Canon PowerShot SD600 6MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

Equipped with the latest Canon technology, the PowerShot SD600 Digital ELPH gives all the power you'd expect from a high resolution camera and more. Packed with a full array of Canon's most popular and convenient shooting features including 16:9 widescreen mode, ISO 800 exposure, Fast Frame Rate Movie Mode, and brilliantly large 2.5" LCD screen, this Digital ELPH has a sleek, ergonomic design that will turn heads. Built-in Flash with Auto, Auto w/ Red-Eye Reduction, Flash On, Flash On w/ Red-Eye Reduction, Flash Off, and Slow Synchro settings Shooting Specs - Auto, Camera M, Portrait, Special Scene (Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Underwater, Indoor, Kids & Pets, Color Accent, Color Swap), Night Snapshot, Digital Macro, My Colors, Stitch Assist, Movie; 2-sec./10-sec./Custom Self-Timer; Continuous shooting at approximately 2.1fps JPEG images and AVI movies stored on SD Memory Card or MultiMedia Card (MMC) (sold separately) A 16MB SD Card is included, however we suggest purchasing an Optional 512MB memory card. It will allow you to store a lot more Video and images, as well as take advantage of the camera's high Resolution abilities. Print directly to Canon CP/SELPHY Compact Photo Printers, PIXMA Photo Printers and PictBridge compatible printers via USB 2.0 Cable without a computer using the dedicated Print/Share Button! Interfaces - USB 2.0 (mini-B jack), A/V out (NTSC/PAL) Approximate Unit Dimensions - (WxHxD) 3.39 x 2.11 x 0.85; Unit Weight - 4.94 oz. (without battery and memory card)

Customer Reviews:

Best for the no-nonsense photographer
After doing a lot of reading and browsing I finally settled on the SD600 mainly 'cos of the reviews. It's nothing less than a great camera for the person who is not much into adjusting the blah-blah-blah for getting that perfect photo! Just switch it on and click. The zoom is sufficient and the clarity is real good. I have tried almost all the options except the "manual" and the photos are just great with foliage and night shots being the highlight. The foliage shots had a good depth of the colors and the night shots were clear. The only problem I found with night shots was that the flash "whitenend" the subject when the subject was less than 10 feet(approximately) away from the lens. Otherwise it was good. Also the photo tends to be "shaken" in low light conditions. If you are going to do a lot of shooting in low light conditions, either you need to have one/a pair of steady hands (I try to hold my camera in both my hands for better stabity) or go for one with IS.

The battery life is satisfactory and charges pretty fast. Lack of a battery indicator is a sore point. The camera is compact and fits inside almost any pocket on your attire. With an ultra SD card, the snapping is quick. By the way, the SD card that shipped with the camera was a waste. It carries no more than 10 photos at the most. Order a larger SD card along with the camera.

To summarize, here are the reasons why you should go for this...
- compact and fits palm of your hand
- Simple and easy to use
- Offers some preset settings to explore and saves you time and effort to adjust a lot of things if you were to use the manual option
- And with all these... gives you great pictures

Reduced the 1 star from the rating 'cos...
- no battery indicator. I would not know until its completely dead.
- an IS option would have been better
- sometimes I feel it is too compact that I have put in effort to grip it tight and hold it steadily (my fingers ache)

Overall, go for the camera if you need it for snapping on the go.. ur kids, travel, holidays, events etc. If you are a serious photographer with an "eye" for details, this is not the camera for you. I would suggest the S* IS series.

--2006-12-19

Pretty good.
This is way better than my old 3 megapixel Sony camera. Lots of various "scene" features. Makes very nice detailed pictures and the LCD display is nice and large. It takes short (well actually as long as you want/can fit on your disk) videos that come out really nicely.

The only downside is images at night still come out pretty crappy. It could be that I'm a camera lighting idiot but I'd think that if there's a "night" feature, the images would come out accordingly. The bizarre thing is when you are focusing it looks like all lit up and stuff but when the photo's taken it's all dark. Yea that part I don't get. I'd probably have to delve deeper into this. However, it's a good camera, very compact and easy to use.

The only thing to remember is to buy yourself an SD card. You won't be getting anywhere with the 16mb or whatever that comes with it. I bought myself a 2GB card, fits lots of pics & videos on that thing.
--2006-12-18

500 pics and 30 videos - 2 days - 2 charges - 2GB
500 pics and 30 videos - 2 days - 2 charges - 2GB
yes a couple bad pics but that's my fault..lol

I used to have a S400. It got stolen so this is a replacement.

Underwater housing
2gb Card
Canon SD600
Total $420

First Reaction

"Impressive + Cool"

Comments

The video quality definitely is up to par with most cheap camcorders. 640x480 @ 30fps is really cool. If I wanted more megapixels I would have bought a higher end model. But the video specs are pretty much the same for this and higher end models I think. After using underwater video I am simply amazed at the possibilities of making home videos. We dove down 40 feet with this thing holding our breath and took a video going back up. I was also happy with the battery life on video. I know with my old S400 I could take a quite bunch of high res pics, but eventually I would run out of battery. With the SD600 the battery lasted much longer shooting even higher res pictures and long video clips. The difference is a noticable improvement.

For people who travel a lot, and go several days without returning to base, I suggest getting 2x 2Gb SD cards, and a spare battery/car charger. The single battery works good enough for me though - It lasted me over an hour in the water shooting all these pics. It only ran out after a full hour or two of almost continuous use. It even recorded some underwater sound while inside the case...strange how it works but its a good thing.

In summary, Canon did a good job and if you need a digital snapshot that performs, I reccomend it. This is my second Canon Powershot Digital camera - and I'm sure it won't be the last.

PS: To he11 with the dishonest soul that stole my last camera...get a life.
--2006-12-18

Great camera so far!!
I bought the Canon sd600 yesterday at Circuit City, and so far I love it! It takes great quality pictures. The LCD viewfinder is a lot larger than I am used to, and now I can't go back to anything smaller. The camera is very small, and fits into the palm of your hand. Also, it's great that it comes with a rechargeable battery, my last camera did not have this. Haven't found any flaws yet.
--2006-12-18

Excellent buy!!
After reading numerous excellent reviews about the Canon SD600, I decided to purchase it. I am absolutely amazed with it! It is very, very compact (less than half of the size of my first digital camera). The camera is loaded with excellent features, from its standard auto formatting picture taking, to a wonderful variety of manual options and settings. Most, if not all, the setting can be changed, from start up screens and sounds to how many pictures it will take when shooting series of multiple shots. The manual is very helpful and easy to use. Furthermore, the software is actually usable! I usually don't touch software that comes with digital cameras, but the organizational element is very useful and it is quite simple to shoot panoramic shots (the computer will automatically put together the pictures - it is outstanding!!!). I would certainly recommend this camera to anyone who wants a very fast, efficient, and small camera for a very reasonable price.
--2006-12-17

- Canon