10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Compact Photo Power
Date of Review: Nov 4, 2009
The Bottom Line: If you want a great camera when traveling or when size matters, buy the SD1100.
The Canon SD1100 is my second Canon compact point and shoot. My first was a Canon S400 from a while back and loved the utility and sturdiness, I upgraded to the SD1100. After having this camera for over 6 months, I can attest to the Canon quality, amazing shots, great build, easy interface, and beautiful compactness and weight.
The Canon SD1100 right out of the box was easy to use, probably since I'm a former Canon user, the interface is similar and the menus are like riding a bike for the 1000th time. The controls on the SD1100 are a little smaller, a little lighter, and a little more focused. The first thing you notice is that the screen on the back is large and shiny, big enough to review your shots with not much glare at all. The navigation between single shots, multiple shots, and reels of shots is easy with the use of the zoom lever. The camera is easy to grip and gives off a great flash whether you are in a club, outside and need extra light, or just in an indoor setting. The shutter however is a little slower than I'd like, but if you're into portraits and day to day use of the camera, the shutter shouldn't matter much. If you're doing action shots, this may be a little out of the league of this camera.
The pictures taken with the Canon SD1100 are amazingly sharp, crisp, and have great clarity of color and white balance. The reason I liked Canon point and shoot digital cameras was the color and the amazing correctness of it. Lots of other friends use Casio or even Sony and have either complained of graininess or bad color optimization. The sensor on the SD1100 is a work horse and produces great shots. The high ISO's do great with the added graininess, but with a point and shoot of this size, it's more than enough. With the flash, you can definitely catch some amazing shots as the camera auto adjusts with higher shutter speed and low ISO and gives great balance to your subject.
So something new that my Canon S400 didn't have that the SD1100 has is basically this: SD card. My S400 was compact flash and boy am I glad this has SD. With the SD slot it has, you can add pretty much any SD card, even the second generation ones with high density and can probably go up to 8gb cards. With 8 megapixel sensor/lens, should store thousands of photos. What also was new to me on this camera compared to my older generation ones is that the movie making has substantially more zoom. Battery life is as expected, good enough for 200-300 shots. Obviously if you are taking more flash shots, the battery will take a hit, but you should be able to get atleast 150 shots out on one charge. I've found that mine has lasted sometimes with only one charge to over 250 photos on average.
So on to the winning point about this camera- The size. It is super light and super slim for the work it can do. I've found that wearing a suit or sport jacket with this in the pocket can sometimes forget you have a camera. The size is what this point and shoot is all about. The fact that it can take amazing shots with great photo clarity and sharpness is a bonus. I'm a true fan of this SD1100. Hopefully it will last me the 8 years my S400 lasted.
