Introduction
The Canon PowerShot SD200 Digital ELPH swept onto the scene just in time for the 2004 Holiday season along with its "big brother," the SD300. Together they replace the SD110 in Canon's popular, diminutive digital camera line. In both the film and digital worlds, the tiny, high-style Canon ELPH models have been wildly popular. Long a popular brand for APS film cameras, the Canon Digital ELPHs brought the compact size and styling to the digital world, beginning with the original PowerShot S100. The new Canon SD200 continues the use of the SD memory card format we first saw in the original SD100, and expands the lines excellent printer compatibility with full support of the PictBridge standard. The Canon SD200 and SD300 also update the line with new styling, slimmer profile, a range of resolutions, a big 2 inch LCD, and use of the (very fast) DiGIC II processor. Overall, one of the more appealing subcompact digicams we've seen to date: Read on for all the details!
Slightly smaller than many preceding Canon Digital ELPH models, the Canon PowerShot SD200 features the great looks and sharp design that are the ELPH signature. Very compact and quick on the draw (thanks to a smoothly operating retractable lens design), the PowerShot SD200 is a convenient point-and-shoot digital camera with a handful of extra exposure features for added flexibility, and a larger LCD display than previous models of this size in Canon's lineup. With the lens retracted, the Canon SD200's front panel is flat and pocket friendly, and its mostly aluminum body (the SD300 is stainless steel) is accented with pearlescent plastic accents that wrap around the right side from top to bottom. Equipped with a 3.2-megapixel CCD, the SD200 captures high quality images, suitable for printing snapshots as large as 8x10 inches. Smaller image sizes are also available for email transmission or Web applications, and a movie mode captures short video clips with sound.
Taking advantage of Canon's advanced "high index" lens technology, the Canon PowerShot SD200 features a new 3x, 5.8-17.4mm zoom lens, equivalent to a 35-105mm zoom on a 35mm camera (previous ELPH cameras of this size were limited to 2x optical zoom). Aperture is automatically controlled, but the maximum setting ranges from f/2.8 at full wide angle to f/4.9 at full telephoto. A maximum 3.2x digital zoom option increases the SD200's zoom capability to 10x, but keep in mind that digital zoom decreases the overall image quality, because it simply crops out and enlarges the center pixels of the CCD's image. Image details are thus likely to be softer with digital zoom. Focus ranges from 1.0 feet (30 centimeters) to infinity in normal AF mode, and from 1.2 inches to 1.6 feet (3 to 50 centimeters) in Macro mode. A new Digital Macro mode allows a user to zoom in on their macro subjects, effectively cropping the digital image to save only the most important central area. An Infinity fixed-focus mode is also available. The Canon SD200 employs a sophisticated, nine-point AiAF (Artificial Intelligence Autofocus) system to determine focus, which uses a broad active area in the center of the image to calculate the focal distance (a feature I've been impressed with on many ELPH models and have been happy to see continued). Through the Record menu, you can turn AiAF off, which defaults the autofocus area to the center of the frame. Also built-in to the SD200 is an AF assist light, which aids the focus mechanism in low light when it's enabled via a menu option. For composing images, the SD200 offers a real-image optical viewfinder, as well as a large 2.0-inch color LCD monitor. The LCD reports a fair amount of camera information, but excludes exposure information such as aperture and shutter speed. In Playback mode, a histogram display reports the tonal distribution of a captured image, useful in determining any over- or under-exposure.
Because the ELPH line capitalizes on ease of use, exposure control is typically automatic, increasing the line's appeal to point-and-shoot users. The Canon SD200 sticks to this trend, with a series of unique Scene modes, but does provide a handful of manual adjustments, plus several enhancements to the PictBridge direct print functionality. Main camera modes are now controlled in the Function menu, accessed by pressing the Set button in the center of the 5-way nav array. Using the left and right arrows, users can select from Auto, Manual (similar to Program Auto), Digital Macro, Portrait, Night Snapshot, Kids&Pets, Indoor, and Underwater (used when camera is operated in an underwater housing, available separately). Shutter speeds range from 1/1,500 to 15 seconds, with the one- to 15-second end of the range only available in Long Shutter mode (which also automatically invokes a Noise Reduction system to eliminate excess image noise in longer exposures). In straight Auto mode, the camera controls everything about the exposure except for file size, flash, etc. Manual mode provides more hands-on control, with White Balance, Exposure Compensation, ISO, and some creative effects, but it is not a true manual control, because the user is not allowed to set--or even to know--the aperture or shutter speed settings. Camera operation is straightforward, as you typically just point and shoot most of the time. Pressing the Shutter button halfway sets focus and exposure, and the small LEDs next to the optical viewfinder let you know when the camera is ready to take the picture.
The Canon PowerShot SD200 uses an Evaluative metering system by default, which means that the camera divides the image area into zones and evaluates both contrast and brightness among all the zones to determine the best overall exposure. A Spot metering option ties the exposure to the very center of the frame, and is useful for off-center or high contrast subjects, letting you pinpoint the exact area of the frame to base the exposure on. There's also a Center-Weighted metering option, which bases the exposure on a large area in the center of the frame. Exposure Compensation increases or decreases the overall exposure from -2 to +2 exposure equivalents (EV) in one-third step increments. A White Balance option offers Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, and Custom (manual) settings. The Canon SD200 also offers a creative Photo Effects menu, which has six settings: Vivid, Neutral, Low Sharpening, Sepia, and B&W. Sensitivity equivalents include 50, 100, 200, and 400 ISO settings, as well as an Auto setting. The SD200's built-in flash operates in Auto, Red-Eye Reduction, Forced On, Suppressed, and Slow-Synchro modes. You can also lock the flash exposure in the same way you can lock normal exposure. Pressing the Shutter button halfway and keeping it pressed initiates the exposure lock, signaled by two beeps and activating an "FEL" icon in the LCD monitor until the Shutter button is released or fully pressed.
A two- or 10-second self-timer option counts down by flashing a small LED on the front of the camera before firing the shutter, giving you time to duck around the camera and get into your own shots. Stitch-Assist mode is the Canon SD200's panoramic shooting mode, which lets you shoot as many as 26 consecutive images. The series of images can then be "stitched" together into a single panoramic frame with the accompanying software. The SD200 also has a Movie Record mode, which records moving images with sound for as long as three minutes per clip, depending on the resolution setting and amount of memory card space. Movies are recorded at either 640 x 480, 320 x 240, or 160 x 120 pixels, at either 30 or 15 fps, until the card is full. A special fast frame rate movie mode can capture 320 x 240 moving images at 60 frames/second for one minute. Finally, a Continuous Shooting mode captures a series of consecutive images (much like a motor drive on a traditional camera), at approximately 2.8 frames per second, for as long as the Shutter button is held down. The actual frame rate varies slightly with the resolution setting, and the maximum number of images will also depend on the amount of memory card space and file size. (Depending on the speed of the SD memory card you're using, the camera will eventually slow somewhat, having to wait for the memory card after is "buffer" memory is full. With a 32x Lexar-brand SD card, we found we could shoot upwards of 31 consecutive images before the camera slowed to an average of 2.3 frames/second, still very fast.)
The My Camera settings menu lets you customize camera settings to a specific theme. Everything from the startup image to operating sounds can be assigned to a theme, either one of the pre-programmed themes or one downloaded from the camera software or stored on the memory card. The Canon SD200 also lets you record short sound clips to accompany captured images, via the Sound Memo option, great for lively captions to vacation photos or party shots.
The Canon PowerShot SD200 stores images on SD memory cards (hence, the "SD" in its name). A 16MB card accompanies the camera, but I highly recommend picking up a larger capacity card, at least 64 megabytes, so you don't miss any shots. The camera utilizes a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack for power, which accompanies the camera, along with the necessary battery charger. Because the SD200 does not accommodate AA-type or any other off-the-shelf battery format, I strongly advise picking up an additional battery pack and keeping it freshly charged. The optional AC adapter is useful for preserving battery power when reviewing and downloading images, and actually uses a "dummy" battery that inserts into the camera's battery compartment. A USB cable and interface software are also packaged with the camera, for downloading images to a computer and performing minor organization and corrections. Two software CDs provide the necessary drivers and editing software, both compatible with Windows and Macintosh platforms. One CD holds Canon's Digital Camera Solution Disk version 21.0 and the other features ArcSoft's Camera Suite version 1.3. Finally, an A/V cable connects the SD200 to a television set, for reviewing and composing images. The SD200 is Digital Print Order Format (DPOF) and PictBridge compatible, with detailed print settings in the Playback menu. Canon offers a selection of direct-connect printers as well, which simplifies printing even more.
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