Canon digital cameras have been upfront in their designs, user friendly menus and innovative technology. Be it a simple point and shoot digital camera or a high end digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex), Canon’s expertise has justified every need and pocket. They are constantly on the lookout for path breaking advancements that serve your imaging needs.

Canon has well above 1000 patented digital technologies and is seeking extended innovation each year. Most of the Canon digital cameras have a 9- point AiAF, i.e. providing true auto-focus. The screen is divided into 9 parts and the focus is captured with finesse. This is unique from the traditional 5- point auto-focusing methodology. Canon also developed the popular multi face detection technology that enables to detect up to 9 faces in its lower end digital cameras and up to 35 faces in its higher end cameras. This feature is also extended to its video shooting function. The video capturing mode has this feature extended by incorporating ‘face select and tracking’ which enables you to track a face among a crowd.

Canon’s digital SLR’s sports the ground breaking ESO technology. This technology has an integrated cleaning system which functions to remove the dust particles on the lens and on the image. It has inbuilt hardware to shake off the dust particles from the lens and software to remove the sticky dust grains from the image. Thus it aims at providing the best possible image by removing all faults. They have also initiated the anti-noise processing which takes care that no dots or white lines are formed in the image unlike other cameras which remove the noise after the image is taken which might result in distortion of the image.

Some of the highly rated canon digital camera include PowerShot, IXUS and EOS. The PowerShot is aimed at the simple point and shoot user, the price is affordable and it features cameras below 10 mega pixels available in varied colour options and designs. The IXUS series is the mid-range digital camera offering that are more advanced and bit pricey. The ESO series offers digital SLR’s that are meant for professional photographers and photography enthusiasts. These SLR’s are available with different range lenses. Canon has roped in Sachin Tendulkar as their brand ambassador for marketing of their popular product line. Canon has emerged as a pioneer in its design, technology, and usability thus becoming a name synonymous to photography.

Canon Digital Rebel XSI 12MP Digital SLR Camera is a nice camera. We’ll start with what this camera is NOT:

1) It’s NOT a full-frame camera. That means it’s smaller, lighter, and of course the 1.6x crop factor is important to remember if you have EF lenses already. But, because it’s smaller, it’s cheaper and offers less features. These are, for the most part, obscure features nobody will ever use anyway. These factors make it easier to use at the expense of being slightly less functional.

2) The XSi is NOT a point-and-shoot digicam. Don’t expect it to do videos, sound, or to incorporate all kinds of convenient uber-automation. While ‘cool’, this automation usually just keeps you from controlling what you want to do yourself. Most of the time, this camera will stay in “P” or “program mode” for me. There is a green setting for point-and-shoot operation, but all this does is disable most of the features that you buy the camera for.

2a) Live View is NOT the same as the LCD viewfinder on point-and-shoot digicams. Don’t expect it to focus fast or provide the same functionality. Live View is intended for a camera mounted on a tripod or held steady. It is a GREAT way to get perfect focus when you need it. You just zoom in to 10x magnification and manually focus or let the contrast detection do it for you. But, it is NOT an LCD viewfinder. As long as you don’t think it will be (I was stupid enough to think that way) then you know before you buy.

The bad: (in all fairness, these are true of most modern DSLR’s)

1) The battery is improved, yes, but it’s REALLY expensive. I bought a generic battery for a backup. Keeping the Canon battery fully charged, of course, and only using the generic when the Canon is charging. Read the rest of this entry »

The camera feels wonderfully light yet well built. I’m 6ft tall with average size hands, and the camera feels good in my hand. The battery grip, to me, defeats the purpose of having a small, light DSLR, so I opted for a Hakuba/Opteka grip (it’s a plate that screws into the tripod socket that enables you to use the excellent Canon E1 hand strap with it) and I couldn’t be happier. I’m not a fan of neck straps, so this works well for me (see the uploaded photo for the configuration).

Most of the menu buttons on the back feel different from the ones on the original Digital Rebel and the 30D; the XSi buttons feel more tactile and have a definite “click” to them when you press them. The exception are the Exposure Lock (*) and AF selector buttons, which have retained the deeper, softer feel of the older cameras. Just different, not better or worse, for me.

The LCD is now 3″ with 230K pixels. The playback images look great, and probably because of the higher resolution of the sensor, there’s a very slight delay when you zoom in to 10x while the image loads and displays properly. People coming from other cameras or brands might not even notice it–I only did so because of the difference between it and my two other Canon DSLRs (which have lower resolution sensors). The viewing angle of the LCD screen (how clearly you can see the screen from side and up and down) is excellent; you can still see the screen holding the camera almost straight up for an overhead shot (more on this later). I’d estimate the viewing angle is about 160-170 degrees both horizontally and vertically.

The Digital Rebel has a separate status screen above the main LCD screen, and the 30D had one on top of the camera, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the big LCD acting as the status screen and no top screen. I’m happy to say that this arrangement works well, at least for me. The back screen makes it really easy to take all the settings at a glance. The viewfinder is much larger and brighter than that in the Digital Rebel. A humongously welcome feature for me is the always displayed ISO value in the viewfinder.

The camera is only 1/2 of the image quality equation, the other being the lenses being used. Coupled with my favorite lens, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L telephoto lens, the XSi turns out fantastic images. The supplied kit lens is very light and compact for being an image stabilized lens, and turns out good performance. The IS is certainly very useful. Read the rest of this entry »

The SD870 IS is about everything you could want in a compact point and shoot digital camera. It offers excellent image quality, a large vivid LCD display, intelligent defaults, fine low-light sensitivity, a high quality movie mode (with sound), an outstanding wide-angle lens and (most importantly for me) a photo capture speed that leaves many other digital cameras in the dust.

I cover a fair amount of electronics trade shows such as CES and CEDIA for my home theater site (Big Picture Big Sound), so I need a camera that is quick on the draw, has a good macro feature for close-ups, and has good low light sensitivity and zoom for distance shots at press conferences. But portability is also key, as I need to carry the camera around in my pocket along with other gadgets for note-taking. I’ve owned a Canon S400 Digital Elph for a number of years, and it has served me well, but the lag time between pushing the shutter button and actually getting a picture (particularly indoors) was frustrating, and the low light sensitivity is also fairly poor.

The SD870 retains all of the positive features of the earlier ELPH models, yet improves on the weaknesses. You can go from power up to pictures snapped in about a second. And once the camera is powered up and ready, you can capture shots in 1/2 second or less (depending on lighting conditions). For taking pictures in low lighting, the “Night Scene” mode (along with built-in optical image stabilization) is excellent, enabling me to capture on-stage action at a press event from 20 or 30 feet away (ISO sensitivity on the camera goes all the way up to 1600, but you can expect some graininess when the camera goes above ISO 400). Other scene modes such as “portrait” are also handy when you’re going in for a close-up shot and want to capture a posed or candid pic of a loved one with an “artistic” out-of-focus background.
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Life doesn’t give you second chances to capture special times. That’s why the elegant PowerShot A570 IS is equipped with Canon’s acclaimed Image Stabilizer Technology that automatically detects and corrects camera shake - one of the leading causes of fuzzy or blurred shots. So now even when you’re zooming in tight you can get the steady, crisp, brilliant images. With DIGIC III, you get images of superior quality, the camera functions at top efficiency and battery life is significantly enhanced. What’s more, DIGIC III enables Canon’s newly improved Face Detection Technology and Red-eye Correction to give you better, more true-to-life people shots. Beside stills there’s highly flexible movie mode, you can create the movie that’s perfect for any application. Read the rest of this entry »

Canon PowerShot SD850 IS Digital ELPH camera has an impressive array of top-tier photo features including an advanced ultra-compact zoom lens and optical viewfinder to easily capture, record and share brilliant images under a full range of shooting conditions, all within a curvaceous, eye-catching compact design. It is a digital camera that will really get your creative juices flowing. It starts with a high resolution 8.0 Megapixel CCD, a 4x Optical Zoom with Canon’s exclusive UA Lens and an Optical Image Stabilizer for steady zooming. There’s also a DIGIC III Image Processor with Face Detection and Red-eye correction, an ISO 1600 setting for sharper images in low light, 5 Movie Modes and a 2.5-inch PureColor LCD with scratch-resistant, anti-reflective coating for easy viewing. Read the rest of this entry »

Product Description
Chic, simple. Canon looked to the very first ELPH for inspiration when designing the PowerShot SD1000 Digital ELPH, and came up with a quintessential iteration of the icon: slim, clean-lined and fully flat. Inside, the SD1000 Digital ELPH looks only to the future: 7.1 Megapixels, a 3x optical zoom and advanced DIGIC III ensure top-quality images, while focus is fast and sharp and red-eye is automatically corrected.

The large and more colorful LCD screen now has a tough, anti-reflective coating that makes it as durable as it is beautiful. Shutter Speed - 15-1/1500 sec.; Long Shutter operates with noise reduction when manually set at 1.3-15 sec. Metering - Evaluative, Center-weighted average, Spot; Control to incorporate facial brightness in Face Detection Shooting Modes menu - Auto, Camera M, Portrait, Special Scene (Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Aquarium, Underwater, Indoor, Kids & Pets), Night Snapshot, Color Accent, Color Swap, Digital Macro, Stitch Assist, Movie Image Files - Still Image - EXIF 2.2 JPEG / Movie - AVI (Image - Motion JPEG; Audio - WAVE (Monaural) Selectable image resolutions Read the rest of this entry »