Canon Powershot SD850 IS

The Canon Powershot SD850 IS features:

• 8 megapixels
• Optical image stabilization
• 2.5 inch “Pure Color” LCD
• Face detection
• 4x optical zoom
• ISO 1600
• Noise reduction technology
• The camera measures 90 x 57 x 26 mm and weighs 165 g

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Reviewers Conclusions & Verdicts - (updated 05 May ‘08)

TigerTV has reviewed the Canon Powershot SD850 IS -

DPReview reviews the Canon Powershot SD850 IS Here’s a summary -
“This camera is hard to fault. Image quality is good at lower ISO settings and about the only complaint is it tends to washout highlights. Battery life was another area of concern. With the LCD on and using the flash the camera tends to run out of juice quicker than other cameras in this class. It does everything really well but nothing spectacular.”

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PCWorld - 20 November’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot SD850 IS and comments that pictures tended to be slightly underexposed. Here’s an excerpt from their review -
“The only knocks on this camera is a zoom button that’s a bit uncomfortable on the finger, and the animated on-screen icon that visually duplicates the presses you make on the four-way thumb button. This icon tends to pop up unexpectedly, but fortunately, you can switch it off in the setting menu.”

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ImagingResource - 17 September’07 - reviews the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS and writes;
“The Canon PowerShot SD850 IS takes top spot by a nose in the popular PowerShot line with a compact ELPH body style well suited for travel. Exposure remains under automatic control, something novices will appreciate, and the Canon SD850’s pre-programmed Scene modes help with more tricky subjects. The SD850 is a very responsive camera, with low shutter lag in daylight conditions, and good shot-to-shot speeds. It also sports very good battery life, a very capable Movie mode, and excellent download speed. The bright 2.5-inch color LCD monitor is excellent for framing and reviewing shots, and the overall design and layout of the SD850 IS is user-friendly and hassle-free.”

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PhotographyReview has a pro review of the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS and writes;
“So far, the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS is my favorite compact digital camera for 2007. I’ve tested other pocket cameras with cooler features, longer lenses, and more controls. But I love the pocket-sized portability, great image quality, and speed of the SD850 IS. It’s just a wonderful, trustworthy little camera. I wish it had a wider lens and it would be cool if I could directly control the shutter speed. But the bottom line is, I’m getting great photos with it. I want a camera that can do it all and still fit in my pocket. But that’s just not reasonable. The Canon PowerShot SD850 IS goes anywhere in my pocket and takes great pictures almost all the time. It’s the best all-round point-and-shoot digital camera I’ve used yet.”

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DCRP reviews the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS and writes;
“Two last items before I wrap things up. I don’t like how the camera does not display the current zoom setting on the LCD — people shouldn’t have to guess! And finally, you can’t swap out the memory card while the camera is on a tripod.

The Canon PowerShot SD850 IS Digital ELPH is an ultra-compact that does just about everything right. As you probably noticed by reading this conclusion, there isn’t much to complain about — and the few negatives are shared with nearly every other camera in this class. I highly recommend checking out the PowerShot SD850 if you’re in the market for a stylish ultra-compact camera.”

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DigitalCameraInfo reviews the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS and writes;
“The Canon PowerShot SD850 IS upgrades the older SD700 IS with more resolution and a few interesting specs, but it doesn’t blow the competition away like its predecessor did. Many manufacturers now offer similar cameras to the SD850 and sell them for less. The SD850 costs $399 mostly because of its optical image stabilization and face detection system. It doesn’t have a lot of manual control, but is perfect for point-and-shooters who can afford it. Sure, it has a weak battery and handles like a wet bar of soap, but the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS takes excellent pictures. And in the end, that’s what matters.”

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DigitalTrends reviews the Canon PowerShot SD850 IS and writes;
“If someone was to ask me which digital camera they should buy for everyday snap shooting, I wouldn’t hesitate the SD850 IS is the pick. It’s compact, light, easy-to-use, has optical image stabilization and most of all takes very good photographs. You can pick one up for around $350 USD and this should drift down slightly when the SD870 IS arrives for $399 USD in September. This new one has a 3.8x optical lens starting at 28mm and a 3-inch LCD (no viewfinder). Play with them both and make your personal choice between the two you’ll see why Canon is the top dog in the digicam playpen.”

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PhotographyBlog reviews the Canon Powershot SD850 IS/IXUS 950 IS and thinks it looks a little expensive in comparison to the competition but if you can afford it this camera delivers excellent quality. Photos are sharp and have great color straight from the camera, with no post editing required. Because of the large LCD the reviewer quickly forgot the camera has an actual optical viewfinder.

Bottom Line: Solid camera that delivers tack sharp photos with great color. It’s a little spendy though…

For the full review »

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Digital Camera World Mag reviews the Canon Powershot SD850 IS/IXUS 950 IS and thinks you can’t go wrong with this high spec camera, it simply delivers decent photos and the latest features with a straightforward precession. It’s fast and has a great screen, but only an average 4x zoom lens and assorted interface quirks.

Features - Comprehensive rather than revolutionary.
Performance - Its intended audience will love its color reproduction, reliable autofocusing and excellent exposures.
Handling - Only a soft nav-pad and an occasionally confusing menu.
Build Quality - It’s compact, tough and will made. The screen is faultless and you even get an optical viewfinder to boot.

Read the full review in the August issue of Digital Camera World Mag »

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Ken Rockwell - 7/20/2007 - reviews the Canon Powershot SD850 IS/IXUS 950 IS and loves this camera because it’s compact, travels well and lasts a long time on one battery charge. With ergonomic firmware tweaks a higher quality LCD, and wonderful image quality the SD850 replaces his SD700, which he has logged over 15,000 photos. About the only thing that’s less on the SD850 is the 1.3 frames per second compared to 2.1 frames per second on SD700. Ken notes that if he needed to buy another camera today he would not hesitate to buy an SD850.

For the full review »

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Trusted Reviews - 7/16/2007 - has reviewed the Canon Powershot SD850 IS/IXUS 950 IS and here’s the verdict, “The Canon Digital IXUS 950 IS is an expensive luxury camera, but there’s no doubt that the money buys solid build quality, brilliant performance and superior picture quality too. There are many other cameras that can beat it’s specification and features list for less money, but few that can match it for sheer all round class.”

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LapTop Magazine - 7/13/2007 - has reviewed the Canon Powershot SD850 IS/IXUS 950 IS and writes, “It has some image-quality issues, particularly with excessive noise when shooting at higher ISOs. But for everyday shooting, the Canon SD850 IS is a winner. It offers everything point-and-shoot users need, and in an elegant design.”

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Pocket-lint - 7/11/2007 - has reviewed the Canon Powershot SD850 IS and they write, “On the final analysis, the 950 IS looks expensive, though, as always, try shopping around and you’ll find it for much less. It also has a few too many foibles for me to be able to heartily recommend it. The less-wide lens is problematic and the foibles with the focusing, detail loss in scene modes and the filled in shadow areas all made me worry.”

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Steve’s Digicams - 7/9/2007 - has reviewed the Canon Powershot SD850 IS and writes, “We have loved Canon’s Digital ELPH’s since the debut of the S100 back in 2000. And, the SD850 continues their tradition of stylish and durable cameras that capture great photos with fast performance and loads of appealing features (optical IS, 8-megapixels, 2.5-inch LCD, etc.) With 8-megapixel of resolution, the printing possibilities are almost endless, from tightly cropped 4×6s to huge poster size prints! With and MSRP of US$399 or less, it may seem a but more expensive than many other 8- megapixel modes, however, I feel it offers an outstanding value for such a versatile pocket-rocket.”

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Devhardware - 7/5/2007 - has reviewed the Canon Powershot SD850 IS and writes, “What more can you say about a camera that has it all? I think that the average photographer out there will be happy with this one. Even professional photographers looking for a pocket camera back-up would be happy with the SD850. This camera is very user-friendly, as are most SD cameras by Canon. The only complaint I have with it is the lack of some manual controls and the only average performance. These negative aspects should be thrown out the window, though, because they are very minor and the SD850 more than makes up for them in features and image quality.”

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Live Digitally - 6/21/2007 - has reviewed the Canon Powershot SD850 IS and writes, “Last but not least is the continued inclusion of a viewfinder, which is really handy on very bright days. I don’t mind sacrificing a little screen real estate for it. I do really like the facial recognition technology. If you haven’t seen it in action, it puts little white boxes around every face it sees and uses them for autofocus. Very cool.”

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Digital Camera Review - 6/21/2007 - has reviewed the Canon Powershot SD850 IS and they write, “The Canon SD850 IS is a stylish, well-built compact digital camera that produces great quality images and color while requiring minimal involvement from its operator. The camera lacks manual controls, but offers a number of specialized scene modes in addition to the standard auto shooting mode, as well as image stabilization, up to 1600 ISO sensitivity and good shutter response time. The 4x zoom lens lacks the focal length to bring distant objects truly close, but for normal subjects the camera performs admirably.”

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Reg Hardware - 6/15/2007 - has reviewed the Canon Powershot SD850 IS and they write, “Canon’s Ixus 950 IS offers great performance, good image quality and solid image stabilisation, with the convenience of face detection, which seemed to work quite well - better than we expected, truth be told. On the downside, the quality of images at ISO 1600 is a little poor and there is no manual exposure control, plus the on/off button is a little awkward to switch on, though the flipside of that is that it will never get activated by accident. Overall though, the Ixus 950 IS has just about everything you could possibly ask for in a compact camera all contained in a very stylish, durable three-tone metal casing.”

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CNET - 6/6/2007 - has reviewed the Canon Powershot SD850 IS and they write, “There’s very little to complain about on the SD850 IS. Fans of ultracompacts, such as Sony’s T-series, might complain that this Canon isn’t small enough, but given its excellent image quality and speedy performance, I’m not complaining. Also, unlike those Sony cameras, this one includes an optical viewfinder, for situations, such as concerts, in which an LCD might annoy those around you. Bargain hunters will likely balk at this camera’s price, but again, its features and performance make it worth the premium over a bargain-basement camera.”

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Sample Photos

[Sample Photos at DPReview]
[Sample Test Photos at ImagingResource]
[Sample Test Photos at Photography Review]
[Sample Photos at DCRP]
[Sample Photos at DigitalCameraInfo]
[Sample Photos at Photographyblog]
[Sample Photos at Trusted Reviews]
[Sample Photos at Pocket-lint]
[Sample Photos at Steve's Digicams]
[Sample Photos at Devhardware]
[Sample Photos at Reg Hardware]
[Sample Photos at Canon]

Videos

[Video Review at TigerTV]
[Video Guide at Cameras.co.uk]

Specifications

[ Official Canon Specifications]

Owners Manual

[Download the owners manual here]

Press Release

May 7, 2007 - Canon today introduces the Powershot SD850 IS, which will replace the Powershot SD700 IS and adds a higher resolution 8.0-megapixel image sensor, DIGIC III processor, faster autofocus, improved exposures, flash, and overall speed. The SD850 IS boasts 30fps VGA movie mode with stereo sound, time-lapse recording, and 18 shooting modes. The SD850 IS will be available mid-June with an estimated selling price of $399.99.

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See also: Canon, Canon Review roundups