first of all, i cannot stress 2 things more:
--> read the manual before starting!!
--many people buy point and shoots for typical picture taking but neglect getting to know all the features, including several here that give you just enough room for manipulation that can produce magnificent results.
--key thing to remember....if you see the [DISP] symbol pop up on the menu as you scroll through your different settings along the bottom of the viewfinder, PUSH "DISPLAY", as it opens an entire addtl menu of more options or adjustment settings! one of my friends who also owns a canon point and shoot was oblivious until just recently that he could "stitch" his photos or adjust colors b/c he never discovered the hidden options!
--> secondly, my use of this camera once again solidifies the one piece of advice i've received from pro photographers time and time again: if you have the eye, even point and shoot cameras can produce fabulous results comparable or even better than the next guy with the fancy SLR [ie my boyfriend! :)]
For the rest, i'll try to be as concise as possible, but please keep in mind that i'm just an ordinary consumer--i don't know much about electronics and/or photography, so if something i comment on seems really irrelevant and/or obvious, then sorry! :) i'm just trying to point out stuff found significant or notable in comparison to my past experiences with other point and shoots.
also, I've posted an array of photos i took right after buying this camera...if anything, they should be enough evidence as to what a great product this is! (in the end, canon's digital camera sensors never disappoint, despite how much others tried to steer me towards nikon!)
1. beautiful, sleek body that stirs up complements EVERY single time i take it out; however...
--buttons may seem a little small for big handed guys (i'm a girl w/small hands, and even sometimes the power button is a little annoying)
--actual menu buttons, however, seem very easy to maneuver
2. this little monster actually has a viewfinder....yay!!! don't forget how important this is for when you're standing out in glaring sunlight and can't really see your LCD screen!
3. start up as well as capture speed is awesome...had absolutely no issues missing out on spontaneous and candid photo ops.
4. manual setting really requires conscious adjustment of ISO, as camera has a tendency to pick up blur with just hand held pics in normal cloudy daylight. however...
5. i've never seen a point and shoot take such beautiful night pics!!!
6. having the wide format option is awesome: it really made a 100% difference in many of my shots in terms of composition (although wish it was truly a "wide angle" type of effect...instead, black bars just chop off the original top and bottoms of your view)
7. video is great except frames-per-second gets noticeably jittery during quick movements by the subject
8. i shot the majority of my pics in "vivid" color, but this camera steals my heart by giving me additional opportunities to adjust color on the pic after its been taken (saves the edited pic as a copy)
9. battery life is great...i would take pics from day to night during my vacation, spending several seconds before each shot playing with composition, white balance and pushing the shutter button halfway (for focus) over and over again (vs just simply pushing the button), and battery still lasted 2 days.
10. 3X optical zoom is a little weak; however, not ever really a major issue from my experience...however, i DO wish optical zoom worked in video mode.
11. 3 parameters that i found myself adjusting most often for the best pics = ISO, light source (although seems like "cloudy" setting when outdoors always worked best, regardless of amount of sun), and color...also, sepia and black and white were very fun--often when the lighting was just too bright washed out colors, switching to sepia always miraculously captured textural details that produced just as beautiful of a picture
12. black and white mode seemed to be a little weak in its capture of contrast, depsite how much i'd try pointing around at different places for the white balance that i wanted.
13. rarely used flash in my pics; however, when taking outdoor daytime pics in which my subject was backlit, using the flash managed to operate effectively even when i was sure that i was standing way too far from my subject.
overall...i give this canon SD780 a 10/10, as it has by far been one of the best purchases i've ever made! i'm especially thankful that i had it with me during a vacation in which i had so many opportunities to capture more artistic images. it's a relief to know it don't need a big expensive camera to do that! hope this helps :)
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Canon PowerShot SD780IS12.1 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD (Black).
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