Digital Cameras : Canon PowerShot SD800 IS Digital ELPH

I bought this camera 1 month ago and all I can say is WOW! It really takes great photos and has some awesome features that I had no idea were even available. For my work I need to have a wide angle lens to take pictures of commercial buildings and I had been using an olympus 2020 with a bunch of lens adapters and a huge wide angle lens. I had a big case that I had to lug around everywhere and then I had to buy an external flash because the huge lens blocked the internal flash, what a pain. Now I have this SD800 with a 2 gig card and I can take like 1000 pics on the highest setting! Wide angle is no problem and I can carry this thing in my shirt pocket!! I have my camera with me all the time now, it really changes how I do things. The display is huge, you can actually see and review what you shot. It has a sensor that knows if you are holding the camera in landscape or portrait, so if you hold the camera sideways to take a shot of something tall, when you go to look at the results on the screen, the camera automatically turns the photo so it is displayed normally on the screen. Who would have thought it would have that feature?
It took a few days of playing with it to figure out the menus, but that's the same as anything new nowadays. I like it, my clients are happy, it's easy to use, seems pretty robust.
I didnt buy a case for it because they werent in stock yet, but I found that my leather case for my blackberry fits this camera perfect and makes it super easy to pull out for a quick shot and still keep it protected. Hide Full Review

Sorry to say - I really wanted to love this camera, but alas, it went back! I bought the SD700 a few months back and LOVE IT!!!! Of course this was after the SD550, Sony P200, and a multitude of other cams over the years. The SD700 has great pictures and video. So when the opportunity to "upgrade" to the SD800 came along, I could not wait. Well, the SD700 in my humble geek opinion is much better and now cheaper. The higher MP did nothing and the SD800 seemed "cheaper" more plastic than the 700. Also, there was a lot of �light shadow� in the video and while framing pics on the LCD, maybe it was not working properly, but I tried EVERY setting. By the way, I've had almost every point and shoot camera on the market (thank goodness for healthy return policies with Staples, Best Buy, Fries, and the like)! Only one person�s opinion! Hide Full Review

This is my 6th camera and second "SD" series from Canon. In a lot of ways, this is what I was looking for all along...a responsive compact with a wide enough angle to finally fit in the whole family in those holiday shots. There are VERY few compacts that fit the bill in this regard, and I was starting to think it would never happen. If you find yourself backing up to fit everything into the picture, you need this camera. As far as build quality, speed, and software, Canon is consistently good. One surprise...the video quality is quite decent and good enough to burn to a DVD. It won't take the place of a camcorder, but it is quite good. I highly recommend this camera, and I think you'll find the wide angle much more useful than the high zoom numbers which many manufacturers are using to market cameras. Do you really want 12X zoom (which will look horrible short of an SLR), or do you want a usable compact that makes indoor and travel shots a breeze? Hide Full Review

I bought this camera at the end of December 2006 and have taken about 1000 photos by now. I use it primarily for traveling since I work in the tourism industry in Greece. I do like the size (about the size of a deck of cards) as well as the overall camera, is fine. I do however have to say that I am not blown away by the picture quality. I know it's not an SLR and I am not comparing it to one, but I do have to say that this camera photo quality is only slightly better than my older 3 year old Olympus C310 which was my former pocket camera (and half the price of the SD800), but not as good as my 7 year old Sony DSC70 which still takes brilliant photos for an automatic digital. In low light, the pictures turn out grainy lots of the time which is a bit disappointing since it ,means I need to use the manual controls more often than I wish to do when on the go. Other than that, the camera takes wonderful photos in outside bright day light and the wide angle lens is far more useful to me than some super-zoom gimmick (if you have 7 megapixels, you can enlarge and crop a photo if you want something up close and in person). The video quality is better than average for such a small camera.
Do I regret buying this camera, not really, just wish it were a little better in low light and had some basic functionality like a battery meter to let you know how long you have until you need to swap or charge the battery....the current indication gives you about 30 seconds before it goes dead. I don't think there is anything else put there that is beating this one right now in the area of size, wide angle and overall quality....a decent point and shoot camera. Hide Full Review

I love it. I was looking at the Sony with the touch screen and this camera beats that by a mile. Nice shutter speeds, great focus and an awesome end result. You can't go wrong with this camera. It is small and very lightweight. It can take good photos of anything. AND I MEAN ANYTHING. The screen is very big. I've had a Olympus, Fuji, older Canon and a samsung and this beats them all by a mile.
The battery life is really good. My favorite features are when you take a vertical picture when you view it and turn the camera the picture turns with it.
My other favorite feature is face detect.
Don't be fooled by a touch screen. A camera is for taking great photos, and not for a touch screen. Hide Full Review