Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS review: Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS

The PowerShot SD4500 IS is Canon's second go-round with its high-sensitivity 10-megapixel backside-illuminated (BSI) CMOS sensor and its Digic 4 image processor. Together they make up Canon's HS System, which primarily improves low-light photo quality, but the sensor also allows for some speedy shooting--at least, speedy burst shooting, with capabilities that make it better for continuous shooting than its competition. However, the rest of its shooting performance is average bordering on slow, and while its photo quality is overall very good, it's not without issues. What's most frustrating about using the camera, though, is its battery life. If frequent recharging doesn't bother you or you're willing to buy an extra battery, the SD4500 IS has plenty of positive attributes to make it a compact megazoom worth considering.

7.4

Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS

The Good

Lots of automatic shooting options; very good burst shooting; nicely designed.

The Bad

Short battery life; average shooting performance; narrow lens.

The Bottom Line

The Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS delivers a long lens in an ultracompact body, as well as nice low-light photos and full HD movies--it just doesn't do it for very long without a recharge.

The SD4500 IS is very similar in design to Canon's other higher-end Digital Elphs. It's remarkably compact for having a 10x zoom lens, highly pocketable, and comfortable to hold and use. It's available in a two-tone brown and gold version only, so if you don't like that you're out of luck. I wouldn't say the camera is particularly stylish, but it is attractive. After seeing so many wide-angle compact megazooms in 2010, the 36-millimeter-equivalent lens on this camera is disappointingly narrow. It does make the telephoto end a little more impressive, though. There's a large 3-inch wide-screen LCD on the back that's good overall, but a lower resolution than expected for a high-end pocket camera. It does get adequately bright, though, for use in full sun.

Controls are pretty straightforward. On top is a three-way shooting mode switch, a power button that's flush with the body so it can be difficult to find without looking, and the shutter release with a zoom ring around it. On back to the right of the LCD and a small thumb rest is a one-press record button for movies. Below that is an unmarked Control Dial directional pad. Touch the dial and a button description displays on screen so you know which direction to press to change flash, exposure, self timer, and focus settings. The slightest touch makes it appear, so it pops up regularly while shooting, obscuring what you're trying to shoot. The dial does make for fast navigation, and though it moves freely there are tactile stops when rotating it. In the center of the dial is Canon's standard Func. Set button for accessing shooting-mode-specific options and making selections. Below the Dial are Menu and Play buttons, but that's it for physical controls. All in all, it's an easy system to master, though you'll still want to sit down with the full user manual on the included software disc to discover all that the camera can do.

Should you want to connect to a computer, monitor, or HDTV, there are Mini-USB and Mini-HDMI ports under a cover on the body's right side. There are separate battery and memory card compartments on the bottom under nonlocking sliding doors; however, the doors close firmly. The battery does not charge while in the camera and its life is fairly short, especially if you're doing a lot of switching between shooting stills and video, burst shooting, or using the zoom lens.

The SD4500 IS offers plenty of snapshot shooting options; there is no complete control over shutter speed or aperture, but a Program mode gives you access to metering, focus, white balance, ISO, and other settings. Canon's Smart Auto mode gets its own spot on the mode switch and is very reliable as auto modes go. Then there's a mode (designated by a picture of a camera) that gives you access to the aforementioned Program mode as well as all the scene modes, including Portrait, Kids & Pets, Handheld Night Scene, Best Image Selection, High-Speed Burst, Low Light, Beach, Foliage, Snow, Fireworks, and Stitch Assist for creating panorama shots with the bundled software. Here you'll also find Canon's Smart Shutter option, which includes a smile-activated shutter release as well as Wink and Face Detection self-timers. Wink allows you to set off the shutter simply by winking at the camera and the Face Detection option will wait till the camera detects a new face in front of the camera before it fires off a shot. Both work well.

In addition to the company's standard creative-shooting options--Color Accent and Color Swap--it has introduced a few new modes for 2010. One is Miniature Effect, which blurs the top and bottom of the frame and boosts contrast and color saturation to make subjects look like painted miniature models. It works to some degree, but is not as convincing as true tilt-shift photography, which is what the effect is based on. Another mode, Fish-eye Effect, is even less effective because, like the Miniature Effect, it's just an approximation done with software of what a fish-eye lens creates. There is also a Super Vivid mode that intensifies colors and a Poster Effect that posterizes photos. These modes aren't necessarily must-haves, but they can be fun to play with, if only to add some interest to what would be an otherwise boring shot.

There are two shooting modes debuting in the SD4500 IS that take advantage of the high-speed system: Handheld Night Scene and Best Image Selection. Handheld Night Scene rapidly takes several shots and then processes them together into a single photo with reduced noise and blur from hand shake. In my tests, the mode does appear to reduce noise, but did not seem to help with blur, and still uses high ISOs. Since you're only going to be using this mode for stationary subjects, my suggestion is to take a couple in Auto and take a couple in this mode and see which you prefer. Which will be most successful really depends on the individual scene and conditions. Best Image Selection takes five continuous shots at 2.5 megapixels each, analyzes them, and stores the one it detects is best. It works, but you still may not get the shot you want. (Incidentally, Nikon has long had a similar feature on its Coolpix cameras called Best Shot Selector, and similar handheld low-light modes can be found on most point-and-shoots with BSI CMOS sensors.)

The SD4500's Movie mode can capture clips at resolutions of up to 1080p Full HD at 24 frames per second. Drop down to 720p or VGA and it records at 30fps. If you want to get creative with your movies, Canon gives you its Color Swap, Color Accent, and Miniature Effect modes to use, as well as the capability of shooting in a Super Slow Motion mode at 240fps. The slow-motion clips are only at a resolution of 320x240 pixels, so really only suitable for viewing on a small screen, but fun nonetheless.

The SD4000 IS isn't fast for its class, but it is fast for a Digital Elph. Unfortunately, with the exception of burst shooting, the SD4500 IS's performance is pokey. From off to first shot takes about 3 seconds. The shot-to-shot times averaged 2.3 seconds without the flash and nearly 4 seconds with it. Shutter lag--the time from when the shutter release is pressed to when the image is captured--is a minimum of 0.6 second in bright lighting. This only slows to 0.8 second in low light, but occasionally it felt longer. Again, the SD4500 excels at burst shooting, being capable of continuously capturing photos at up to 3.6 frames per second with the focus and exposure set with the first shot. There are faster burst modes on other BSI CMOS cameras, but they typically keep you waiting while they store the shots to your memory card, potentially causing you to miss photo opportunities. The Canon saves while you shoot, so you're only waiting 2 to 3 seconds after you release the shutter button before you can shoot again. Also, there is the option to have it autofocus with each photo, but that will slow you down to just less than 1fps. Continuous shooting for the most part is only available in Program mode. If you want a fully automatic mode, you'll have to switch to the camera's High-speed Burst mode, which captures 2.5-megapixel photos at up to 8.8fps.

One other note about performance: the autofocus system wasn't particularly fast, it was noticeably slow in low light, and it seemed to struggle when shooting movies.

Sample photos:
Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS

Overall, photos from the SD4500 IS are very good and on par with the ISO performance of Sony's Cyber-shot HX5V, which is another compact megazoom that uses a BSI CMOS sensor. My biggest problem with both of these cameras is that at their lowest ISO setting (which isn't all that low at 125) photos are generally soft, not sharp. By the time you reach ISO 400 (a common setting for indoor photos), details are mushy because of the noise reduction. The Canon's edge is that its colors are consistent up to ISO 1,600, and even at ISO 3,200 they're still good, if a little washed out. That means in low lighting or when fully zoomed out or both, you'll be able to get usable shots, if even just for smaller prints and Web use at its highest ISOs.

There is minor barrel distortion at the camera lens' wide angle. There doesn't seem to be any pincushioning at the telephoto end. Sharpness is good edge-to-edge with only a slight amount of softening in the corners and at the very edges. The amount of fringing on high-contrast subjects is above average. It's certainly not uncommon to see on a compact megazoom, but from a top-of-the-line camera, I expect to see less fringing. Though it's mostly only visible when photos are viewed at 100 percent, it has the potential to change the color of a subject.

Color accuracy is excellent, producing bright and vivid results. If you like to experiment, there are options for setting color saturation, sharpness, and contrast. Exposure is generally very good, but highlights tend to blow out. BSI CMOS sensors seem to clip highlights worse than the CCD sensors found in most compact cameras. Manufacturers such as Sony have been solving this to some degree with high-dynamic range modes that will take two shots at different exposures and combine them for a more balanced shot. Unfortunately, Canon doesn't offer a mode like that on this model, and its i-Contrast feature is more for rescuing shadow detail than highlights (though that feature does work well). Lastly, auto-white balance is generally very good, though it is slightly warm indoors, whereas the custom setting used in our lab tests was cool.

Video quality is very good, slightly better than an HD pocket video camera. It won't replace a full-size camcorder, but is certainly good enough for Web use or casual viewing on an HDTV. There is noticeable judder when panning the camera or when shooting fast-moving subjects, but that's typical of video from compact cameras. You do get use of the optical zoom while recording and the lens movement is very quiet so it doesn't get picked up by the stereo mic. Lastly, the 1080p file sizes are huge; a 10-second clip came in at roughly 41MB.

The PowerShot SD4500 IS is Canon's attempt to compete with Sony's Cyber-shot HX5V and its ilk. While the Sony is definitely more polished in terms of putting the BSI CMOS sensor to use, there are things the Canon does better and in a smaller body. The SD4500 IS's lack of a wide-angle lens is a turn-off, as is its overall shooting performance, but it's the short battery life that's really the hiccup for me. If that doesn't matter to you, it's certainly a compact megazoom worth considering.

Shooting speed
(Seconds: smaller is better)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V

1.8

1.5

0.8

0.4

Samsung HZ35W

1.9

2

0.7

0.5

Casio Exilim EX-FH100

3.4

2.3

0.9

0.5

Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS

2.9

2.3

0.8

0.6

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7

2.3

2.1

1

0.6

Find out more about how we test digital cameras.