alanp's Full Review: Canon PowerShot SD600 / IXUS 60 Digital Camera
I'm not going to go into too much detail of the basics of this camera. I have previously owned the SD450 and the basic feature set of that camera is nearly identical to the SD600. Quality of pictures is on par as well, except for the obvious bump from 5MP to 6MP. Plus, there are dozens of reviews of the SD450 around on the web. That being said, I'm going to concentrate more on the differences in this review.
On the surface, the SD600 even looks almost exactly like the SD450 except a slightly different shade of metal. However, upon closer inspection, the mode switch on the back has been repositioned; basically the speaker and the mode switch have now been swapped. This actually addressed one of my little gripes about the SD450. When I took a picture with the SD450, my thumb would cover the speaker hole, now that they swapped the speaker with the mode switch, chances of this are much less. Also, the 4 way rocker button on the back of the SD450 was somewhat "indented". The SD600 rocker is pretty flat, kind of like the SD400. I actually like the feel of the SD450 rocker better, but the flat look of the SD400 and SD600 makes it seem more classy. Just a couple small aesthetic details, onto the features.
New features:
- 6MP on the SD600 vs 5MP on the SD450. Most people shouldn't care about this... I didn't. I'm not a total photography nut and I don't plan on blowing up pictures often. However, there is a certain peace of mind knowing that I can potentially blow up a picture larger or crop a picture more with the SD600 vs the SD450. Again, I'm not a die hard photography guy so I'm gonna say the quality of the SD450 vs SD600 is on par, save the MP difference.
- LCD has about 50% more pixels. The SD450 has 115K pixels, the SD600 has 173K (somewhere around there). To be honest, I thought the SD450 LCD was pretty clear already, even with the lesser amount of pixels. The SD600 does show noticeable improvement, but that improvement is still mild unless you put the two camera's next to each other. I never had quality issues with my SD450 screen so I'm assuming the SD600 LCD will be just as reliable for me as the SD450. The LCD gets pretty bright, I haven't used it in direct sunlight, but in indirect sun, I had no problems seeing the screen, especially with the "hold down the DISP button" feature to immediately bump up the brightness of the LCD. The new LCD is one of the new features that I feel is worthy of getting the newer SD600. Others might not agree, check it out at a local store for yourself.
- NEW ISO 800 and Auto HI ISO settings. This worked amazingly well. I took a non-flash picture in a pretty dim room with the Auto HI ISO setting. With the SD450, set to regular AUTO ISO, I would have no doubt gotten a blurry picture. With the SD600, the picture I took with AUTO HI ISO came out sharp, albeit quite noisy (it probably ended up at ISO 800). I can tolerate the noise since I don't usually print out large sized pics above 4x6 so the noise on the printed pics shouldn't be that noticeable. Overall I'm impressed with the new ISO settings. This feature makes the biggest visual improvement in image quality between the SD450 and the SD600. You'll probably have to get one of those Image Stablizer cameras to get even better low light shots. When I have a chance, I'll post up the low light shot I took with the AUTO HI ISO setting.
EDIT: Check out http://home.comcast.net/~lazybastard/images/HI_ISO_Sample.jpg for a sample AUTO HI ISO image. Warning it's 4.46MB! This was at one of the entrances to the Venetian in Vegas. It was very dim and I used no flash. You can see the noise, but at least it's not blury.
- Widescreen format. This is a "frosting on top" type of feature. You can easily crop any picture into widescreen format after taking it, however, with the feature built into the camera, you can frame the picture exactly how it will look while taking it instead of guessing where the 16:9 border will be and cropping it later. It might come in handy sometime. I have a widescreen TV at home so I know I'll be using it occasionally.
- My Colors and Color Swap now moved to the Shooting Mode menu (Kids, sports, snow, etc...) instead from the Effects menu (sepia, b&w, vivid, etc...). No big deal here. However, upon playback, you now have access to the Effects menu so you can modify the picture on the camera. Again, not a big deal. Just worth mentioning since it's a pretty significant difference in the menu. I couldn't find the color swap feature when I first got the SD600.
- Battery life. Before I got the SD450 I had the S200 so even though the SD450 didn't get great battery life, it was already a hell of a lot better to me and it seemed endless! The SD600 supposedly has even slightly better battery life than the SD450, I'm guessing because of the new LCD screen. I'm content with the battery life of both the SD450 and SD600, I've shot about 100 pictures with the SD600 so far and no battery warning yet. If I recall my first charge on the SD450 correctly, I also shot about 100 pics without getting battery warning either. I'm the type of person who reviews my pictures a lot too, so the LCD is always on. With what I've experienced so far, I think Canon's claims of about 160 pictures per charge is on target.
A couple miscellaneous comments. The internal optics when focusing and changing shooting modes seems a bit louder on the SD600 than the SD450. I don't know what might cause this, or maybe my mind is just playing tricks on me, but I thought it might be worth noting. It doesn't seem to affect performance though. Build quality feels just as sturdy as previous SD powershots. It is a TAD heavier than the SD450, but you probably won't notice it. Power up times and autofocus/shutter lag are both very quick. Just as quick as the SD450, still excellent in this department.
Overall I like the SD600 camera just as much, and a bit more, as I did the SD450. But I can see many people not using the handful of new features on the SD600 so I'm not going to give my full recommendation of upgrading to the SD600 from SD450. Seeing how it was only $25 more than the SD450, I went ahead and bit the bullet and I ended up getting it. I'm a electronics nut so I have to get the latest and greatest. If you don't care for the extra MP and few extra features, and you're not an electronics nut like me, chances are you'll be better off sticking with the SD450.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 245 plus tax This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
6.0-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 14 x 19-inch prints 3x optical zoom; 2.5-inch LCD display ISO 800 shooting; widescreen (16:...More at Amazon Marketplace
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