Canon PowerShot SD940IS 12.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD

5 Responses to Canon PowerShot SD940IS 12.1MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD

1. 

   Chuck Martin on December 23, 2009 at 5:31 pm

   I needed a replacement for my Casio card camera (I broke the LCD). One of the best things about it is its cradle, connected to both computer and power; just drop it in the cradle and it charges, push a button and it transfers metaphors. But the new translation do not come with a cradle; you have to take out the battery each time you want to charge it. This is so terrible for so many reasons. So I went searching for a replacement.

   And I found this camera. I played with it extensively in a couple of stores and was tremendously impressed. First, it’s very nearly as thin as the Casio card cameras. Second, it feels solid, not plasticky. It’s responsive. The main controls are simple to use, and the screen is huge enough and bright. The auxiliary controls (menus and stuff) are a bit challenging because they are flush to the camera body. And I was not able to find the scene modes that make the Casio cameras so incredibly useful (for example, the whiteboard mode or the eBay mode, both of which just work). Fascinatingly, there;s a cover in the upper right that has both a USB and an HDMI connection. Wow.

   But this camera suffers fro the same fatal flaw as the new Casio cameras: you have to remove the battery to charge it. Here are the issues with that design choice:

   First, opening and closing the cover. The cover was not calculated to be opened and closed so much. Over time, the hinge will likely loosen, or worse, deform.

   Second, it’s so much ore work to open the cover, take out the battery, find the charger, place the battery in the charger, wait for the charge, place the battery back in the camera. Some might say “well, it’s not that huge a deal. ” But usability isn’t just about huge deals, about fixing huge frustrations. It’s about the small deals, fixing the small frustrations, the small things that, by themselves uses don’t often notice, but that add up over time. This is one of those. And it doesn’t have to be: It’d be so easyto simply either provide a cradle or be able to just plug a cable into the camera.

   Which brings me to, third, the battery doesn’t charge when you plug the USB cable in. Huh?? This is so mind-boggling obtuse it defies description.

   Let’s not that this Canon camera is not cheap. It’s not competing on price, but on quality (as Canon rightfully should). So to leave out this capability on such an otherwise high quality contrivance completely undermines the trust in Canon engineering.

   To be honest, having worked in high tech for so many years, I’d wager that this really was less of an engineering choice than a management choice. They didn’t want to add the small cost it would take, or they wanted to push the model to market before the engineering for it could be completed, something like that.

   This camera is so new that the major camera review sites ([. . . ]) haven’t given it a real run-through, but I’m guessing that the photo quality will be to the usual Canon high standards. And if it wasn’t for this incredibly annoying flaw, it’d have been in my cart and in my hands by now. But this is a real deal killer. My search will continue, with the very real hope that Canon engineering (or management) will pull their heads out of their. . . you know. . . and fix this in this camera’s successor, turning it from a 1-star product into very likely a 5-star product.
   Rating: 1 / 5
2. 

   A. Mejia on December 23, 2009 at 6:51 pm

   The camera deserves every excellent review and comment given in other reviews. I am most disappointed in the lack of a printed manual, especially since there are not confidential manuals in the market. To me it indicates contempt for the needs of the customer on the part of Canon.
   Is Canon giving up its traditional care and concern for its customers?
   Rating: 1 / 5
3. 

   Cleveland D. Hayes on December 23, 2009 at 6:52 pm

   Well I picked this up because I heard Canon made excellent products and I wanted a camera that took excellent pictures and recorded HD video so this seemed like the best selection at the time in my price range. Boy was I incorrect. Menus are simple to navigate and the camera looks fantastic but that’s where the greetings end for me. Pictures can either come out excellent or just plain terrible. This camera can take some very blurry pictures. Alot of the pictures I took came out as if I took them all through an earthquake when I was holding the camera as steady as possible. No matter how much adjusting I did it was either a excellent picture or a terrible one. I took far to many terrible pictures for my liking.

   I also dabbed a small with the HD video, it was okay inside for a point and shoot but I took it outside and the screen went completely white. I couldn’t see a thing on the screen. Well that was the last straw for me and this camera went right back to Amazon. I played a small with the Sony Cybershot WX1 and then the Panasonic Lumix ZS3 and found the ZS3 to be the better camera out of the three in EVERY way. I am pleased with my buy of the ZS3.
   Rating: 1 / 5
4. 

   hifivalue on eBay on December 23, 2009 at 7:45 pm

   私は、常にスペアを運ぶ私は、取り外し可能なバッテリー関数のように。 1つのことができます充電器が、それでもカメラを使用している。私はまだカメラを試したことがない – の価格ダウンを待つか、または私は750に折り返されます。キヤノンと期待を私は豊富な経験が、任意の規模で、他のは、このモデルは良いことだ。 評価：5 / 5
5. 

   Jennifer Ledbetter on December 23, 2009 at 8:42 pm

   I bought this as a Christmas present for my husband, so he has not yet used it. It looked excellent and it small and compact which is what he wanted.
   Rating: 4 / 5

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