Help me pick one - Canon SD400 or A610?

[Salt Peanuts]

Well, I'm in a market for a new digital camera and have narrowed the field down to two cameras - Canon SD400 and A610. I'm trying to see which would suit me better. I like the size of SD400, as I'm in "if it's too big to carry it around, you won't use it" camp. However, it may be bit too small in a long run and dislike the use of proprietry battery. A610, on the other hand, is bit bigger, but can use regular batteries in a pinch, and has nicer LCD screen. Any suggestions or opinions on these cameras are welcome.

 

[Kirosia]

My niece has the 200, and it's great for making quick snapshots. Quality is only decent (the a610 beats it), and there aren't really any manual controls. If you plan on going trip without access to an outlet, you may be better off with A610. You could always get another proprietary battery, but those are a bit expensive. All in all, if you're looking for something to whip out at random and take pics of stuff, get the SD. If you're a photographer in training and care alot about picture quality, you'd probably be good with the A610.

 

[socrates63]

I was more interested in the camera size so I recently bought the SD550. I've never concerned myself too much with propprietary batteries, but I see your point in having ready access to batteries over the counter.

I usually buy an extra battery (which I did with the SD550), so I always have a spare ready to go. If I remember correctly, I paid less than $20 for a Lenmar battery which is less than half of what Canon charges. Lenmar has good service as I've taken advantage of their battery warranty before. I returned mine with receipt and a few bucks to cover shipping and they sent me a new one.

 

[MikeB06]

I have the SD400 and absolutely love it. The battery life is very long, picture quality is very good, the size is great, its basically smaller than a cell phone in your pocket. And the video-taking capabilities are very very nice, and the fast processor and USB 2.0 transfers make it very convenient to dump your pics and vids on your computer and keep going. The manual controls are pretty decent, I was able to get some great shots with it in the front row of a Coldplay concert, I have an online photo album if you want to check them out.

 

[enjoi_rootbeer]

i was in that same situation. i was drawn deeply towards the A95, but it's features we getting kinda old (CF card, and crappy video). i loved the rest of the features, like being an affordable "high-end" digicam, but held off cause i really was hoping they'd release an update to it, which would be the A610 (5mp), and the A620 (7mp). so when i get enough, definately getting my hands on a A610.

 

[gshan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salt Peanuts I like the size of SD400, as I'm in "if it's too big to carry it around, you won't use it" camp. However, it may be bit too small in a long run and dislike the use of proprietry battery. A610, on the other hand, is bit bigger, but can use regular batteries in a pinch, and has nicer LCD screen. Any suggestions or opinions on these cameras are welcome.

I'm in the same camp. Ended up with SD400, and I don't regret it at all. This thing is really small! Hear reports of LCD problems? - buy from a retailer with a warranty of it's own to be safe if you'd like, like newegg or costco. Battery life is excellent imo. I took 200+ shots over an hour in the daytime during lunchtime and no battery warnings in sight. You can get generic batteries for a few bucks on ebay too. I ended up getting a Canon one - if you do, get the package deal that comes with the hard leather case and strap because it's the same price as the battery by itself.

The better video mode is also nice to have, with continous recording until the memory is full. I don't know too many people that would use this as a camcorder, 1GB high speed SD = ~8 min video on 30fps w/ sound.

One more thing to mention, the SD400 has an extremely fast startup from pressing the On button.

 

[ken36]

I have the A510. Great point and shoot camera.

 

[Salt Peanuts]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. I've decided to go with SD400. Ultimately, the small size of SD400 was too attractive to ignore.

 

[MikeB06]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salt Peanuts Thanks for all the replies, guys. I've decided to go with SD400. Ultimately, the small size of SD400 was too attractive to ignore.

Congrats, it's a very fun camera to use.

 

[gshan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salt Peanuts Thanks for all the replies, guys. I've decided to go with SD400. Ultimately, the small size of SD400 was too attractive to ignore.

Welcome to Head-Fi, ...

 

[RockFan]

I own the SD200. I picked it on it's small size and price. I'm a college student, and wanted something small to carry around and take snapshots, but with a decent quality. The SD200 has filled that role for me quite well.