Canon PowerShot SD300 San Francisco CA

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Originally published at Internet.com

Sleek, thin, smooth, and featuring a comparatively large 2-inch LCD monitor and an optical viewfinder, the PowerShot SD300/IXUS 40 offers a slimmer design than most other Digital Elph/Ixus cameras to date.

The SD300, a 4 megapixel model and probably the thinnest digital camera produced by Canon so far, packs a 3X optical zoom and yet has a thickness of 20.7mm (0.82 inch) when the lens is retracted. Completely metal clad, the SD300 is composed of a mix of textures and chrome finishes that gives it a classy appearance. Three controls are arranged on the right side of the SD300's top: the Power button, which has to be pressed and held for a about 1 second to turn on the camera; the Shutter release, which is a 2-stage system that provides AF and AE lock when held halfway; and the Zoom lever, which is a ring around the shutter release.

As with most Canon cameras, the zoom control also serves to control the display of photos when the camera is in Playback mode. Pressing the control to the / side displays 9 thumbnails per screen, and pressing it towards / serves to magnify an image up to 10X. With the left side, and the major portion of the SD300's back, occupied by the 2-inch, 118,000 pixel monitor, the remaining external controls of the SD300 are all clustered on the right side. The Mode Switch, positioned directly below the shutter release, serves to select the Still Image capture mode , the Movie mode , or the Playback mode .

Next, below the Mode Switch is the button, which displays the 3-part menu on the monitor. (See the Characteristics section of the review for a list of the menu options.)
Each of the directional arrows of the 4-direction controller further down, used to move through the menus and to review photos, also provide controls over photographic settings:

The up arrow serves to select the Metering modes:

Evaluative, a metering system that divides the frame into several zones to arrive at the best overall settings. Centre-weighted average, which meters the centre and rest of the frame but gives more importance to the reading obtained at the centre. Spot, which concentrates the metering at the centre of the frame.
The metering mode/up arrow also serves to lock the exposure (AE-Lock) or the Flash exposure (FE Lock) when the flash is forced on. The right arrow selects the Flash Mode: Auto with Red-eye Reduction, Auto, Forced On with Red-eye Reduction, Forced On, Forced Off, Slow Synchro. The left arrow is used to choose either the Macro or Landscape modes. The Macro mode allows the camera to focus from 3 to 50cm (1.2 to 18 in.) when the zoom is at the wide angle end, and from 30 to 50 cm (12 to t 18 in.) at the telephoto end. The Landscape mode sets the focus to infinity.
Finally, the down arrow has a role in the capture modes and in the Playback mode. In the capture modes it serves to select either the Continuous shooting mode or the Self-timer (2 or 10 seconds). The Continuous mode provides a maximum rate of 2.4 photos per second using the largest image size and average compression. In Playback the down arrow serves to delete an unwanted image. In addition to these functions, the button at the centre of the 4-direction controller serves primarily to access the Function menu, a menu that serves to select important settings that range from the shooting mode to the image size and quality. (See the Characteristics section of the review for an overview of the settings contained in the Function menu.)

Moreover, if the FUNC. button is pressed and held for more than a couple of seconds while the camera is on, it displays a clock for a length of time that can be set from 0 seconds to 3 minutes in the setup menu. The clock display is connected to the camera's orientation sensor and any movement causes the display to change colour, and even appear vertically (along with the date) or horizontally. Two more buttons are aligned below the 4-direction control. Starting on the left, the first button is to control the monitor: In the capture modes the DISP. button turns On and Off the LCD monitor, passing through a display mode that superimposes many of the current camera settings, then one that displays the image by itself with the AF point.

In Playback, the DISP. button decides whether an image under review is displayed with its shooting data and a histogram, or basic information, or no information at all. The last button on the SD300's back is called the Print/Share button. It starts the automatic transfer of pre-selected images when the camera is connected to a Windows computer; or the printing of pre-selected images when the SD300 is directly connected to a printer equipped with PictBridge, Direct Print, or Bubble Jet direct. The PowerShot SD300 offers a crisp design, and a superb construction that makes the camera as rugged as it is elegant.