Canon powershot sd900 review

The 10-megapixel Canon PowerShot SD900 manages to be stylish without being inconvenient or awkward. Its sturdy metal body, an attractive matte-gray with black accents, is smooth and slightly curvy, and at 6.7 ounces and 1.1 inches thick, it's just the right size to fit into a jacket pocket. All the controls are on the camera's right side, so nearly every button is within thumb's reach for comfortable one-handed use. A 2.5-inch LCD screen takes up most of the camera's remaining back panel but leaves enough room for an optical viewfinder. The viewfinder is small and awkward, but it provides a welcome alternative to the LCD.

While the SD900 is heavy on style, like most of the SD series, it's pretty light on features. You can adjust the white balance, the exposure compensation, the ISO sensitivity, and the metering settings, but in true point-and-shoot fashion, most shooting happens with the camera in automatic mode or through its handful of scene presets. It offers 30fps VGA movie capture or XGA (1,024x768) movies at 15fps.

Unlike the SD800 IS, with its relatively fast, wide-angle lens, the SD900 sports a rather mundane f/2.8-to-f/4.9, 37mm-to-111mm-equivalent model. It features the recent Digic III image processor, which Canon claims improves performance, image quality, and battery life over the previous chip. We've haven't seen any significant improvement over past-generation cameras, but the SD900's predecessors, the SD600 and the SD630, already boast strong performance and image quality.

The Canon PowerShot SD900 is a moderately fast shooter, especially for a 10-megapixel model. After waiting 1.3 seconds from power-on to first shot, we managed to snap one photo every 2.3 seconds. With the onboard flash enabled, that wait increased to a still-respectable 3 seconds. The shutter felt quite responsive, lagging only 0.5 second in bright light and 0.9 second in dim conditions. Burst mode was predictably slow, shooting a full-resolution photo once every 0.9 second.

Basic Features

• 10-megapixel CCD


• Real-image optical viewfinder


• 2.5-inch color TFT LCD monitor with 230,000 pixels


• 3x, 7.7-23.1mm lens, equivalent to a 37-111mm lens on a 35mm camera


• Maximum 4x digital zoom


• Automatic exposure control, with Long Shutter mode for longer exposures


• Shutter speeds from 1/2,000 to 15 seconds


• Maximum aperture of f/2.8 to f/4.9, depending on lens zoom position


• Spot, Center-Weighted, and Evaluative exposure metering


• White balance (color) adjustment with seven modes, including a Custom setting


• Built-in flash with six modes


• SD memory card storage, 32MB card included


• Power supplied by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack (Canon NB-5L) or optional AC adapter kit


• Canon Digital Camera Solution Software v29.0


• Print/Share button for direct image transfer and printing

Special Features

• Pure titanium shell sculpted in Canon's Perpetual Curve design


• DIGIC III image processor with face detection technology


• Adjustable ISO settings up to 1,600, plus Auto and ISO HI settings, and an ISO 3,200 Scene mode


• 16:9 Widescreen still image capture mode


• 11 preset Scene modes


• Five Movie modes with sound, with 1,024 x 768 XGA mode at 15 fps


• Continuous Shooting mode


• Stitch-Assist panorama mode


• Infinity, Macro, and Digital Macro focus modes


• Customizable "My Camera" settings


• Two- or 10-second Self-Timer for delayed shutter release, plus custom timer with multi-shot feature


• Sound Memo option for recording captions


• My Colors menus for color adjustment


• Unusual Color Accent and Color Swap features for special effects in still images or movies


• DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) and PictBridge compatibility


• USB cable for connection to a computer (driver software included)


• A/V cable for connection to a television set


• Canon nb-5l battery replacement

In the Box

The Canon SD900 ships with the following items in the box:

• Canon SD900 digital ELPH camera


• Canon NB-5L lithium-ion battery pack with cover


• CB-2LX Battery charger


• 32MB SD memory card


• WS-700 Wrist strap


• IFC-400PCU USB cable


• AVC-DC300 AV cable


• Canon Digital Camera Solution Disk v29.0 software CD


• Operating manuals and registration card

Recommended Accessories

• Large capacity SD/MMC memory card. (These days, 512MB and 1GB cards are a good tradeoff between cost and capacity.)


• Small camera case for outdoor and in-bag protection


• External battery replacement of Canon nb-5l battery