This camera takes awesome pictures. I got this camera for mother's day from my husband and i love it. It takes really great pictures, and I like all the different settings the camera has. It takes really good action photos if you use the kids/pets setting.

I bought this camera specifically for an overseas holiday - for me a once in a lifetime event as my better half will not fly. I was looking for quality in a camera and it had to fit in my pocket (no camera necklace for me). I bought the camera the day before my trip, packed it, but forgot to pack the user guides. Since this was my first digital camera, I had no idea what most of the icons meant when exploring the buttons, so I left in auto mode and hoped for the best. The results were truly splendid.

Focusing system is excellent, exposure was spot-on in all but a couple of extreme cases. I have read through the manuals by now , but for everyday snaps, I still revert to auto mode.

Biggest irritant is the camera's propensity to reset to auto-flash mode when taking photos indoors. Not very discrete. Would be nice for the camera to retain most recent settings at start up.

This is one of the best camera I have own. I want a stabilze one because sometimes your hands shake and the picture comes out shaky
I RECOMMEND THIS CAMERA HIGHLY

The camera takes excellent photographs, probably among the best I have seen in Digital camera technology. It is a "no brain-er" to operate, good well thought out menu selections with just enough options in manual mode to let you get creative and more in control without being a pro.

This is the third digital camera I have owned. I also have a Nikon digital and an HP. The photo quality of the Cannon is superior. It is as simple as that. It is compact, durable and user friendly.

I didn't get the advanced guide book til just before Christmas - have been reading it and there are so many options that make your photo the best. Looking forward to a great adventure with it this spring. The possibilities seem to be endless - if you don't get a great photo - you just didn't get the right setting!

My camera has this awful problem, and it seems it's not the only one: when pointing to a source of light, a vertical "strip of light" appears in the LCD, as if a vertical ray of light was crossing the scene. This doesn't affect the final image, but it's unbelievable that such a high quality product has such a problem.
If there are many sources of light in the scene it becomes impossible to compose the image correctly, as all I can see is a series of vertical "laser-like" lines of light!
really bad...unexpected from Canon.
I'll definitely ask for a full refund.
horrible!

I own a powershot s 400. I have recently decided to upgrade and after hearing all the wonderful stories about the powershot sd 700, I bought it. What a shame, the first one was a bum cam, noise problems. The second one (replacement), found out after getting home that their is a forever blue dot on the lense, even after cleaning. Shows up in pictures too! I have had the worst luck. I prefer the old canon! New is not better in this case!

this is just ridiculous...and im reading that canon wont cover the screen. why NOT...when it is their OWN fault that they cant manufacture a more durable screen? also flash sucks. the only thing good about this camera is the 4x optical zoom. i took this camera to hawaii and i was finding that i wanted the camera to have more telephoto capabilty. hmm not looking fwd to calling canon and speaking to customer representative...

I read the post by [zyt_digitalcamera - 8/14/06] and found that this seemed like a more common problem. I got the camera today and found that when I took the camera out in the sun, there were purple streaks across the screen. They did not effect the photo though. I'll play around more to confirm if this is a persistent nag. Pls let me know if this is not uncommon or I'll try to have the camera replaced. thx

I have the same problem, the red and purple, sometimes while streaks are dramatic when i use the view finder. But the photos taken are good. Once I even found that the whole LCD screen is green and black. Is that a problem? I am thinking of asking for a change. I only have this camera for 2 months. :(
Thanks all.

This is my third digital point-and-shoot from canon, and I continue to enjoy these cameras.

POSITIVES: Small enough to keep in a purse or pocket, great pictures, no red-eye, custom white balance, image stab., 2.5 inch LCD screen, 140 mm tele, long battery life.

WISH CANON WOULD CHANGE THIS: I really don't understand the mode wheel, but I've learned to live with it. I previously had the SD300 and the modes where handled fine with the function key.

SD700 is nice camera. picture is very nice. little bit heavy. Video is not so good. The major problem is the guide gook. It is very explained well at all. It is very difficult for new user to understand. Otherwise everything is alright!

I teach art and need to take photos in museums. In museums the light tends to be low and no flash is allowed. I bought the SD 700 to take on a trip to Spain. It was inconspicuous and never a pain to carry. Most of my photos came out well even under difficult conditions.

What I like:
. the image stabilization, I was able to shoot often at a 13th of a second and sometimes at even lower shutter settings. Image stabilization was especially useful for dealing with low light conditions.
. the build quality, the camera easily withstood the travails of travel.
. the 2.5 inch LCD screen, I could (and did) use it to evaluate my photos so that I could discard bad photos while in our hotel room.
. the warning lights, these call for special comment: they really can be a great help if you pay attention to them (at first I did not). The yellow focus light is especially useful. In dim light a low contrast subject (such as a Bosch painting in the Prado) may give the auto-focus difficulty. I learned to deal with this with the help of the warning light.

What I wish for:
. More options for manual exposure control.
. I would like to have one or two custom modes and a museum mode.

With its combination of reliability, stability, flexibility, power in a very small package, and low weight this is a great a great travel camera.

I tried several models of point andshoot camera. When I chose not to use flash, the image tend to be noisy. SD700's image was the cleanest.

But the video was noisy though.

The picture quality of this camera is excellent. I have to question other reviews that I read, wondering if they actually used the camera, or just chose to summarize the product literature. When taking videos, the sound quality is terrible. There is a sizzling sound that is always present. I have tried taking clips indoors and outdoors. With IS turned on or turned off. In a nearly silent setting, or with music playing. In all cases, the sizzling sound and scratchyness was present. For comparison, I recently took a few video clips with an SD550 at a wedding. The audio did not have any of these problems with that camera.

This is my 5th Canon Elf and I've loved every one of them. The Image Stabilizer is what I was waiting for since this type of camera is prone to movement when pressing the button. The IS is working well and sure makes a big difference, especially in less than average lighting conditions.
The 4 times zoom is a bonus that I wasn't expecting, however not of great value since it gives additional telephoto (which can be easily done with software cropping) rather than additional wide-angle.

I can't believe that Canon went back to a mode-selector-wheel. Just as on a previous Elf I once owned. It again regularly gets moved out of position when storing the camera in it's case and just handling it. I have to remember every time I pull it out to reset the mode wheel to where I want it and have lost some shots because of it.

The 800 ISO might come in handy in certain conditions but as a rule I'll avoid it in order to keep the "grain" at a more exceptable level.

Love the screen!! It's sharper and brighter than on the 450.

I chose the 700 over the Sony T9 mostly because of the digital viewfinder which the Sony sadly is missing thus making it impossible to see anything in low light conditions.
Although the flash in the 700 is again very weak, it is however stronger than the flash in the Sony.

Unfortunately this SD700 is also somewhat bigger again than the SD300 or SD400 and that makes a big difference considering that the small size is the only reason why I keep buying the elfs in the first place.
The Sony is thinner and slicker.

It's all about taking pictures and the pictures are better than ever, mostly due to the effects of the Image Stabilizer.

Bottom line:
Not sure yet if I'm going to keep it as I just can't live with that mode-wheel but also because of the bigger size.

Strengths: Excellent picture quality, very good indoor pictures, 'NO MORE RE-EYE' and a Real-Image Optical Viewfinder.

Weakness: Pricey compared to other cameras, I paid $499, Surprised that it fit in the palm of my hand, it seems to be a little heavy to put in your shirt pocket but it fits perfectly in the front pants pocket.

Summary: Exquisitely styled with unique 'Curvature and Stream' design, the camera incorporates a host of cutting-edge features, Image-Stabilizer, Real-Image Optical Viewfinder, and 'NO MORE RED-EYE' were the most important features to me.

this camera has been all over the world in the few short months I have owned it. It takes the best night shots of any camera I have owned. Close ups, macro, zoom, video,there is nothing that this camera cannot do. Battery life is good. Downloading is quick and if the camera is left on normal it can hold over 1000 pictures. Quality on any setting is fantastic. The only downside is that the booklet is a little difficult to understand. You do need a good padded case to protect the LCD but that can be said of any digital camera. All in all the best!