Canon - PowerShot SD450 Digital Camera Review

So, this isn't my camera, but I did have to use it for a school project.  The project involved taking close up pictures of nature and insects, and boy, did this camera live up to expectations.

It's very slim and portable, and has a lot of settings that you can play around with: auto, manual, digital macro, portrait, night, my colors, kids & pets, indoor, foliage, snow, beach, fireworks, and underwater. You can also take video.

In auto, the settings are pre-selected. (Ex. flash on/off)

In manual, you can choose all of the settings, and it's just a basic picture taking mode.

Digital macro is ah-mazing when taking close up pictures!  After you focus the camera, you can also zoom in more.  The zoom is a little bit misleading, though.  On the screen, it will look very blurry, but after you take the picture, it will become incredibly clear.

Portrait provides a soft effect when taking a picture.

Night, indoor, foliage, snow, foliage, beach, fireworks, and underwater all enhance what you are taking the picture of, or where you are taking it. (Note: You can only take pictures underwater if you have a special underwater case.)

Even though I never use it, my colors is a really cute feature.  You can swap the color of a certain object.  You first center a small square on that color, and everything in the viewfinder with that color will change.  The only problem with this is that there can be no shadow on that object, because then the color will not be consistent.

Kids and pets is good if you have, well, kids and pets.  Since they tend to move around a lot, they invented this nifty feature that won't create a blurry picture if your child or pet is moving around a lot.  The only downside is that the picture isn't as high quality as some of the other settings.

The LCD screen is great, bright and colorful.  The only bad side is that you really can't tell if your picture might be blurry; it has to be on a computer screen to really see all of the detail.

The battery is okay, but you might find that you won't know when the battery is all.  I don't think it indicates anywhere how much life is left.  At least I havent' noticed it; the only thing I noticed is the red flashing battery icon when the life is low.  It tends to happen at the most inconvenient of times, and take about three hours to charge.

There are two things I really don't like about this camera: the focus, and having a shaky hand.

To focus the camera, you press down the "shoot" button, but not all the way. Most times, especially in digital macro, it does not focus on what you want it to focus on, and the picture will come out blurry.  Sometimes, I'll be trying to focus on something for ten minutes, until I finally realize that my efforts are futile and it's a waste of time trying.

Another thing that I don't like is something that I guess you could blame on me.  I cannot for the life of me hold the camera still when trying to take a picture.  I don't have a tripod, but the only way I can keep it still is by resting it on something, like a table or the ground.  An interesting shot of a leaf hanging off of a branch? Forget it.  It is so hard to keep my hand straight.  At least it tells you when your hand isn't straight.  There's a little red camera picture in the lower left corner with lines around it to indicate shaking.  You can bet that that icon does not go away until I put the camera down.

In summary, unless you have a completely straight hand, this may not be the camera for you.  On the other hand, it does take great pictures and does have some really cool settings.

Rating: 4 Stars