Canon PowerShot SD700 IS Digital Camera Review

Model Design / Appearance (8.0)
Like its Digital Elph siblings, the PowerShot SD700 is very attractive. Its housing incorporates a tri-color design, along with some chrome highlights, to make it look positively classy. The front panel has a brushed steel look to it, while the rear panel that surrounds the LCD screen is a glossy black. In between them, a lighter silver-colored panel is thin on the left side and runs wider to the right, where it extends onto the back and covers the entire right side. The lines between all of these panels aren’t completely straight and at boring 90-degree angles. Instead, there are some rounded edges on this relatively slim model: in particular, Canon’s “Perpetual Curve” design adds a noticeable curve where the right hand grips the camera. This feature increases handling comfort, particularly for a model of this size, as does the SD100’s slightly thicker right side. As it should be, the general design is attractive and comfortable.

Size / Portability (6.75)
The Canon PowerShot SD700 IS measures 3.56 x 2.22 x 1.04 inches, which isn’t the slimmest on the market but is certainly pocketable. Its left side is slimmer than the right, which makes the camera comfortable to hold and even makes slipping it into a pocket easier. Only pushing the power button for about a second can turn the camera on, a useful safeguard against accidental snapshots that wear down the battery.  An included wrist strap, which attaches to the eyelet on the camera’s right side, further increases portability. The camera feels solid at 5.82 oz, and that’s not including the battery or memory card. Even so, the small size of the camera and curvaceous features make it a convenient accessory.

Handling Ability (7.0)
With small cameras, the positioning of the components, as well as the overall design, makes a huge difference in handling. The Canon SD700 wins some and loses some in this area. Bad news first: users will often accidentally cover the flash with their left fingers and smudge the LCD with their noses. The control buttons on the back are squashed toward the bottom, and the placement of the mode dial and zoom switch will cramp the right hand into a painful pose. This is certainly not the digital camera for arthritic joints.

While those issues complicate handling, Canon didn’t completely miss the boat. They did round the right side of the camera in what they call their “Perpetual Curve design.” This makes holding the inch-thick camera a little more comfortable.

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (6.25)
The Canon SD700 doesn’t overwhelm users with vast amounts of buttons, but it doesn’t skimp either. Instead of including all kinds of designated buttons, the SD700 has a multi-selector that gives the “multi” prefix much more meaning than it has on most digital cameras. The selector multi-tasks so much that the icons overtake the entire outer donut around the Func./Set button – and then spill over onto the camera body itself!

Other than navigating through the menu system, the multi-selector can perform eight functions. Above the multi-selector is a designated Print button that lights up when connected to a PictBridge printer via the USB cable. In the upper right corner of the back is the mode dial, which is about the size of a dime and has a notched edge like one too. It protrudes slightly from the right side of the camera, with a cutout in the back for users to see which mode is selected. From the top, the modes are Playback, Auto, “Manual” (this title can be misleading, as there is no manual control over the shutter speed or aperture), Scene, and Movie. To its credit, the Canon SD700’s buttons are all decently sized.

The mode dial itself is too tight, so users have to jam their thumbs into the tiny notched edge and slam it up or down. This isn’t comfortable at all, especially when trying to make a quick mode change for the next shot. The other complication with the control buttons is the zoom switch that surrounds the shutter release button. It has a tiny switch that doesn’t move very far to the right or left; users have to jam their index fingers into the switch to push it.

Menu (7.0)
In order to keep frequently used settings available, the recording menu is split in two: the left side shows the list of features, mainly expressed in icons, and the list of accompanying options displays across the bottom of the screen. Live views make this menu easy to use. The Func./Set menu offers scene modes when in the scene position of the mode dial, but also blocks access to other options.

The following menu is therefore from the “manual” mode, which grants the most access to the camera’s features.

Function Menu
Recording mode	Manual, Digital Macro, Stitch Assist (L to R), Stitch Assist (R to L)
Exposure Compensation	+/- 2 in 1/3 steps
White Balance	Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, and Custom
My Colors	Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Custom Color
Metering	Evaluative, Center-Weighted Average, Spot
Compression	SuperFine, Fine, Normal
Image Size	Large, Medium 1, Medium 2, Small, 16:9

The remainder of the settings are available with a push of the Menu button, which calls up the same three-folder system that is on other Digital Elph cameras. A red camera icon on the first folder’s top tab designates recording settings, including the following.

Record Menu
AiAF	On, Off
Self-Timer	10 seconds, 2 seconds, Custom (1-30 sec delay, 1-10 shots)
AF-Assist Beam	On, Off
Digital Zoom	On, Off
Review	Off, Hold, 2-10 seconds
Grid Lines	On, Off
IS Mode	Continuous, Shoot Only, Panning, Off
Date Stamp	Off, Date, Date & Time
Long Shutter	On, Off

The central folder has a yellow tab at the top, which displays a wrench-like tool to represent the setup menu. This menu has tons of options that require a lot of scrolling with the multi-selector.

Setup Menu
Mute	On, Off
Volume	Startup, Operation, Self-Timer, Shutter, Playback
LCD Brightness	+/-7
Power Saving	Auto Power Down (On, Off) Display Off (10 sec-3 min)
Time Zone	Home, World
Date/Time	Date, Time set
Clock Display	0 sec-3 min
Format	OK, Cancel
File Numbering	Continuous, Auto Reset
Create Folder	OK, Cancel
Auto Rotate	On, Off
Lens Retract	0 sec, 1 min
Languages	English, Swedish, German, Spanish, Turkish, French, Russian, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Greek, Dutch, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hungarian, Italian, Thai, Arabic
Video System	NTSC, PAL
Print Method	Auto, PictBridge
Reset All	OK, Cancel

All of these options include a way to cancel the action and return to the previous menu. This is a nice feature, as it gets annoying to hit ‘cancel’ in some cameras and completely exit the menu system.

The final tab on the right is blue and features a Lego-like bust of a person. This is where users can customize the welcome image and make the camera sounds mimic bird calls and wolf howls. When the Menu button is pushed in the playback menu, the following options appear.

My Camera Menu
Transition	Off, Fade 1, Fade 2
Slide Show	Start (All Images, Date, Folder, Movies, Stills, Custom DPOF), Transition, Delay
My Colors	Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Custom Color
Sound Memo	Record (1-60 sec), Stop
Protect	Set, Cancel
Rotate	Set, Cancel
Erase All	Cancel, OK
Transfer Order	Order, Mark All, Reset

Users will wish the deletion feature was a little more accessible: as it is, they must scroll through pages and pages of images to tag and delete only some of them. Still, the menu system does its job. It is intuitive, easy to scroll through, and fairly well organized. Some users may not like the split system in the recording menus, though, and will stumble through pages of menus looking for the ISO options, only to remember that they are on the multi-selector instead.

Ease of Use (7.5)
If the SD700 is a gift for Great Aunt Gertrude, expect a positive response. This camera is intuitive. Switching into the auto mode, designated by a camera icon on the mode dial, will allow the user to simply point and shoot. Even outside of auto mode, the Canon PowerShot SD700 IS keeps things simple for the most part. The abundance of icons on the multi-selector is a little confusing and there are some quirky handling issues, but this digital camera can take pictures easily – which is all that really counts anyway.