Does anyone have any experience with the Canon SD600???

[PotysGSXR]

I'm thinking of getting a camera tomorrow and was thinking about getting the SD600. Does anyone have any experieince with this camera?

If so,

how are the macro shot capabilities?

does it do actinic shots well? moonlight only shots well?

is the auto stability feature and 4x zoom on the SD700 worth the extra $100 in price?

Thanks in advance.

 

[gregr]

Macros should be decent- not great but considering the size of the camera itself, a 3cm minimum focus is pretty good.
It does have a manual [custom] wb option, as well as the standard presets and manual exposure mode so actinic and moonlight shots should be good.
An extra hundred bucks for the 700... good question. Longer zoom is very nice, and it has a 2cm minimum focus distance instead of 3cm on the 600, so the macros will be better, plus the image stabilizer- those are pretty big factors. They share the same sensor and lcd but the 700 has a newer (and one would assume better) battery, which you'd need with the IS feature. Still, if you use the lcd and IS a lot the battery life won't be stellar (less than 240 shots per charge). If you turn off the lcd and use the IS frugally the number of shots per charge goes thru the roof (over 500!). If you like zooming in as far as you can then you'd be better off with the 700.

 

[PotysGSXR]

Wow. Thanks for the great answer. I think I'm going to stay with the 600 as my budget is a bit tight. Exactly what is the IS feature? Thanks.

 

[gregr]

You're welcome-
IS= Image Stablization.
The general rule of thumb is you can get sharp handheld shots at shutter speeds of 1/focal length-- any slower than that and you just can't hold the camera steady enough. So if you zoom in to a 90mm focal length (about half way with the 35-140) you can get sharp images with a shutter speed of 1/90th of a second. IS is supposed to save you two full stops. Turn the IS on and theoretically you should be able to get sharp shots at roughly 1/20th of a second! That is a really big deal if you like to shoot handheld, however... I'm not so sure you save two full stops, and you do use up a lot of battery power with IS.
The other thing is- if the subject is moving, like a swimming fish, the subject's movement will cause the picture to be blurry even though the camera was held steady.

 

[PotysGSXR]

So is IS the same as ISO? Because it says that the ISO is capable of going up to 800. Whatever that may mean??? Also, by saving 2 full stops, what does that exactly mean? So sorry for the noob questions but I have to ask. Thanks again

 

[r00onmac]

IS is not the same as ISO

but i have experience with the sdxxx series and i will say that they are great ALL AROUND cameras, but arent spectacular at any one thing...

colors are usually amazing, macros are okay, etc... all in all though for the price and size i will own them until they stop making them...

 

[gregr]

ISO refers to the sensitivity of the film/sensor. You might find this article very helpful in explaining the terminology and how the fstop [aperture], shutter speed and iso work together.
My previous post kinda explains what that two stop savings mean in terms of shutter speeds and handhold-ability. I think after you read that article this will all start making sense You just have to get your mind around a couple of basic things. In a nutshell- the light/image goes through the lens to reach the sensor/film, and between the sensor and lens there's an aperture. That aperture changes sizes-- the different sizes are called fstops. The bigger the aperture the smaller the fnumber, so f2.8 is a very big aperture and f22 is very small.
Okay- got that? The next thing to understand is that the smaller the aperture the greater the depth of field. Depth of field is described as 'the amount of the image that appears in sharp focus'. The last big property to understand is shutter speed. Between the lens and aperture is a shutter-- it opens and closes to allow the picture to be taken-- and it stays open for a specific amount of time, that time is known as the shutter speed.
Next thing to learn is that the shutter speed and aperture are directly related. If you double one you need to decrease the other by the same amount. Sounds tricky but once you understand that you understand photography