Canon PowerShot SD3500IS 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 3.5-Inch Touch Panel LCD and 5x Ultra Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)

This camera is awesome.I have a Nikon SLR that I love but I get tired of lugging it around everywhere so I decided to look for a compact full featured point and shoot. Being a Nikon fan I was having a tough time deciding between the Nikon S8000 (which has 10x zoom and a 3.0 inch non-touch screen) and the Canon SD3500IS (because it was slightly more compact at the cost of a lower 5x zoom but it had a bigger 3.5 inch screen touch screen). It reminded me of trying to decided between a Honda(Nikon) and a Toyota(Canon), both are quality japanese products where you really can't lose either way, the honda feels more sporty but the toyota is more refined. Needless to say I went with the Canon SD3500IS because although a 10x zoom on a point and shoot would be nice my top priority was a compact camera with a proven track record. The Canon SD line has has been around a lot longer than the Nikon Cool Pix line so I feel Canon has much more refinement and experience in the point and shoot category. I think both are really good cameras but for my needs the Canon won out by a slim margin. I've had it for a few days now and here is what I've noticed so far. Pros: 5x optical zoom, 3.5 inch screen, image stabilization (which seems to be standard now on most point and shoots), really good Auto mode (automatically detects the best out of 20 settings based on the current shooting conditions, save yourself the time of spinning a dial and trying to choose the best macro mode, just put it in auto and be convinced you picture will come out right), touch auto focus(touch what you want to focus on the screen and the camera will lock on the target even if you move the camera around), 24mm wide lens(everything fits in the screen). Cons: I'm not sure if this is really a con but with the screen being so big and the camera so compact your thumb will definitely get all over the right side of the screen because there is not much extra space on the right to hold it, so make sure you get a screen protector! At the time I write this review the camera has only been out for about a week so I have yet to find a website listing screen protectors for the SD3500IS. Summary: Great camera but you will want to be careful with the screen.

Alright, so the basic features of this camera (minus the tilt shift and fish eye, and the resolution) are pretty much the same as a previous model i owned. I knew what to expect from this camera but with only a few slight improvements. It was the exact same cost as the model I had before (which thoroughly impressed me), so I had no problem switching it out for this one. The full touch screen made two-handed menu navigation much easier to get through versus having to use buttons with the right and thumb on the left. basically you can safely hold the camera and use both thumbs (or even fingers depending on how you hold it) to use the screen. I dig the fluff features like tapping the side to navigate the photos and clicking (think iphone/ipod touch). One piece that I will touch on here is the quality of the presets. While there are certain scene settings you would use for certain situations (snow fireworks, etc) they do not do a thorough or specific enough job explaining when you'd want to use this versus the "P" (program). The low light scene setting is the most disappointing. You can't simply flip it on and expect fantastic pictures as if you had a good natural light source. The flash is a default with this, so if you're trying to get something close-up in a darker setting, beware. Otherwise, the setting is OK with a flash, so long as you are not right up on the subject or trying to capture something reflective. I simply have personal presets that I picked out to avoid using the flash at all. Generally for low light settings, I opted to program my own so I can choose the ISO that fits it the best. Just know that the higher you set the ISO, the grainer you pictures will become. This is something that is a universal thing, not just specific to this camera. The same goes with digital zoom. This is a point/shoot camera so it DOES have limitations; I'm well aware of that, so if I need something i know it can't do, I just use my highzoom Fuji or DSLR NikonD3000. You can't have a single camera that is going to be able to do everything perfectly. But I will say that unlike some other reviewers I found the quality that comes from this model in generalized scene settings or even auto is actually quite good compared to other cameras i've used over the years. As for the HD video. I have to agree on that point. There was more that could have been done with it. But you know what? People forget this is a still-shot camera FIRST, and a VIDEO camera SECOND. Video recording is an feature, not a function. You will have less options and control with it. same goes for video cameras that take still shots. Often the MPs are lower, and the quality leaves a lot to be desired. The only exceptions are some of the DSLRs with video features, but smooth zooming is often a problem for most people with those. Solution? If you want great HD video recording, get a video camera. There's nothing easier than that. Battery life is acceptable and about average compared to other model cameras, but if you plan on taking out for an entire day, I suggest picking up a second battery as a back-up. Being forced to use the LCD screen for everything drains the battery fast, but it does have an auto shut-off to conserve energy. While some people don't use it, i will would have liked to have had a view finder, however the lack of one in now way kept me from buying this camera. Be weary of putting a screen protector on the back. Unless you get one from Canon meant for this model camera, or from an authorized Canon dealer, you can damage the screen. Having a screen protector can interfere with the touch-screen interface. This isn't the Magic Hat of cameras. Everyone is going to have their own personal view on it and find things they love or hate. My suggestion is if you can find a retail store with a working display, go look at it in person first. That's the best way to judge if its going to suit your needs or not. Or if you know someone who happens to have one, even better. I've already gotten some beautiful 16x20 prints, and 18x24 is pretty good too (however at this size, you need to make sure your picture quality is top notch). If you're using a high ISO setting, or a longer shutter speed, use a tripod- the slightest shake in your shake WILL blur/ghost the image; again, that is something that happens to all cameras. They sell a variety of smaller tripod (the grypton ones are fun and versatile). Perhaps in the future these limitations will be eliminated, but that remains to be seen. All in all, I knew what I was getting from this camera. The price is exceptionally reasonable considering all you get. I'm not disappointed by any means, because I figured out very quickly how to manipulate the settings to get better picture than the scene settings could produce. It definitely suits my needs for this category of camera; I really just needed this guy to take around the town and on nights out, because who really wants to tote a DSLR with telephoto lenses or a clunky highzoom to a bar ;)

This is a great camera and it replaces my SD 980 IS which I bought last year to use when I don't want to carry my Canon 5D Mark II around. Because of its size and weight it fits well in your shirt or pants pocket and as it suited for carrying all day long. You may even forget you have it. The 3.5" touch screen interface is sharp and bright. The menus are self explanatory and easy to use. The only physical controls are your shutter, on / off and playback buttons. A three position switch sets the auto, program, and movie mode. An easy to use dial around the shutter button adjusts the zoom level. The HD video (1280 x 720) is a great option and you can record 10 minute clips that use about 2GB's of memory. Two standard definition video formats are also available. (640 x 480 and 320 x 240) Image quality is good, and suitable for large prints. Camera body color options are black, silver and pink. If you are looking for an easy to use point and shoot, compact camera that is very light weight also shoots great video I think you will be happy with the SD3500.

I purchased this camera recently from Amazon. When I bought it I paid roughly U$ 270, which was a very good price when the same camera was advertised by other vendors at over U$ 300. For the money I paid, this camera is awsome. I am personally not too fond of touchscreens (I am more into the "analog" and "buttons" designs.. call me old fashioned), but this camera blew my mind. The touch screen is so intuitive you can get to every corner of the menu in seconds. It has nice futures as touching an area of the picture to select where to focus. Other things it has are creative effects, like selecting one particular color and leaving the rest of the image in black and white: this creates very nice artistic images whan you want a particular item to stand out in the picture. You can even select any color in the image and swap (in real time) for another... I tried taking a shot at the swimming pool, which locked pale and white, and swapped for an aquamarine turquoise which really enhanced the picture without making it cheesy or fake-looking... It's like working with Photoshop in real time.. The camera is really small and practical. As I had read in other reviews, the batery/SD lid is quite flimsy, built of a thin plastic which doesen't look very promising. The lids on the HDMI and USB connections also look like they'll break before the camera's first birthday. However, this is not a tough-built, rugged camera to take under the rain or on the trail, so provided you serve its intended use (parties, home, theatre, and anywhere where you'd take reasonable good care of a high quality optic instrument!), you should be fine. It doesen't require silk gloves... just don't fumble with the lids too often. The quality of the pictures is good but not outstanding, at least in auto modes indoors (I have an Olympus 570UZ which I think handles white balance more nicely). The HDMI is superb, and the real plus is the 24mm equivalent widescreen, which is great for indoor group pictures where little space would usually require everyone to huddle up so as to fit in the picture.. I would purchase this again.

I upgraded from the SD630, which I've had since mid-2006. I loved my old SD. What I love about the SDs are the wide-angle shots, the vivid coloration choice, the image stitch guide, and the general image quality. And so, I figured I'd try sticking with the SD line. PROS: - beautiful touch screen that would make anyone geek out (zooming on screen will actually let you know if your pic is out of focus before viewing on your computer unlike the SD630), - sleek design, - a touch menu that nearly maps to the old SD menu. CONS: - Canon still has horrible landscape night shots; - some blurriness for "wiggling" picture-takers (that tourist who offers to take your picture in exchange for his) despite your ISO/automatic settings; - the touch menu is noticeably slow compared to the manual menu (your photo op may pass by the time the shot is set-up the way you want it); - optical zoom does not work on video function. I felt like most "photographic moments" had passed by the time the touch menu got caught up with me. I don't know how I feel about the camera size. It's a little thicker but otherwise smaller than my iPhone. Translation: great for screen size, but very bulky for a clutch/small purse or a woman's pocket. Overall, people who don't photograph every waking moment of their lives but do enjoy photography here and there would love this camera. It's sleek, pretty, and effective. Those of us who are bogging down Facebook or Flickr's servers with multiple albums (or who tote around micro 4/3s and DSLRs) will find this camera is still lacking. If my SD630 had equally shots in terms of pixels, I'd pick it over the touch screen.

This camera is great! The new DIGIC 4 processor for the camera provides many features not found on older generations of Canon Cameras. Before buying this camera my two choices were the Canon SD3500 IS and the Nikon s8000. Both looked intriguing in different ways. The SD3500is had the 3.5 inch touch screen while the Nikon had the 10x zoom. I settled on the Canon because of past experience with their previous cameras and with their great customer service. I may be biased, but I feel Canon makes a better camera and Nikon makes a better binocular, but I digress. The simplicity and intuitive controls are a major plus. I was a bit worried about the screen but it is made of reinforced glass and has quite a solid feel throughout. You can even use the camera with gloves on which is a major plus if you are outside and it is cold (my first real test of the camera was in Barrow, AK at -20F). The only real downside I have for the camera is the battery/sd card door is a bit flimsy feeling when not closed, but it hasn't given me any issues to date. The only other downside, which isn't really a downside, is that many of the features of the camera may seem novelty to some such as the ability to change all the bright lights in a room into heart or star shapes. I certainly don't have much of a reason to use it unless I want to get cheesy with my girlfriend. I bought a Sandisk Ultra II 16 gig class 4 card for the camera and everything works real smooth with it. I am able to hold over 4,000 photos at 14.1 mp or 1.5 hours of HD video. The class 6 cards may be a little overboard for this camera and a class 2 may or may not be enough for the HD video to run smoothly, but I haven't been able to test those ideas. If you really want a nice camera with all kinds of fun and useful features and new age touch screen coolness then I highly recommend this camera. -Update 5/4/2011 So far this camera has been phenomenal for all my picture taking. It even went through some hard times and came out shining. It was left on top of my car and slid down my front window onto my hood as I was driving down the highway. Needless to say it has a dent in it, but the camera works just as well as before and the glass is not scratched at all (I don't use those protective glass covers either) I had intended on using it for low activity days but I have quickly found out that it was actually very rugged. I take it out hiking, snowshoeing or whatever. It slides easily down into my pocket and even when it is raining I don't worry about it. Also, on the picture quality. It is very good. It all depends on how you use the camera. The Foliage setting on the camera really brings out great colors for plants and the point and touch focus is HUGE for focusing in on what you want. There might be better cameras (haven't really researched since purchasing the SD3500is) out there now but if the price is right on this camera I would buy it again. -Update 8/12/2012 Camera has been working wonderfully since I purchased it two years ago. I take it outside for hikes mostly and it never fails. I did manage to crack the screen on it 6 months ago, but I was able to replace the touch screen. Works just like new. The battery on the camera is awesome. Honestly I almost never have to think about charting the battery. I can think of only 3 times that I have ever seen the low battery warning.

Previous camera: Canon SD750 Everyone reading this review has a good idea of what to expect from this camera (feature wise) so i'll just go right into what you wouldn't or might not expect. 1) The wide angle is great. The wide screen is great! However, every available resolution with the exception of 4320x2432 is NOT a wide-screen resolution. **NOTE** there is a HUGE difference between wide-angle and wide-screen. This is significant because if you are not using a wide-screen resolution then your on-screen image will not fill the entire screen (black bars on both sides of the screen). On the other hand you DO get the entire screen filled when shooting on 4320x2432. However, the camera automatically crops off the top and bottoms of the camera's original 4320x3240 image in order to make the image wide enough to fit nicely on the wide-screen. One last note on this wide-screen feature...It really is not a big deal that you have black bars on either side of the camera when not shooting wide-screen resolution because the sides get filled with several on-screen buttons that cover up the image anyways. And to be fair, I don't see any way around black bars on a camera without cropping because a camera's lens, inherently, doesn't capture a wide-screen image anyways. 2) There IS camera distortion. It is only noticeable when staring at the camera screen while moving the camera around. However, this is to be expected when you have a 24mm wide-angle camera 3) The image quality is not as good as the SD750. This is a big disappointment because my SD750 is 3 years old. The difference in quality only becomes visible when you zoom in too much. The biggest difference is the amount of noise that you can see when zoomed in. On the up side, you REALLY have to zoom in to notice the difference. Also, you can take the SD3500 off auto mode and tweak its settings to make its pictures look better than what the SD750 produced. But the noise when zoomed in all the way never really goes away. Even though the image quality is not as good (on some cases), the overall picture usually looks better because of the wide-angle lens (24mm vs 35mm) and several other tweaks that can be made 4) The casing is very, very sleek. Almost too sleek. My original SD750 was grippy when holding it so the camera cant really slip out through your fingers. The SD3500 however is very slippery and I've had to be extremely careful not to drop it. 5) The camera case has a slight-bluish hint to it. 6) Fish-eye and miniature effects are very, very fun. Anytime you want a nice laugh, take a fish eye picture of someone's face (or another body part to make it larger) 7) Camera is heavier than you would expect. 8) The on-screen image appears to lag slightly if you move the camera around rapidly. 9) Because of the camera's design, I find myself covering the part of the flash sometimes. 10) There are no places around the camera where you can grip the camera naturally Bottom Line: I still recommend someone buying this camera. It is feature packed and more than what you can expect from a point-and-shoot. As long as you are not extremely nit-picky and know what you expect, then you will definitely like this camera. I Hope this helps potential buyers make a decision!!

I have owned a few Elph Series Cameras (which are still going strong) and this Latest GEM ! The Canon SD3500 is last years model, but has this year and future wants of what a camera should be all about. The camera has an F 2.8 lens, wide angle lens of 24mm, A True Wide Angle Lens! These two items alone are important. Many do not realize the higher the numbers (specs) the less capabilities/results in low light, as well as getting in the picture group shots or when capturing scenes. The SD3500IS offers touch screen, also largest size LCD with 461,000 pixels compared to half of that of other models. The 5X optical zoom with additional digital zoom is good. The Canon SD3500is also has a built in HDMI port for High Definition to your TV, as well as USB to PC and Video Out for DVD recorders. Another impressive item is 30 frames per second Video (others are limited to only 24 fps) The ISO is expandable to 6400 for low light. Auto is 80-1600 ISO. So my opinion for choosing last years model is that it still has future important features and performs well in all areas when tested. A great camera, that slips in your pocket.

I like the big touch screen on this camera. Works well. I think it was the first of its kind and many other cameras followed. Still works well after a few years. I use it for mostly personal and occassional business needs.