Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS – Advanced Display Technology

Thumbs Up:

Large touch-screen; nice design.

Thumbs Down:

Slow shooting performance.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS has 14.1-megapixel CCD optical sensor. It is powered with Canon Digic IV Image processor and features 4x digital zoom, Frame movie shooting mode, Optical image stabilization, and face detection. It has memory-card slot that accepts SD memory card and MultiMediaCard for external storage. The maximum shutter speed is 1/3000 second and minimum is 15 second.

The exposure compensation is ±2 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps; while the exposure metering is of three types: Evaluative, Center-weighted, and Spot. The exposure modes are Automatic and Program. The white-balance options are: Automatic, Presets, and Custom. Its presets include: Fluorescent light (cool white), Fluorescent light (daylight), Tungsten light, Daylight, and Cloudy.

3.5 inches touch-screen display provides 100% coverage. The Canon UA lens are aspherical in nature and has 4.3-21.5mm focal length with F/2.8-5.9 aperture that features 5x optical zoom. The PowerShot SD3500 IS has TTL contrast detection auto-focus, nine zone auto-focus, and inbuilt lens shield. The macro focus range is 5cm and minimum is 2inch. The zoom adjustment is motorized drive and focus adjustment is automatic.

The shooting programs Night Snapshot, Portrait mode, Slow shutter, Kids & Pets, Low Light, Fireworks, Foliage, Indoor, Beach and Snow. The special effects include Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Creative Light, Positive Film, Custom Effect, Black & White, Color Accent, Vivid Green, Vivid Blue, Vivid Red, Color Swap, Miniature, Neutral, Fish-eye, Vivid, Neutral, and Sepia.

The digital camera supports JPEG image format and H.264 video format. The video capture resolution options are H.264 1280×720, H.264 640×480, and H.264 320×240. The image storage resolution options are Normal, Fine JPEG 4320×3240, JPEG 4320×2432, JPEG 3456×2592, JPEG 1600×1200, JPEG 1600×1200, and JPEG 640×480.

The Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS has inbuilt microphone and flash. The flash modes are Red-eye reduction, Flash OFF mode, Slow-synchro, Fill-in mode, and Auto mode. The flash features AF illuminator and 1.6-11.5 ft flash range. It has self-timer delay of 2 and 10 seconds.

The additional highlights are iContrast system, AE/AF/FE lock; Motion Detection, Smile Detection, Blink Detection, Face Detection WB/FE/AE/AF, Face Detection Self timer, Wink Self-timer, RGB primary color filter, Digital noise reduction, 720p HD movie recording, Digital tele-converter, Digital image rotation, Touch screen control, USB 2.0 compatibility, In-camera red-eye fix, Smart Flash exposure, PictBridge support, Resizing an image, Histogram Display, Cropping an image, Inbuilt speaker, AE/AF tracking, DPOF support, and Safety zoom.

The connector set includes 1×HDMI output, 1×USB, and 1×composite audio/video output. The software included on the disc are Canon ZoomBrowser EX, drivers & utilities, Canon ImageBrowser, and Canon PhotoStitch. The supported operating systems are Windows XP SP2/Vista/7 and Apple Mac OS 10.4-10.6 or later.

The SD3500 IS has Canon NB-6L rechargeable lithium ion battery. The maximum operating temperature is 104°F and minimum is 32°F. Accessories supplied inside the box are USB cable, one A/V cable, user manual, drivers & software disc, and battery.

Razzle Dazzle:

The Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS has attractive and compact shape like the Digital Elph Series. It is 3.9 inches wide, 2.2 inches tall and 0.9 inch deep. The digital camera weighs 5.6 ounces with media and battery. It is available in three colors: pink, silver, and black. Our test model had pink color. The metal casing gives sturdy feel while holding in hand. The SD3500 IS fits easily in the small handbag or pants pocket.

Inside Dope:

Exactly, the Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS is a follow-up of the SD980 IS. $329.99 priced the SD3500 IS features same ultra wide-angle lens with 5x zoom and touch-screen display. However, its 14.1-megapixel sensor is an upgrade over previous version. It is noteworthy that its shooting performance is slow and suffers from few quality issues. If you are not overcritical about pixels, then the PowerShot SD3500 IS is a good choice.

The SD980 IS has more physical control, while the Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS has limited controls including shooting mode switch, shutter release button, zoom ring, play and power buttons. All these controls are located on the top.

3.5 inches touch-screen LCD display of the Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS has 461,000 dots resolution. It features Touch Panel technology and wide-viewing angle. As per Canon, the display covers approximately 100% of the shooting scene. The touch-screen has double resolution and is 0.5 inch bigger than that of the SD980 IS. It is quick responsive and allows calibration with your touch.

However, you have to use drag your finger for scrolling rather than using up and down arrows. It may require more taps to change some mode specific shooting options. The Canon has tried its best to arrange the menu layout in an easy way, but still it remains a bit difficult. We are disappointed that you cannot tap the subject on the touch-screen to focus on it. Canon has also removed the virtual shutter release that appeared on the SD980 IS on turning it vertically.

You can use the touch-screen in Playback mode for flipping and scrolling between the pictures, magnifying a photo section with taps, starting slide show, and selecting picture to mark as favorites or to delete them. The Canon has also included the Active Display Technology that allows moving forth and back between images and checking focus on still picture by tilting the digital camera to right or left. In addition, you can tap right or left side for moving one frame at a time. The PowerShot SD3500 IS also allows tagging the pictures and categorizing them for easy filtering.

You will find the mini-HDMI port and mini-USB ports on the right side of the Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS. The memory-card slot and the battery are located behind a door on bottom.

The shooting mode button on the top has three options: camera mode, Movie Mode, and Auto mode. The camera mode provides access to Program Auto mode and other scene modes such as Long Shutter, Fireworks, Snow, Foliage, Beach, Indoor, Low Light, Kids & Pets, Night Snapshot, and Portrait. There is a new addition – Smart Shutter option by Canon that contains smile-activated shutter release button, Face and Wink Detection self-timers. Wink Detection lets you to turn off shutter on winking at the camera.

The Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS has some creative shooting options like Color Swap and Color Accent. There is a Miniature Effect that blurs the bottom and top and boosts color saturation with contrast for making object like painted miniature models. The Fish-eye effect is an approximation by software that transforms images like fish’s eye lens. The Creative Light Effect mode changes the shape of twinkling lights in pictures to crosses, music notes, butterflies, stars, hearts, and so forth. All these modes just add a bit more fun; whereas the company does not include a Panorama mode.

The shooting performance the Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS is slow. The time from power on to first shoot is 1.5 seconds; which is good for a touch-screen digital camera. The shutter lag is 1sec in low lighting and 0.6sec in bright light. The average shot-to-shot time is 2.5 seconds and 4.2 seconds without flash. The continuous shooting rate is 0.8 fps (frames per second).

Like most of the compact digital camera, the Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS provides the best image quality below ISO 200. The pictures have enough sharpness, excellent colors and perfect fine details in the bright light. The details appear softer due to noise and noise reduction up to ISO 1600 and the images remain good for small print only. The SD3500 IS capture 3.5-megapixel pictures in Low Light mode from ISO 400 to 6400. The resulting pictures look grainy with yellow blotching in dark areas.

As expected, the barrel distortion was noticeable at widest lens position. However, there was pin-cushioning distortion even on fully zoomed out. The central sharpness was good, but drops off to the right and left making objects blurry and soft, especially in corners. We will advise you to keep the required sharp frame in center. There is visible fringing and blooming in the high-contrast objects at large sized prints, but not at small size.

The Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS performs excellently for exposure and colors. However, the highlights tend to blow out as expected from a digital camera. The white-balance is good, but its Auto preset is a bit warm in indoor shots. The video quality of the SD3500 IS surpasses that of high-def pocket video camera. The microphone is placed on the top and is prone to cover with your finger while using the camera. The optical zoom cannot be used while video recording.

The PowerShot SD3500 IS has a battery life of 220 shots.

Nitty Gritty:

If you need a touch-screen digital camera with ultra wide-angle lens and average picture quality, then buy – Canon PowerShot SD3500 IS. Please remember that it has slower shooting performance than its competitors.