 SD 850 IS
When Canon introduced the perpetual curve design it was an instant success and this manufacturer has followed the formula with very little aesthetical changes since its introduction.
In paper, the SD 850 IS seems to be just a new iteration of the basic perpetual curved digital elph. Let's see if this little camera has any surprise.
A handsome little camera
The SD850 is ultra portable and fits in any pocket. The body is divided in three parts, one of them made of aluminum and the other two are plastic. The colors chosen for this version of the perpetual curve design are in the boring side. The front is pure silver, and the other parts have slightly warmer tones of metallic gray, the camera is handsome but, at the same time, a little conformist.
The quality of construction is very good.
Set of features
As all the digital elphs, the SD850IS is fully automatic camera and sports no manual modes (just exposure adjustment).
Among the usual set of scenes provided by the Digic III processor there is a little surprise: the creative light effect. In a night scene, the lights at the background are transformed in a shape (you can choose various forms such as stars or hearts). Well, we guess that Antoine D'Agata wouldn't use these scene and if you are not a teenage girl you shouldn't either.
The Digic III provides this ultra compact with face detection that is very good for social scenes.
 Ergonomics
The camera is comfortable overall. The round dial is partially covered to have a better thumb grip that is enhanced with texture to make it easier to hold. The mode dial is slightly difficult to use and we really dislike using it to choose the play mode. It is much easier and convenient to use a dedicated play button.
The ON/OFF button is strangely difficult to be pressed and the on light is annoying if you want to use the optical view finder.
There is a very competent and reasonably big 2.5" LCD screen and an optical view finder. Using the view finder will enhance the battery life up to 700 shoots, although the screen is visible under direct sunlight.
The LCD monitor features the most important information but it has not a battery level indicator: it seems to be such a delicacy that only the high end Canon cameras have it :-(
You can see the aperture and shutter speed chosen by the camera's microprocessor. That's really nice to have because you can anticipate the kind of photo the camera will take and to anticipate if the camera will be able to compensate the movement with the image stabilizer. By the way, the SD 850 IS has an Image Stabilizer that works extremely well. This feature is essential with ultra compact cameras and we really missed it with the SD1000 and the SD750 that are nice cameras but that really suffer from being deprived of the IS technology.
There is a "focus check" function that is useful to review if the shot was properly focused.
 Optics
This little camera has a nice 4x optical zoom with a versatile 35mm equivalence of 35-140mm. The optical quality is very good, although there is visible barrel distortion. If you need a true wide angle lens (and a better 3" LCD screen) you should check the SD 870 IS.
Battery
With a smaller display, this camera has a better battery life of 270 shots and 700 with the LCD turned off. The camera works with a proprietary Li-Ion battery.
Resolution
The resolution is better than average with 8 mega pixels for bigger copies and more aggressive crops.
Image Quality
 The image quality is really good, with nice detail, correct exposure and the Canon's signature saturated reds. It is really nice to have such a good image quality in a very portable camera. That's really refreshing in this era of crappy image quality from cellular phone cameras.
Performance
The overall performance is snappy: from start up to focusing and even the continuous shooting mood you won't find any delays. The recharging time of the flash is about 4 seconds.
ISO sensitivities and noise issues
In low light conditions the SD 850 is average with noise showing pretty early and getting really awful at ISO 800 and 1600. We recommend to use ISO 400 with caution in this camera since luminance and chroma noise show up and detail begins to suffer.
Yeah, probably the noise is worst in any Lumix camera, but with this results you will get noise even at low ISO settings and that means that the Image Stabilizer with provide you with a good compensation for camera shake, but that images will suffer with image noise. We expected a better low light performance since the SD870IS and the SD950IS are better than average.
That’s it for the techno babble. How does the SD850IS IS feel?
It is easy to take for granted all the ingredients of a great camera: good image quality, snappy performance, good ergonomy, easy to use interface, image stability. The SD850 IS is a very competent camera that is solid and snappy. It does a remarkably good job overall.
The bottom line
| TEXTO |
|
The Image Stabilizer is a great addition to an extremely competent camera. |
| |
MODEL |
Canon PowerShot SD 850 IS |
| |
Pertinent info: |
> 4x optical zoom
> 2.5" LCD monitor
> 8 mega pixels
> Fully automatic
|
| |
Ideal for |
> Point & Shoot in well lit scenes
|
| |
Street Price : |
$250 |
| |
Low cost alternative: |
SD750 $210 |
| |
High cost alternative: |
SD 870 IS $300 |
| |
Advantages: |
> Image stabilizer
> Snappy performance
> Extremely portable
> Good image quality
> Optical viewfinder
|
| |
Disadvantages: |
> Image noise at high ISO figures
> No manual modes
> Unsurprising set of features |
| |
Our emotional opinion: |
It is not the most innovative camera of the year, but it is solid, performance is snappy, image quality is really good and the image stabilizer is an indispensable feature. You won't get any exciting feature, but overall there is a lot to like in the SD 850. |
|
|
