Test: Canon PowerShot SD900 Digital Elph

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Canon Powershot Digital Elph SD900

Test: Canon PowerShot SD900 Digital Elph13803070651CanonSD900 Digital ElphAt $425, the 3x zoom (37-111mm equivalent), 10.4-megapixel Canon PowerShot Digital Elph SD900 is the most expensive of the five cameras in this test. Is it really worth the extra hundred some-odd bucks? Yes, no, maybe not, it depends on what you're looking for, and it's up to you to decide. This titanium-skinned beauty feels solid and very well built. And it comes with an optical viewfinder -- the only camera in this test to include this useful endangered feature. For a lot of old-school shooters, that's enough of a selling point right there. Add a cool, gracefully curved design, and a natural resting position of standing tall rather than squat, and you've got a camera strives to stand out from the pack. The optical viewfinder and 2.5" LCD screen don't leave much room for dedicated buttons, and the multi-controller array has each button assigned multiple tasks. Even once you've familiarized yourself with the navigation system, it is still too easy to accidentally hit the wrong button, as we did when attempting to adjust the exposure compensation (and we mistakenly changed the AF mode). One of the camera's more interesting features is its AIAF face detection technology, which will find and focus on faces. There's a high-resolution movie mode of 1024x768 at 15 frames per second, or 30 fps at 640x480. Canon cranks the ISO all the way up to 3200 on this camera, but the noise numbers and image quality get out of control at ISO 800 and up. For example, at ISO 1600, noise is unacceptable at 3.7, and resolution is just this side of acceptable at 1130. At ISO 64 through 400, Canon puts up better noise numbers, and lowest ISO resolution is 1955, beating only the Casio Exilim EX-Z1000 in this category.

At $425, the 3x zoom (37-111mm equivalent), 10.4-megapixel Canon PowerShot Digital Elph SD900 is the most expensive of the five cameras in this test. Is it really worth the extra hundred some-odd bucks?

Yes, no, maybe not, it depends on what you're looking for, and it's up to you to decide.

This titanium-skinned beauty feels solid and very well built. And it comes with an optical viewfinder -- the only camera in this test to include this useful endangered feature. For a lot of old-school shooters, that's enough of a selling point right there.

Add a cool, gracefully curved design, and a natural resting position of standing tall rather than squat, and you've got a camera strives to stand out from the pack.

The optical viewfinder and 2.5" LCD screen don't leave much room for dedicated buttons, and the multi-controller array has each button assigned multiple tasks. Even once you've familiarized yourself with the navigation system, it is still too easy to accidentally hit the wrong button, as we did when attempting to adjust the exposure compensation (and we mistakenly changed the AF mode).

One of the camera's more interesting features is its AIAF face detection technology, which will find and focus on faces. There's a high-resolution movie mode of 1024x768 at 15 frames per second, or 30 fps at 640x480.

Canon cranks the ISO all the way up to 3200 on this camera, but the noise numbers and image quality get out of control at ISO 800 and up. For example, at ISO 1600, noise is unacceptable at 3.7, and resolution is just this side of acceptable at 1130.

At ISO 64 through 400, Canon puts up better noise numbers, and lowest ISO resolution is 1955, beating only the Casio Exilim EX-Z1000 in this category.

Bottom line:

Canon's PowerShot SD900 forgoes with the bells and whistles and is meant for the person who takes pictures, occasionally or often holding the camera to the eye while doing so, who then goes home and prints them on their computer. It is solidly built, feels good in the hands, and looks stylish, but has serious image quality issues at ISO 800 and beyond. It does have a slideshow mode and some image-quality tweaks in playback mode, but if you're looking for a multi-functioning pocket photo gallery player, this is not it.

Certified Test Results:

Noise: Low at ISO 64 (1.8), Moderately Low at ISO 100 (2.0), ISO 200 (2.0), and 400 (2.2) and Unacceptable at ISO 800 (3.5), ISO 1600 (3.7) and ISO 3200 (5.4)

Color Accuracy: Extremely High. Average Delta E: 8.21 Daylight ISO 64

Resolution: Excellent at ISO 64 (1955) and ISO 400 (1820), Acceptable at ISO 1600 (1130)

Lens Distortion: Visible Barrel at 1x (.38%), Slight Barrel at 2x (.12%) and Imperceptible Pincushion at 3x (.01%)

In the box:

Canon SD900 $425
32MB Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card
Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery Pack (NB-5L)
Battery Charger (CB-2LX)
USB Interface Cable (IFC-400PCU)
AV Cable (AVC-DC300)
Wrist Strap (WS-700)
Digital Camera Solution Software CD-ROM
User Guide
1-Year Canon U.S.A. Limited Warranty

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