Canon SD500 Elph & WP-DC70 Housing Review
October 9th, 2005
The 7.1 megapixel Canon SD500 digital Elph is a great camera with quick and accurate image processing. It’s loaded with features and takes vibrant sharp photos. The interface is easy enough to use and is an evolving model used by all previous Elph/Ixus cameras. The biggest complaint I have with the unit is that its very heavy, weighing in at 200g. This results in it being a pretty dense brick in your pocket and lessens the likelihood that I’ll bring it out to the bar with me to catch that killer shot of my buddy falling flat on his ass.
As an underwater camera, I think this thing takes incredibly clear photos and has an terrific variable flash. Even better still, is mating the camera and housing to a SeaLife SL960D Digital Strobe.
There are several serious shortcomings though I must admit. One is battery life. The SD500 has good battery life in general, however, it also has an auto-rotate function that allows it to know if you’re holding the camera on its side, and rotates the image accordingly. This is handy on land, but its detrimental to its performance underwater. There is no way to turn this feature off. While diving, I always keep the camera on, so that I don’t miss the moment that octopus comes out of its burrow or that barracuda tries to take a bite out of my buddy’s regulator hose. Powering the camera on and off is a chore and takes time. Most cameras, the Elph included, have a power off setting for the display. After 30 seconds of inactivity the camera display turns off to conserve battery life, which is great. Problem is, every time the camera shifts in the water, the motion sensor wakes it from sleep. This results in a huge amount of wasted power and I really really wish Canon would allow you to nix the feature. As it is, you’re likely to have enough battery life for about 2 dives, not terrific when compared to my previous setup.
About the Canon WP-DC70 underwater housing. Its submersible to 130ft/40m, it has a diffuser for the internal flash, and its positively buoyant. Why, you may ask? Because Canon wants you to buy a $34 case weight for the housing. Uhm, why don’t you just make the darn housing negatively or neutrally buoyant to begin with, duh? Because they want to you to spend more money! Ok, I’ll stop ranting about that issue. Another thing I detest about the housing/camera combination is that the camera mode button is in the top right corner and operates by way of a swiveling handle. This is the worst possible place you could put something so important because your thumb naturally goes there to hold the camera and inadvertently changes the shooting mode very frequently. I’ve gone bonkers each time I have a great shot all lined up and that triggerfish is just about to take on the juvenile nurse shark and I expectantly press the capture button and boom, I’m shooting a friggin’ video or zooming in on a photo in play mode. Makes me wonder if they even have humans test these things before they release them. I’m not the only one with thumbs. Ok, the housing does have some redeeming qualities, it comes with a hood so that you can view the screen in bright light situations, and has a double-paned glass lens for anti-fogging purposes. All in all, though it’s a bit frustrating at times (and even more so because the problems could have been avoided with mere design considerations), the Canon SD500 digital Elph takes great photos as evidenced by my galleries from Costa Rica and the Pacific Northwest.