Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS 8 Megapixel Compact Camera - Swing Silver

A great Camera

Strengths: Size, picture quality, Easy to use, Image stabilizer

Weakness: Plastic Body, limited optical zoom, uses canon battery pack

I believe that the Canon SD1100IS is a great camera. The shape and size of the camera is a huge plus. The camera is built like a rectangular box without any parts extending beyond that. The camera's size is also on par with many cell phones, which makes the 1100IS quite portable. The picture quality produced by this camera is astounding. It might cost more than your typical point and shoot camera...
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I believe that the Canon SD1100IS is a great camera. The shape and size of the camera is a huge plus. The camera is built like a rectangular box without any parts extending beyond that. The camera's size is also on par with many cell phones, which makes the 1100IS quite portable.

The picture quality produced by this camera is astounding. It might cost more than your typical point and shoot camera but it compensates with impressive and consistent shots. Point and shoot wise this camera is an ace. The problems occur when you utilize the zoom feature. This camera has a limited 3x optical zoom. This limits the versatility for long range stuff. For most people this is not an issue since this is a consumer level camera. This camera is also the IS model which incorporates a image stablizer that helps create shots that are clearer. It gets the job done the first time and that is a big plus.

The Canon SD1100IS's body is made of plastic, which makes the camera weak to physical abuse. Also the camera has a Canon specific battery pack.

Overall I am very satisfied with this camera. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for a point and shoot camera that is compact and easy to use.

By RevTwig - Jun 8, 2008

Good camera, a bit overpriced

Strengths: - Small size - Excellent facial recognition and image stabilization - Easy to take good pics with

Weakness: - Limited zoom - Anything more than point-and-shoot is less than obvious - Appears a lot bigger than it really is

I got this camera to take party pics with after finding my trusty Canon PowerShot A630 too bulky to carry around. I scored mine for $219 online after a $10 discount. The unit looks larger than expected when you first unbox it. That is, until you find that it literally disappears as easily into most pants/jeans pockets as a cellphone. It remains practically invisible even when I'm sitting down (no...
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I got this camera to take party pics with after finding my trusty Canon PowerShot A630 too bulky to carry around.

I scored mine for $219 online after a $10 discount. The unit looks larger than expected when you first unbox it. That is, until you find that it literally disappears as easily into most pants/jeans pockets as a cellphone. It remains practically invisible even when I'm sitting down (no telltale lump) or walking. Ladies will be happy to know that it also vanishes easily into most purses.

As with most Canons, this camera absolutely SHINES when it comes to taking pics of people, bringing out natural skin tones (some cameras are awful at this) and with good focus. An amazing feature is its ability to recognize and focus on the faces of several adjacent subjects and an angle to the user so that each successive subject is further away. In English, this means that dinnertable pics don't single one person out while turning everyone else into blurry ghouls. Thanks to this feature + the image stabilization, it's really tough to screw up a picture - the perfect camera for newbies.

On the other hand, that simplicity comes at a cost. The 1100 keeps its more advanced features less than obvious, which can be a problem for power users. But then again, that's really not what this camera's for.

Also, the zoom feature isn't that great. This is definitely a 10-foot range camera.

The unit could also do with a bit of weight loss.

Given the above, while I'm happy with my purchase, unlike with my previous PowerShot A* models, I feel that this one is overpriced. I think it suffers from the "BMW effect" in which you pay a premium for the brand name - personally I think it's worth only $200, but good luck finding it at that price.

HOWEVER

I can tell you from my previous experience with Canons (this is my 3rd PowerShot) that their reliability and service are top notch. You'll have to break it for it to go bad.

4/5 stars

By JRMR - Apr 20, 2008

Excellent point and shoot camera

Strengths: - Very compact - Stability control works great - Takes great pictures with no effort

Weakness: - Separate charger for battery

Overall, I'm really impressed with this camera. I'm not a professional photographer by any means, but the pictures I'm taking are coming out great. When I was looking for a camera, I had two primary criteria: 1. It had to be small and durable enough to carry around without me wanting to leave it at home because it was too big or fragile. 2. It had to be able to consistently take good pictures...
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Overall, I'm really impressed with this camera. I'm not a professional photographer by any means, but the pictures I'm taking are coming out great.

When I was looking for a camera, I had two primary criteria:
1. It had to be small and durable enough to carry around without me wanting to leave it at home because it was too big or fragile.
2. It had to be able to consistently take good pictures without me changing a bunch of settings for each shot.

The SD1100 hits home on both of those marks. It's very small and light, less than half the size of the old Canon S400 Digital Elph that I used to use. The build quality is great. You can toss this in your pants pocket without it becoming a nuisance or having to worry about it getting broken while you move around.

One thing to note in particular is that the image stabilization feature is fantastic. I took a bunch of pictures during a helicopter tour of Hawaii last week, and as you can imagine a helicopter is not the most stable platform to take pictures from. My old camera without stabilization would have taken a ton of blurry pictures because I wouldn't have been able to hold it still long enough. The SD1100 worked like a charm and every one of my pictures came out clear. This feature alone will make the difference between good and bad pictures for the vast majority of amateurs like myself.

On the down side, the camera comes with an external charger for its battery. While the charger itself is very compact (much smaller than the camera), it's still another thing to remember to take with you. It would have been nice to have just been able to charge the battery inside the camera via USB.

By pleonastic - May 28, 2008

Good camera that slightly improves on the SD1000 Model

Strengths: The new features, such as IS (Image Stabilization) and face recognition sets this camera apart from other ultra-compacts.

Weakness: The SD1100 IS has not shown much improvement in terms of image quality in regards to its predecessor, the SD1000.

Overall this is a very good camera. Sleek, small, lightweight, crisp photos and very user friendly. However, if you are looking to save a little bit without sacrificing much, I suggest you go with the earlier model, the SD1000, another great Canon Camera.

By momo2353 - Mar 30, 2008

Best point and shoot camera so far

Strengths: No shutter lag, stylish, image stabilizer, view finder.

Weakness: A bit pricey.

I had the Canon SD1000 for two years and decided for an upgrade. My first choice was the Canon SD1100 and I'm glad that I made the right choice. It has 8 megapixel CCD, which is more than the 7.1M from SD1000. It also added in an image stabilizer that assists me to make clear shots for moving objects. It works amazingly well. I compared the pictures taken with SD1100 vs. SD1000, and I can clearly...
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I had the Canon SD1000 for two years and decided for an upgrade. My first choice was the Canon SD1100 and I'm glad that I made the right choice. It has 8 megapixel CCD, which is more than the 7.1M from SD1000. It also added in an image stabilizer that assists me to make clear shots for moving objects. It works amazingly well. I compared the pictures taken with SD1100 vs. SD1000, and I can clearly see the difference. The construction of the camera is solid and stylish. I'm not a big fan of the bronze or pink or blue color, so I stayed with silver. So canon made a lot of improvements over the last year or two, and worths the upgrade even just for the image stabilizations.

By rxy111psu - May 25, 2008