since I bought this camera, and I am constantly amazed at the performance! Startup time to the first photo shot is less than 2 seconds. Taking shots of people moving is NOT a problem. Playback of shots taken is super fast. Deleting photos is completely painless. My wife uses this camera all the time since it’s so easy to use. In a word, we love it. It’s so small; I put it in the front pocket of my pants. I often times forget I even have it. A couple of weeks ago, I took it to the Detroit Lions/Bears football game. I took photos using the digital zoom (which I’ve never been a fan of) and could not believe how well the photos came out. The video clips on my G1 were so bad, I rarely used the feature. On the SD300, it’s outstanding, and I find myself taking short clips all the time. As far as picture quality goes, the camera is not perfect. For the most part the pictures are great. Red eye is a problem with all small cameras, and the SD300 is no exception. Luckily, Canon gives a generous software package with both PC and Mac OSX users. Personally, I used iPhoto on OS X to get rid of red-eye. I have not noticed the purple fringing to be problem on this camera. It is on my G1, so compared to that; I think it’s considerably less. Lastly, the small lens lends itself to slightly darkened corners (called vignetting). This is prevalent with the flash used on indoor photos. This happens with the wide angle used. To help lessen this, simply zoom in a touch.

The battery in this camera is small and therefore doesn’t last as long as other cameras. If you play around with the zoom, and have the LCD on full time, you’ll only get about 60 photos out of a charge. No zoom will get you about 80. No zoom and no LCD, will net about 400! But what fun is that? You have to pull the battery out of the camera and put it in the included wall charger. I personally prefer to plug the charger directly into the camera, but no such luck. I highly recommend getting a second (off-brand) battery to keep on standby.

Why do people keep bringing up the lack of manual controls on this point-and-shoot? Or attachable lenses? This camera is not an SLR. It’s not a full size G6. If you have those types of needs, you shouldn’t be looking at ANY point-and-shoot. So I refuse to downgrade this camera based on features it’s NOT supposed to have. You need to compare apples to apples. And for a subcompact point-and-shoot camera, this camera was by far the best I found. Its strengths far outweigh its shortcomings. I highly recommend this camera to anyone who wants above-average photos from a subcompact camera.