Canon PowerShot SD750

Model Design / Appearance (8.25)
The Canon PowerShot SD750 has a similar look to the Canon SD700 and many others in the Digital Elph line with its "perpetual curve." The "curve" is toned down on this model compared to its predecessors: the SD750 has soft edges and a flashier tri-color design. The top of the camera shows off the "tri-color" element: the front panel is steely silver, the back a glossy black, and the right side a dark gray. These three panels are melded into a diagonal design that really hasn’t been done before on digital cameras. It’s refreshing to see something other than two panels neatly bolted together with a button or two on it.

The Canon SD750 has a stainless steel body that comes in silver or black and silver. Like its SD-series predecessors, this digital camera is trendy and fashionable with its compact design big screen, and sturdy body.

Size / Portability (8.25)
Consumers who want a camera to tote to the park, work, restaurant, and elsewhere will be pleased with this model: it’s small enough to stash in a pocket and flat enough to be comfortable, too. The Canon PowerShot SD750 measures 3.61 x 2.24 x 0.77 inches and weighs 4.59 ounces without the battery and memory card.

It has a wrist strap eyelet on the right side to ensure it won’t slip out of a hand and hit the concrete, and the weight won’t break wrists either. The weight feels just as it should with those dimensions: the camera isn’t heavy, nor is it light.

Handling Ability (6.25)
The Canon SD750 carries on the Digital Elph tradition of the "perpetual curve," a design element that includes a slight bend in the right side. This curve makes handling ever-so-slightly more comfortable, although it’s no replacement for a real SLR-style hand grip. Those SLR grips are comfy, but SLRs won’t fit in a pocket like the SD750 does. Convenience certainly trumps comfort on this point-and-shoot.



The curve isn’t the only handling feature. Canon added a few tiny bumps on the upper right corner of the back. This is supposed to be where the thumb rests, although this position left my hand cramped. Because of the diminutive measurements and the heft of the metal body, I found myself handling the SD750 with a daintier pose than usual. Instead of the thumb supporting the back, I had both thumbs supporting the bottom, index fingers on top, and other fingers wrapped around the front in an almost symmetrical pose. This supported the camera well, but the left fingers blocked the flash unit few times. The right fingers won’t get in the way of anything but don’t have much to cling to – only a lightly textured and very small Canon logo.

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (6.0)
Looking for a single sentence summary? The Canon SD750’s buttons are almost too tiny to be functional. There’s more to that, though.

The buttons are small so the LCD screen can be big. Sacrifices are made on this camera for convenience sake, and this is one of them. All the buttons are small except for the most important one, the shutter release button.

Around the shutter release button is a zoom ring with a small nub that moves only a few millimeters to each side. Because of the limited movement, fingers feel a little cramped and you wonder if you’ve zoomed anywhere at all.

There is a small power button on top, but that is only accessed once or twice per photo shoot anyway. There is a mode switch on top that is also small and moves from movie to scene to still image (Manual, Auto, Digital Macro, etc) positions.

The multi-selector is centered on the right of the back side and is so covered in icons that they spill onto the camera body. The icons signify the many functions this control performs. The center of the control is a Func./Set button that accesses a menu of frequently used settings and makes selections to the main Recording menu. A ring surrounds the button with loads of icons. From the top and moving clockwise, they are Jump and ISO, Flash, Burst/Self-Timer/Delete, and Macro and Landscape.

The multi-selector is comfortable and works very well. It has a bowl-shape that cradles the thumb. When touched lightly, "touch icons" appear on the LCD screen so users can see what they’re pushing when their thumbs are covering the control. If you rub the multi-selector the right way, you can scroll through shooting modes. This isn’t as seamless as a rotary wheel, but is an interesting concept nonetheless.

The SD750’s buttons are incredibly tiny, making it possible to push more than one at once. They are barely functional because of the size, but most point-and-shooters won’t care at all.

Menu (8.0)
The menu looks just like those on other Digital Elph cameras but is placed on a big screen with a big font. That makes it nice and easy on the eyes. The Canon SD750 has a split menu system that separates the more frequently used settings from the Main menu. The more frequently used settings are found in a menu accessed by pushing the Func./Set button.

Shooting Mode	Auto, Manual, Digital Macro, Color Accent, Color Swap, Stitch Assist (L to R), Stitch Assist (R to L)
Exposure Compensation	+/- 2 in 1/3 increments
White Balance	Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Custom
My Colors	Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Custom (Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation, Red, Green, Blue, Skin Tone- all with +/- 2 adjustment in full steps)
Metering	Evaluative, Center-weighted Average, Spot
Compression	SuperFine, Fine, Normal
Image Size	L (3072 x 2304), M1 (2592 x 1944), M2 (2048 x 1536), M3 (1600 x 1200), S (640 x 480), Postcard (1600 x 1200), W (3072 x 1728)

There are live previews throughout this menu so users can make more informed decisions about whether to use the Auto or Digital Macro mode, the Fluorescent or Fluorescent H white balance settings, or one of the color effects. All options come with live previews, although it’s harder to tell on the compression and image size. The Movie mode has a Func./Set menu that offers a lot of great options, and will be discussed further in the Movie mode section.

The Main menu is found with the menu button and does not have live views. It is the same menu that appears on other PowerShot digital cameras with the gray background and colored tabs at the top to organize the menu pages.

AiAF	Face Detect, On, Off
Digital Zoom	Standard, Off, 1.5x, 1.9x
Slow Synchro	On, Off
Red-Eye Reduction	On, Off
Custom Self-Timer	1-30 seconds, 1-10 shots
Auto ISO Shift	On, Off
AF Assist Beam	On, Off
Review	Off, Hold, 2-10 seconds
Auto Category	On, Off
Disp. Overlay	Off, Grid Lines, 3:2 Guide, Both
Date Stamp	On, Off
Set Print Button	Not Assigned, Exposure Compensation, White Balance, Custom White Balance, Digital Tele-converter, Disp. Overlay, Record Movie, Display Off, Play Sound Effect

The Recording menu is only the first page of the three-tabbed menu. The second tab is yellow with hammer and wrench icons, which is the Setup menu and is shown below.

Mute	On, Off
Volume	Startup, Operation, Self-timer, Shutter, Playback all with 1-5 volume levels
Touch Icons	On, Off
LCD Brightness	+/- 7
Power Saving	Auto Power Down (On, Off), Disp. Off (10 seconds-3 minutes)
Time Zone	Set Home, World
Date/Time	Set date and time
Clock Display	0 seconds-3 minutes
Format	OK, Cancel
File Numbering	Continuous, Auto Reset
Create Folder	Create New Folder (Yes, No), Auto Create (Off, Daily, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monthly), Time (0-24)
Auto Rotate	On, Off
Lens Retract	0 seconds, 1 minute
Language	English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Greek, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Thai, Arabic, Romanian, Ukrainian
Video System	NTSC, PAL
Print Method	Auto, PTP
Reset All	OK, Cancel

The third tab in the menu system is purple and displays an icon of a person. This menu allows users to customize the camera to their liking. This is where startup images can be chosen, the volume of every conceivable sound can be set, and every sound from wolves howling to birds chirping to aliens descending can be selected to indicate a function (eg. self-timer, focus lock, etc).

The menus look much nicer on the 3-inch LCD screen of the SD750 simply because the font is larger and thus more readable. The menus can be easily navigated with the multi-selector and the on-screen directions.

Ease of Use (7.75)
Like most other Canon PowerShot digital cameras, the SD750 is easy to use. The lack of a mode dial and the split menu system may confuse some people, but many will appreciate the easy access and live views in the Func./Set menu. There is no in-camera help guide like those found on some compact models from other manufacturers, but the SD750 is very intuitive even without that.