Canon PowerShot SD780 IS

Viewfinder

The viewfinder on the PowerShot SD780 is absolutely minuscule and, frankly, very uncomfortable to use. You'll really have to jam the camera up against your nose (watch out for greasing up your LCD) in order to make use of the viewfinder. Many of the other models in the ELPH lineup don't bother with the viewfinder; we're not sure why Canon has decided to put one on their slimmest ultra-compact. There's something to be said for having a backup on sunny days, but we expect that the vast majority of users will use the LCD for the vast majority of their photography.

What's that? A teeny tiny viewfinder.

LCD

A glance below the micro viewfinder will make it clear that most of your time with the SD780 will be spent with the 2.5-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD. This is a small display for a digital camera, but it's not surprising considering the minute size of the camera itself.

The 2.5-inch LCD will help you preview your photos and interface with the camera menus.

Within the Settings menu, you can adjust screen brightness to one of five increments, with the default setting in the center. Be careful when brightening or darkening your screen, as it might give you a false sense of what your final image will look like.

Flash

The built-in flash has a range of 11.8 inches - 11.5 feet (30cm - 3.5m) when at maximum wide angle and 17.7 inches - 6.6 feet (45cm - 2.0m) when using the optical zoom. The flash can be set to auto, on, and off. The camera is equipped with a standard red-eye reduction feature, as well as blink detection, which displays a small icon when the camera detects the possibility of closed eyes in a shot.

There are also a couple of extra features that can be implemented to enhance flash performance. One is called FE lock, which allows you to press the shutter halfway, then lock in the exposure for shooting with the flash. The SD780 also has a Slow Synchro feature, which uses the flash plus a slow shutter speed to illuminate your subject while also lightening background objects that are beyond the range of the flash.

The small flash will give you some extra light, but don't expect it to do too much heavy lifting in the dark.

Lens

With an ultra-slim profile like that of the SD780, there's only so much you can pack into the lens. The lens offers just a small, 3x optical zoom lens, with a focal length of 5.9-17.9mm (35mm equivalent: 33-100mm). The aperture range is f/3.2-f/5.8. There's also an optical image stabilizer packed in there somehow. The lens automatically extends when the camera is powered on and retracts (with an automatic lens enclosure) when the camera powers down.

The lens extends and retracts automatically.

The tiny zoom lever isn't much to write home about, but it gets the job done.

Zoom is controlled via a small pivoting lever that surrounds the shutter button. It's difficult to maintain a lot of fine control over the zoom speed with this tiny switch, but there isn't much need with such a small zoom ratio. The Canon SD780 is equipped with a 3x optical zoom and up to 12x digital zoom. As always, we recommend you avoid using the camera's digital zoom, as it deteriorates image quality. If you are not shooting in the highest quality setting, it's possible to use some level of digital zoom without negatively impacting the image. The SD780 has a handy feature that displays the zoom ratio in white when no image deterioration is present and in blue when the digital zoom is beginning to impact image quality.

3.7x digital zoom may be used in the M1 size, 4.6x digital zoom may be used for M2, 7.5x digital zoom for M3, and 12x for S-sized photos. You can also set the digital zoom to 1.5x, 2.0x, standard, and off. The 1.5x and 2.0x settings are utilized in conjunction with the camera's digital tele-converter (see Focus).

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

All the SD780's ports are located in a single recess in the upper-right corner of the back of the camera. The cavity is concealed by a sturdy cover, which is attached to the camera body by a typical, flimsy rubber tether. Included in the cavity is a universal mini-HDMI terminal as well as a proprietary jack that does double-duty, serving the AV and USB connection. Standard RCA cables and standard mini-USB cables will work with the SD780.

The mini-HDMI output and proprietary AV/USB port

Battery

The Canon SD780 comes equipped with a small, rechargeable lithium-ion battery (NB-4L). It shares a compartment with the SD/SDHC card, which is convenient for saving space, but makes it hard to remove the memory card without first removing the battery (especially if you have long nails). As on most digital cameras, there is no DC power input on the camera, so if you need to charge up, you'll have to remove the battery and use the charging station. And since you can't operate the camera while the battery is charging, we recommend you buy a backup battery if you plan on taking the camera out for a long day of shooting.

The rechargeable NB-4L lithium-ion battery

We haven't tested the battery ourselves, but Canon predicts you'll be able to shoot about 200 images with the LCD on and about 500 with the LCD off. Of course, this all depends heavily on how much time you spend setting up shots with the LCD and reviewing photos in playback.

Memory

The Canon PowerShot SD780 records still photos to a removable SD/SDHC memory card. SD cards are very popular and easy to use with a variety of computers, printers, etc. A 2GB SD card will hold approximately 626 shots on the highest quality setting or about 11 minutes of video; an 8GB SD card will hold approximately 2505 shots or 43 minutes of video. The number of remaining shots or the remaining video time is displayed in the lower right corner of the LCD when in the appropriate shooting mode.

The SD/SDHC card slot is tucked away on the bottom.