Yay, the Best Buy near me finally had the SD800IS in stock so I picked it up. They were out of stock forever.

So I have charged the battery I got a phatty SD card for it. http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Techn...&s=electronics

Now I just need to get some pics taken.

 

price? and disounts?

 

dpreview finally reviewed that camera
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canonSD800is/

 

I got this one instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820180616

been pretty happy with sandisk cards in general.
Although I do have a kingston and it's been OK.

 

I paid retail at best buy. $400-ish?

I remember dpreview used to have much more inclusive reviews. It's like they went corporate. They used to have picture samples and actual opinions. Now they just seem to have tech specs. I can look up tech specs online. (Point me in the right direction if I'm just looking at the wrong links.)

Yeah, I'm not sure about the Kingston, but a friend recommended it to me so I'm trying it. Saw some people having card failures, I'll post up if I run into that. I'm pretty good about dumping images to my PC so we'll see what happens. If I lose something I'll go back to SanDisk.

I did get a chance to snag a couple pictures at my friends wedding. It's sooo much better than my Sony 5 megapixel DSC-T1 it replaced. In dark areas it really takes significantly better photos. (The T1 and sony T-series have really crappy flash) Stuff far away in a dark room is still a bit tough, but I was just using the auto settings and haven't really played with the camera. One of my friends who has had his canon longer had better luck than I did on an older model, but he knows his way around the settings already. However; the auto detection and settings of everything is a huge step up the old T1, but it has been 3 years).

The picture clarity in well lit situations is just ridiculous. I got a picture of the bride from 20 yards with a bit more clarity than she would be happy with, lol. (Outdoor wedding.) The optical zoom definitely does get a bit fuzzy though, but that's to be expected right?

 

The link I posted above has quite a few picture samples and comparisons.

 

I also picked up the SD800IS a few weeks ago. I'm liking it so far. It isn't as good as my Canon G6 (which I just sold) but it's great for a pocket camera. It goes everywhere with me.

I don't know if it's the size of the camera or me just not being used to it yet but I have trouble taking indoor pictures without the flash that don't come out blurry unless I'm using a tripod.

 

Oooh, I see, you have to used the drop down box at the top to get the rest of the review. Damn wish I would have seen that before I started shopping. Oh well, still like the camera and its such a huge improvement over the old, i'm keeping it anyway.

 

I picked up a 2GB SanDisk card for my SD800IS on Amazon last week for $35 shipped I believe.

 

You aren't using the digital zoom are you? It should be obvious when it kicks in.
You can hear it go 'bzzzzzz' as the motor moves the optical zoom to 4x, then it's silent as it goes into crappy digital zoom mode. Digital zoom is the first thing I turned off in the menu.

 

Digital zoom is awful!!!!

 

I don't have that problem with my 700IS. As a matter of fact, that's one reason I got the 700IS to replace my SD 550, since I have an aversion to using flash.
I've noticed that the best bets indoors without flash is to set it on "Auto", turn off flash, and then set either ISO Auto or ISO High Auto. Both will result in some noise.

And speaking of zoom - avoid it indoors - even with flash it's hard to get enough light in.

 

I'm still getting used to the feel of the smaller camera and I think that's part of the problem. I don't exactly have a "steady" hand and the larger body of the G6 was much easier to hold; for me at least.

 

No, I don't generally use it. Tried it for a couple shots just messing around. I didn't know you could disable it in the menu. I'm going to have to do that next time I'm snapping up some shots.

 

nice! i'm looking around for memory cards too.

i should be getting my 800is in the mail soon. i can't wait to start using it. my current camera is a sony dsc-p9 (!), which i've had for about four years...

 

I dropped my SD800IS tonight.

It fell about 6.5' on to a wood floor.

It held up though. At first it wasn't working properly but after playing with it for a few minutes and turning it off and back on it is now back to working as new.

 

I dropped my old SD 550 a few times and it just scuffed the body - canon builds em strong.
My mom had an olympus digicam that was the same way. That camera took a beating and didn't think twice about turning on or not.

 

ah...just got my sd800is in the mail. wow...what a cool camera.

i'm taking the manual to work tomorrow to read over the features.