Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This camera has an absolutely mesmerizing touch screen that will immediately seduce you. But while Canon chose to innovate in this area, the rest of the camera falls far short of the quality they've been known for. The camera boasts 14.1 MP and an ability to shoot "HD" video at 1280 x 720. This is true...technically speaking. Canon achieves this by fudging the numbers. While the HD video is indeed 1280 x 720, it's at a data rate of 23.9 Mb/s. To put this into perspective, older Canon models (going as far back as the SD700IS...3 years ago) shot 640 x 480 video at 15 Mb/s and above. Simple math should tell you that while Canon has doubled the video size, it hasn't doubled the data rate. The resulting video actually looks WORSE per-pixel than other Canon models, even models that are 3 years old. The same is true for the 14.1 MP JPEGs. While they are indeed 4320 x 2432 with images around 3 MB, Canon's older model cameras have much larger file sizes per megapixel than the SD3500IS (6 MP files at 1.8 MB). This means that the image quality per-pixel is actually significantly worse than older cameras. The result is grainy photos, ghosting and halos around almost every edge, and exaggerated contrast. This is absolutely noticeable, even given the enormous image size. (In "auto" mode, the camera always tries to shoot with the aperture wide open, usually around 2.8, further decreasing image quality) Canon also boasts a wide-angle lens. Indeed that's true. In certain circumstances this is a great feature. Shooting huge landscapes is this camera's strong suit. But the drawback is the absolutely enormous amount or parallax you get in return for this wide angle. Getting straight lines with this camera is virtually impossible. There is a significant "fishbowl" effect to all the images. Faces and objects distort as they move away from the center of the image, resulting in eggplant-shaped heads and heavily leaning walls. You have to constantly think about shot composition, exactly centering important subjects. Personally I find this incredibly antithetical to a fun shooting experience. Two good things I will say about this camera; Canon has finally fixed their flash woes (this flash is stellar), and the touch-focus is brilliant. While these two things are great, the drawbacks far outweigh the benefits. On paper the Canon PowerShot SD3500IS is a beautiful and technically adept camera. The reality is something altogether different, and very disappointing.