Manage updates with the Download AppCanon PowerShot SD600
Manufacturer: Canon Part number: 1079B001
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Despite its no-frills feature set, the Canon PowerShot SD600 delivers quality photos and strong performance in a small package.
Read more
Where to buy
| store | customer rating | inventory | tax & shipping | price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  | In stock | Enter zip code to get total price: Price +Tax +Shipping =Total price | as of 05/24/2013 |
CNET editors' review
Canon PowerShot SD600 price range: $699.95
- Reviewed by: Shams Tarek
- Edited by: Lori Grunin
- Reviewed on: 04/26/2006
- Released on: 03/07/2006
The good: Excellent image quality; top-notch build quality; quick performance.
The bad: Basic feature set.
The bottom line: Despite its no-frills feature set, the Canon PowerShot SD600 delivers quality photos and strong performance in a small package.
User reviews
-
-
Very high value $ for $
by rnice on January 16, 2007
Pros: Build and picture quality.
Cons: limitations of an ultra-compact camera
Summary: I've owned several Kodak digital cameras over the past 5 years ranging the full rainbow of quality. I purchased this Canon when my last DX Kodak had battery issues, ...
Summary: I've owned several Kodak digital cameras over the past 5 years ranging the full rainbow of quality. I purchased this Canon when my last DX Kodak had battery issues, and breaking plastic parts due to poor design and cheap materials. I'm never going back. The Canon SD600 has excellent build quality and materials, a decent battery charge, incredibly compact yet feels rugged (an honest pocket camera), but the image quailty is way above anything I've seen from Kodak. The color rendering, crispness, and automatic exposure and ISO is all excellent - you have to work to take a bad picture with this one. I'm very pleased with this camera after a frustrating experience of my Kodak DX only lasting two years. Menu is 'bare' if you are national geographic photographer, for the 99% rest of us mortals, you will find it well thought out and easy to navigate after the first day.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Perfect for me. Great price vs features
by akrn on January 3, 2007
Pros: Autoupright, Small, great pics, video. Color effects.ISO 800
Cons: usb port is difficult to acess, only plastic moving part of otherwise all metal body.
Summary: Great for my purposes. I have it for one month now, and have taken more than 1000 pictures (new 2Gb sd card!) already.
Pros:
1. Small. Works great due to ...Summary: Great for my purposes. I have it for one month now, and have taken more than 1000 pictures (new 2Gb sd card!) already.
Pros:
1. Small. Works great due to small form factor with newer sd cards.
2. I like the auto-upright function for pictures. Basically if you tilt the camera 90 degrees the picture automatically turns upright when you pull into the computer. This feature is unique to canon I think and works great with picassa.google.com to make web albums. That one feature has helped me save atleast an hour of not having to rotate pictures in a photo editor while creating a 100 pic web album from about 800 holiday pics. I was very trigger happy, and was pleasantly surprised it took less time to make and album and email it to relatives.
3. Auto color sensing feature. You can set one color to "pop out" of an otherwise black and white photo. Makes people think you are very photoshop savvy when you only spend one extra minute to do it in the camera. There is no loss of fidelity also as you dont have to reprocess a jpeg.
4. ISO 800. This mode is very useful for low light. Somewhat grany pictures but great light. I guess in bright light it gives even brighter pics so I ended up leaving it always in the 800 mode. Nice new feature, not there in older canons.
5. Great video. Nice sized, video, can project with reasonable quality on my home theater projection system. (I am saving tons of time not having to deal with the computer and studio programs)
Cons:
1. USB Port Cover. It is a metal piece, but it is attached with a plastic thingy, which you have to pull out before you can open it. I am being very careful with it as I am very worried this will break with successive use.
No other cribs yet.
Summary:
Go buy it. I am hard to please and this one did it for me. I returned 3 other cameras this BF season before settling on this one. I highly recommend it.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Best of the Ultracompacts
by GolferJL on December 20, 2006
Pros: Easy to take pictures..kind of fun to use
Cons: None that I can find
Summary: I have or presently own many digital cameras from the onset of the digital era and have been taking pictures for over 50 years I also have professional training. I ...
Summary: I have or presently own many digital cameras from the onset of the digital era and have been taking pictures for over 50 years I also have professional training. I find this camera to be of the highest quality. I view this genre of cameras to be a point and shoot variety and it has met or surpassed my expectations. It is the only one with a seperate viewfinder (essential for outdoor shooting). The manual was simple to understand and follow. The onscreen menu is easy and most important the picture quality is superior. Even my wife who does not like to take pictures would have fun with this. A solid 10!
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Hard to imagine a better pocket camera at the price!!
by toddtee on December 19, 2006
Pros: It fits in almost any pocket and takes great photos.
Cons: Limited zoom range (3x)
Summary: Not just relevant to this camera, but why, oh why, do they bother with digital zoom? Does anyone use it?
Updated...
A battery meter would be nice, but at thisSummary: Not just relevant to this camera, but why, oh why, do they bother with digital zoom? Does anyone use it?
Updated
A battery meter would be nice, but at this price -- I paid $210 total -- I won't complain.Updated
I carry this with me everywhere, so I'm always ready to grab a shot. The minor flaw of no battery meter is no real problem. Just buy an extra battery and swap them frequently.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Decent but Disappointing
by alslater on November 21, 2006
Pros: Size; LCD Screen; Intuitive Controls
Cons: Image Quality; Flash;
Summary: I purchased this camera because I needed I wanted a model I could place in my pocket and because Canon always receives the best praise. I had previously used a ...
Summary: I purchased this camera because I needed I wanted a model I could place in my pocket and because Canon always receives the best praise. I had previously used a Canon Powershot S50 and was delighted by its feature set and image quality even though it was a relatively old camera. But I must say I was disappointed with the SD600. The pictures just weren't that good. The camera was way too prone to blur. The flash left everything washed out, noticeably moreso than other Canons I've used. On the bright side, the camera is small, stylish, and boasts a large LCD and Canon's easy-to-navigate controls. I suggest purchasing this camera only if you want to have a camera that fits in a pocket and can be handy at all times. Otherwise, I'd look for another model (or consider one of the new SD's that uses image stabilization).
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
CNET SURE DOES NOT LIE
by dinkens2006 on November 20, 2006
Pros: Excellent Picture, Easy To use, Very Small, Have it own Battery
Cons: Too Good to be True
Summary: I just want to Thank Cnet for helping me purchase this product. The Review helped me so much more. The camera is excellent. The features, the size, the shots is ...
Summary: I just want to Thank Cnet for helping me purchase this product. The Review helped me so much more. The camera is excellent. The features, the size, the shots is great. I mean in pitch black the pics still comes out perfect.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
amazing camera, amazing service.
by lootzki on September 1, 2006
Pros: honored euro warranty in the US.
Cons: lens jammed.
Summary: ok, bought this camera in the UK while i was living there for about 2 months (its called the ixus 60 there). served me very well. basically fell in love ...
Summary: ok, bought this camera in the UK while i was living there for about 2 months (its called the ixus 60 there). served me very well. basically fell in love with the quality of the photos and the function and features of the camera. took it everywhere with me.
i get home, and its fine, and i fly to NY. worked fine on the plane, but i'm about to take my first picture there, the lens jams. well, that sucked because i wasn't able to take any pictures while i was out there.
so i gotta get this thing fixed, so i call canon, they ask me a few questions, try to troubleshoot it - no go. so they have me send it in, but are kinda uncertain if they'll honor the euro warranty in the usa. so i sent it in anyway (they made it really easy - just download, print and fill out a form and put it in the box with the camera). i check my status of the camera online and it said it was warranty work. i was stoked. got the camera back, brand new lens (old one had a dent in it from being dropped a few days after i got it), nicely packaged 2-day fedex.
camera is back. only took about 10 or 11 days from when i shipped it out for it to get back to me. the only thing i paid for was shipping it there, cost me like $4.30 or something from san jose, CA to IL.
anyways, besides that. there are too many rad features to list, and i've already written a lot so i'll let the rest of the reviews do this camera justice.
i give this camera and canon as a company a 10. they deserve it. i feel like any other company just wouldn't do this. if the warranty hadn't been honored, the repair would have cost me nearly $140. thats like nearly 1/2 the value of the camera.
sorry, i'm ranting again.
A+.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Excellent small digital camera
by Brons2 on August 9, 2006
Pros: Great photo quality, high ISO settings, long battery life
Cons: Slider is easy to inadvertently set to movie rather than still photo
Summary: I'm a avid cyclist, and I needed a small digital camera that would easily fit in the back of my bicycle jersey on a recent bike tour in Colorado. ...
Summary: I'm a avid cyclist, and I needed a small digital camera that would easily fit in the back of my bicycle jersey on a recent bike tour in Colorado. I originally set a budget of $200 for camera and memory card. After reading many, many reivews and trying out several potential candidates at the local retailers, I decided on the SD600.
Some of the things that this camera had that others did not were: fast shutter response, fast picture save to memory (this was very important to me), lithum ion rechargeable battery, ISO800 mode, large LCD AND manual viewfinder. And of course mostly good to excellent reviews.
Bought the camera at Fry's as I needed it that day since I was leaving for Colorado the next day. Paid $346 for the camera, and also picked up a 2GB SD card that came free with an extra 512MB. So, 2.5GB for $69. With tax and everything it was $453 out the door. So much for that budget.
I have always bought cheap digital cameras in the past. I was immediately impressed by the vastly higher quality of shots I was able to take with this camera, even in low light situations. With lesser cams, low light pics are often pointless. Before leaving for Colorado I downloaded some of my pics to my computer and they looked stunning on my monitor (ViewSonic P225f, 22" flat CRT, 1280x1024 resolution).
Made a nice find at REI, a Timbuk2 carrying case that fit the camera perfectly and has a large vecro strap in the back. This allowed me to strap the case to the handlebars on my bike, making it easy to take on-the-fly photos.
The camera performed perfectly in Colorado. I was able to take many pictures while riding, although one drawback emerged. If you're not careful, the function slider can end up in movie mode instead of picture mode. I guess it probably slid over when I was taking it out of the case. I ended up taking at least 7 inadvertent movies on my 471 mile, 6 day bicycle trek. On the flip side, the quality of the movies is excellent when downloaded and viewed on the computer. With the 2GB card I could take up to a 16 minute movie, which is cool.
Battery life was great, I charged it the first day I had it, and then took at least 200 pictures in all lighting conditions before having to recharge again on the road in Colorado.
BTW, downloading pictures is a breeze. I haven't even taken the CD or the cable out of the box as the camera uses the same cable type to hook up to the comptuer that my blackberry does, so I just use that instead. You can look at all your pics in a folder in XP without having to install the software, so I don't know what all is on the included CD.
Overall I am really, really happy with my purchase. I am super glad that I did not cheap out this time. The difference between this camera and lesser ones is pretty noticable even for a novice like myself. If you want a small camera that takes great pictures with no unnecessary complications and no performance compromises, this is the one.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Found it even cheaper via Froogle
by cpeterka on August 3, 2006
Pros: Excellent options and spec's
Cons: Couldn't find anything bad about it
Summary: Found it for around $215 via a search on Froogle for "canon SD600 " and several stores on the net for below $250.
Summary: Found it for around $215 via a search on Froogle for "canon SD600 " and several stores on the net for below $250.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
-
Superb ultracompact point-and-shoot
by spencertbred on June 24, 2006
Pros: Sharp, saturated photos; quality build, size
Cons: None really, just some nitpicks: a little shutter lag, uneven flash, shortish battery life
Summary: I bought this great little camera almost two weeks ago and have enjoyed every minute of use. I bought it to sort of replace my 3 year-old Canon A80, which ...
Summary: I bought this great little camera almost two weeks ago and have enjoyed every minute of use. I bought it to sort of replace my 3 year-old Canon A80, which was getting left home more and more because of its bulk. I travel a lot and wanted a quality ultracompact that would take pictures of the same caliber (or better) as my A80, but be much more pocket-friendly. I considered a number of cameras: Canon SD4xx/5xx/6xx, Sony's T series, Casio's Z series, and Panasonic's FX01. I went with the SD600 for its photo quality, build, optical viewfinder, and being the Goldilocks for size: not too big, not too small, just right.
Thoughts so far:
The SD600 is has a nice little heft to it but is not too heavy, and felts like it's been machined out one piece of metal. For such a small device it feels nice and solid in hand. One-handed operation is fairly comfortable; though the case is a little on the slippery side. I see I'll have to be careful with battery/card cover: it's the one thing that feels delicate. The buttons are large enough for my average-sized male hands.
The camera starts up very quickly, and shutter lag is negligible under most conditions. Turning off the nine-point autofocus (AiFA), which leaves on the centered AF, speeds things up a little. Flash is strong in the center of the shot, but regardless of zoom, weak on the sides. Fleshtones on the whole are rendered warm and natural, but again, it can be a little harsh in the center. Redeye is present as often as not, but it's better than I expected. The flash cycles fairly quickly with a charged battery. Battery life is OK: about 140 shots in fine mode, some flash use, and heavy LCD use. Thank you Canon for making a small flat charger whose prongs fold flat!
While this ELPH's LCD is not stunning like some of its competitors, resolution and brightness are satisfactory in all but the harshest sunlight. Bearing in mind this is an ultracompact, the viewfinder is decent and a reason why I chose this over the SD630, Casios, and Sonys.
I am very pleased with the photos this little guy is delivering. There're enough scene modes, and the automatic settings produce consistent results. The camera's manual controls are somewhat limited, but it is a point-and-shoot after all. Still, there's enough manual control to improve on the some of the auto modes and get more shots. I've found the white balance modes rather useless but surprisingly have had better and even more natural results using the special color modes. In the auto modes, colors are nicely saturated and accurately rendered. Focus time seems about average. Autofocus with or without AiAF is precise, so images are crisp without looking 'hard.' Contrast and detail are very good. In the 4x6's and 5x7's I've printed out, I'm sure a trained eye would see some issues, but what counts is that my eye is delighted with the results!
In making up my mind, video quality was not a consideration. After playing around with it though, I like what I see on the LCD, but I don't have enough experience with video to comment one way or another.
This Canon is the best compromise for me: excellent photos, solid construction, and very pocket- and travel-friendly. Battery life could be better. That's true of alot of electronic products, but I can live with it because the battery charger is very compact. All in all, this camera has met my expectations and has not disappointed me at all. In fact, it's been a lot of fun to use and play around with, which I think is much of the point of this class of camera.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Canon
- Part number: 1079B001
- Description: Canon PowerShot SD600 is equipped with 6.0 Megapixels, an optical 3x zoom lens (f/2.8 - f/4.9) with Canon high-performance and high-speed processing "DIGIC II", which makes it possible to take pictures with up to a maximum of 2816×2112 recording pixels and achieve more comfortable camera operation complying with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed. By blending superb functionalities and exquisitely elegant form into a compact body, Standard and Comfort Design was achieved. High grade and full flat metal body with an overflowing metallic feel enhanced the excitement of shooting and pleasure of having this camera. Employing a large 2.5-inch LCD monitor on the rear allows easy operation. Higher ISO Speed that can be adjusted up to 800 equivalent and High ISO AUTO that sets the ISO Speed to higher settings than the existing ISO AUTO enable you to reduce camera shake and subject blur, and shoot beautiful images in a dark area where the shutter speed is set to a slow setting.
General
- Packaged Quantity 1
- Product Type Digital camera - Compact
- Point-and-shoot highlights A slim profile makes this camera easy to carry. Video capture ability makes this camera ideal for social functions or vacation shots.
- Resolution 6 megapixels
- Optical Sensor Type CCD
- Total Pixels 6,200,000 pixels
- Effective Sensor Resolution 6,000,000 pixels
- Optical Sensor Size 1/2.5"
- Optical Zoom 3 x
- Digital Zoom 4 x
- Auto Focus TTL contrast detection
- Auto Focus Points (Zones) Qty 9
- Digital Video Format AVI
- Image Recording Format JPEG
- AV Interfaces Composite video
Exposure & White Balance
- Light Sensitivity ISO 800,
ISO 100,
ISO 200,
ISO 80,
ISO 400,
ISO auto - Exposure Metering Evaluative,
Center-weighted,
Spot - Exposure Modes Program,
Automatic,
Manual - Shooting Programs Snow,
Night snapshot,
Digital macro,
Beach,
Underwater,
Stitch assist,
Indoor,
Foliage,
Kids & pets,
Fireworks,
Portrait mode - Special Effects My Colors,
Vivid,
Black & White,
Sepia,
Neutral,
Positive,
Color Accent,
Color Swap - White Balance Automatic,
Presets,
Custom - White Balance Presets Daylight,
Tungsten light,
Fluorescent,
Cloudy,
Fluorescent light (daylight) - Max Shutter Speed 1/1500 sec
- Min Shutter Speed 15 sec
- Exposure Compensation ±2 EV range, in 1/3 EV steps
Lens System
- Type 3 x x Zoom lens - 5.8 mm - 17.4 mm - F/2.8-4.9
- Focal Length Equivalent to 35mm Camera 35 - 105 mm
- Focus Adjustment Automatic
- Min Focus Range 11.8 in
- Macro Focus Range 1 in - 19.7 in
- Zoom Adjustment Motorized drive
- Lens Construction 5 groups / 6 elements
- Features UA lens,
Built-in lens shield Camera Flash
- Camera Flash Built-in flash
- Flash Modes Fill-in mode,
Slow synchro,
Auto mode,
Flash OFF mode,
Red-eye reduction - Features AF illuminator
- Effective Flash Range 1.6 ft - 11.5 ft
Additional Features
- Continuous Shooting Speed 2.1 frames per second
- Self Timer Delay 2 sec,
10 sec - Additional Features Digital image rotation,
Display brightness control,
MOTION PRINT,
Audio recording,
Date/time stamp,
AF lock,
DPOF support,
RGB primary color filter,
FE lock,
Built-in speaker,
AE lock,
Auto power save,
Digital noise reduction,
Histogram display,
Camera orientation detection,
PictBridge support,
USB 2.0 compatibility,
Direct print Viewfinder
- Viewfinder Type Optical - Real-image zoom
Display
- Type 2.5 in LCD display
- Resolution 173,000 pixels
- Display Features Built-in
Connections
- Connector Type 1 x USB,
1 x Composite video/audio output
Software
- Software Canon ZoomBrowser EX,
Canon PhotoStitch,
Drivers & Utilities,
Canon ImageBrowser,
ArcSoft PhotoStudio System Requirements for PC Connection
- Operating System Support MS Windows 98 SE,
MS Windows XP,
MS Windows 2000,
Apple Mac OS X 10.2 - 10.4,
MS Windows ME - Peripheral Devices USB port,
CD-ROM drive Miscellaneous
- Included Accessories Battery charger,
USB cable,
Wrist strap,
Audio / video cable - Body Material Stainless steel
Battery
- Supported Battery Canon NB-4L
- Supported Battery 1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery - 760 mAh ( Included )
Memory / Storage
- Memory Card Slot SD card
- Supported Memory Cards MultiMediaCard,
SD Memory Card - Included Memory Card 16 MB SD Memory Card
- Image Storage Super-fine JPEG 2816 x 2112 : 4 VA - With 16MB card,
Fine JPEG 2816 x 2112 : 8 VA - With 16MB card,
Normal JPEG 2816 x 2112 : 17 VA - With 16MB card,
Super-fine JPEG 2272 x 1704 : 6 VA - With 16MB card,
Fine JPEG 2272 x 1704 : 12 VA - With 16MB card,
Normal JPEG 2272 x 1704 : 24 VA - With 16MB card,
Super-fine JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 13 VA - With 16MB card,
Fine JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 24 VA - With 16MB card,
Normal JPEG 1600 x 1200 : 46 VA - With 16MB card,
Super-fine JPEG 640 x 480 : 52 VA - With 16MB card,
Fine JPEG 640 x 480 : 80 VA - With 16MB card,
Normal JPEG 640 x 480 : 127 VA - With 16MB card,
Super-fine JPEG 2816 x 1584 : 6 VA - With 16MB card,
Fine JPEG 2816 x 1584 : 11 VA - With 16MB card,
Normal JPEG 2816 x 1584 : 23 VA - With 16MB card - Video Capture AVI - 640 x 480 - 6 sec - With 16MB card,
AVI - 640 x 480 - 14 sec - With 16MB card,
AVI - 320 x 240 - 20 sec - With 16MB card,
AVI - 320 x 240 - 40 sec - With 16MB card,
AVI - 320 x 240 - 10 sec - With 16MB card,
AVI - 160 x 120 - 99 sec - With 16MB card,
AVI - 320 x 240 - 60 sec - Max clip duration,
AVI - 160 x 120 - 180 sec - Max clip duration Dimensions & Weight
- Width 3.4 in
- Depth 0.9 in
- Height 2.1 in
- Weight 4.9 oz
Environmental Parameters
- Min Operating Temperature 32 °F
- Max Operating Temperature 104 °F
- Humidity Range Operating 10 - 90%
CNET Labs' Benchmarks
- Labs information All values are expressed in seconds. Please visit our <ref type="link" url="http://reviews.cnet.com/Labs/4520-6603 7-1014358-1.html">labs information page</ref> for information on how digital cameras are tested.
- CNET Labs Flash shot to shot time 2.1
- CNET Labs Shot to shot time typical 1.5
- CNET Labs Shutter lag bright 0.5
- CNET Labs Shutter lag dim 0.7
- CNET Labs Typical burst speed 2.1
- CNET Labs Wake up time 1.5
Accessories
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Canon products on Shopper.com
-
- Manufacturer:Canon
- Address:
One Canon Plaza, Lake Success, NY 11042 - Phone: 516-328-5000
- Email: mediacontact@cusa.canon.com
