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Brandon Frogge photo
Costa Rica, San JosΓ©
1 Level
705 Review
91 Karma

Review on πŸ“· Canon PowerShot SD780IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera - 3x Optical Zoom, Image Stabilization, 2.5-inch LCD - Gold by Brandon Frogge

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Nice camera, but the audio noise (hum) when recording video was a deal breaker.

I was looking for a portable camera option to capture moments (photos and videos) when I didn't want to lug around my DSLR (Canon 40D) and lenses. I studied over 10 cameras and settled on the Canon SD780IS. This camera is extremely portable and fits the bill perfectly. The picture quality was good, just what I expected from the article and the recording, and the video quality was decent too, but the audio noise/hum when recording videos was a violation. After browsing Youtube (searching for Canon SD780IS test video) it seems I just have a bad set as there are many videos of silent install with SD780IS that sound very good, really great. There may be a manufacturing difference as I understand the Canon PowerShot SD780IS 12.1MP 3x Optically Stabilized Zoom Digital Camera 2.5" LCD (Black) used to be made in Japan and now like and mine is made in China. . I found some video examples of hum, one of which seems to be in the review here on Revain. I tried recording video in various situations and the audio hum made the video unacceptable in every case. I tried turning off the image stabilization but the noise was still there. The noise almost sounds like a fan, but not quite. To give you an example, I was videotaping a dog eating and drinking, and the buzzing masked some of the sounds I was trying to record. I could import the video into Adobe Premiere and apply some audio filters to make the hum less annoying, but that would severely degrade the audio quality and shouldn't be done anyway. So after much deliberation I decided to return the defective camera and order a Canon PowerShot SD1400IS 14.1 MP 4x Wide Optical Zoom Digital Camera with 2.7" LCD (Black) instead of buying a SD780IS as a replacement and risk getting another broken camera. I really appreciate all user feedback on Revain. as they often help me make my final purchase decision. I hope this review will be useful to someone. Bottom line: if you never use video, the camera should be fine. If video is important, make sure your camera is working properly, it's impossible to miss the audio noise/hum. Sorry Canon, you get two stars from me because the sound issue when recording video is unacceptable.

Pros
  • Absolutely amazing!
Cons
  • I vaguely remember