Camera Gadget
If you are looking to buy a great point and shoot camera, within the middle range, then you should know that you are looking for a 12 megapixel image sensor with 3x zoom lens, in a small package for less than $300. Canon Power Shot SD 780 "IS" is a middle range digital camera with pretty decent specs.
However, the Power Shot SD 780 is not the best point and shoot camera when it comes to pure photographic power. This camera is not for users that want manual controls on their camera. However using its tiny, good looking design, with very sharp pictures, good video quality and low image noise, the Power Shot SD 780 might just be what you are looking for.
The Canon Power Shot SD 780 has incredible dimensions, making this camera ultraportable. It is so small it will fit in every pocket. Power Shot SD 780 has a height of 54.5 mm (2.15 inches), wide of 87.0 mm (3.43 inches), deep of 18.4 mm (0.72 inches) with an approximate weight of 115 g or 4.06 oz for the camera body only. Power Shot SD 780 comes with a design in four colors, red, silver, gold, and black. The first thing a potential buyer will notice is the excellent grab-attention design. The design is rather familiar with the one found in all the Power Shot range. However, the SD 780 features a single color finish.
Power Shot SD 780 is solid, its build is impeccable, with all sorts of small detail attention only Canon could have provide. The SD 780 is nicely balanced, buttons give a solid feedback when pressed and even the surface integrated zoom toggle is made out of quality brushed metal. Unfortunately, the SD 780 has small buttons due to the tiny design. Because of their small dimensions the keys look hard to press accurately. In a speed use you might even lose control over what you are doing. Therefore when you use the Power Shot SD 780 you have to take your time. This is, however, bad for snapshots. On the back, to the right of the LCD display you can find the four way controller, a three way switch to select from smart auto, program or scene, and movie shooting modes (you can also use the four way controller for up / exposure compensation / rotate, right / flash, down / timer / delete, left / macro and function set).
Also on the back, you can find the menu key, the display button, playback button, status indicators, viewfinder and the cover for ports. At the top of the camera you get the on / off switch and the zoom / shutter release. On the bottom of the Power Shot SD 780 you can find the tripod mount, a cover for access to optional DC charger and memory card / battery cover.
The Smart Auto mode is designed to automatically identify 8 different scene types and adjust the shooting settings. Therefore, you have your access denied from the settings while in this particularly mode (on newer cameras, Canon offers up to 18 different scene types). The SD 780's menu delivers the best layout you can find on a middle range camera. Canon understood that the menu is an important part of a camera. Therefore it delivers and excellent labeled and organized menu for its device.
There is nothing to learn here, everything is based on logic and deduction. The Power Shot SD 780 comes with a 2.5 inches TFT LCD widescreen with wide viewing angle (Pure Color LCD II), with approximate 230.000 pixels. The SD 780 has a real image optical zoom viewfinder. The LCD comes with a coating in order save it from scratches or fingerprints. The Power Shot SD 780 is shipped with a 12.1 megapixel camera, 1 / 2.3 inches type charge couple device.
The total amount of pixels offered by this model is approximate 12.4 megapixels, with 12.1 megapixels effective pixels. Canon provides for this camera, focal length of 5.9 - 17.9 mm f/ 3.2 - 5.8 (35 mm film equivalent: 33 - 100 mm), a digital zoom of 4x, an optical zoom of 3x, a TTL Autofocus (the autofocus provided is not very professional, however it does include face detection making the camera more productive), and a three mode focus range (normal - 30 cm to infinity, macro - 3 to 50 cm, digital macro - 3 to 10 cm). with this specs the SD 780's camera can take pictures at the following resolution: 640 x 480 - small, 1600 x 1200 - medium 3, 2592 x 1944 - medium 2, 3264 x 2448 - medium 1, 4000 x 3000 - large, and 4000 x 2248 widescreen. It also records good quality video in high definition - 1280 x 720 with 30 frames per second, standard definition - 640 x 480 with 30 frames per second, and 320 x 240 with 30 frames per second.
The format for the pictures taken is JPEG and for the movies recorded, MOV. All the data is saved on memory cards. Power Shot SD 780 is compatible with the following memory cards: SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card, Multi Media Card, MMC Plus Card, HC MMC Plus Card. The flash included on the SD 780 offers a decent performance. However, it will not make a big difference in pitch black environments. The flash range is average: 30 cm to 3.5 meters (W) or 45 cm to 2 meters (T). The video playback is quite good. You get to playback movies in normal or special mode.
Also the camera does a great job in replaying on the LCD display the movie files. You get the auto rotate feature and a small editing feature (erase the part of movies you don't enjoy and keep the one you like). The Power Shot SD 780 is equipped with a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery NB 4L with 760 mAh. The battery is too small. Therefore you will find yourself in need for a plug after only 210 still pictures or approximate 300 minutes of playback time. The Power Shot SD 780 provides standard output sensitivity, ISO 80 / 100 / 200 / 400 / 800 / 1600. The exposure control method includes, Program AE, -Contrast, and AE Lock. You can easily connect your SD 780 to you computer by using the 2.0 USB high speeds.
The camera offers NTSC / PAL video output but also a mini HDMI cable, in order for you to connect the camera direct to a widescreen LCD. Also you can use the 2.0 USB port to connect the camera with compatible printers, such as: Canon SELPHY Compact Photo Printer, PIXMA Inkjet Photo Printers, and other Pict Bridge compatible printers. Other good features you get are: more than 23 shooting modes, excellent photo effects, self timer (with delay between 2 seconds to 10 seconds), continuous shooting (approximate 0.8 frames per second), and the white balance control for any kind of light you can get indoors or outdoors.
Canon ships the Power Shot SD 780 "IS" digital camera with the standard Lithium Ion battery pack, the battery charger, wrist strap (on the side of the camera), USB interface cable, AV cable and the Digital Camera Solution CD. Overall, if you don't mind that is a little too noisy, with average flash quality, the occasional scratches you will enjoy the Power Shot SD 780 good features and the solid build quality and fantastic design for under $300.
