Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver)

I have been a loyal Fujifilm camera owner for as long as I can remember. I have always loved their cameras and the ease of use. When searching for a new camera this spring, my friend insisted I branch out to a new brand. As difficult as it was (I hate change!) I purchased this camera. I LOVE IT!!! For the same price range, this camera trumps the other camera I was looking at. Tons more features! At first these features intimidated me, but Canon makes it easy! The menus use lots of pictures and simple words. So the photographer dummy I am doesnt get confused. I want to point...and shoot...then print. I am not taking fancy pictures or looking to make poster prints. I have 4 kids, and just want to capture the moments. This camera is great! But even if you ARE an expert, this camera has enough features to keep you satisfied. The BEST feature is how QUICKLY it turns out! Almost instant! Within a blink of an eye the camera is on and ready to take pics. Just as quick between pics too!! My old camera must have had a 5 second delay at least! And the zoom!!! The zoom is amazing! Crystal Clear pictures at full zoom...no joke!!! My old camera got grainy once I hit the digital zoom level. It looks blurry on screen, but once you load it to your computer you see that its crystal clear sharp and crisp! As if you were right next to the object. I couldnt believe it!! The camera is very small too! Fits in my back jeans pocket so i can carry it everywhere! Its less bulky than my cell phone! Weighs about the same as my cell phone too, even with the battery in. Great camera! I am glad my friend talked me into this one! Amazon offered the best price around (By $30!) so I got a great deal. I am very pleased! The next test is to see if it will stand the test of time. My FujiFilm cameras all lasted a long time and took a beating! (One still works and is now my daughters camera) I hope Canon is just as sturdy. Like I said, with 4 kids... things get dropped! :( Highly recommended camera! No surprise why Canons are rated the #1 consumer camera around!

I currently own one 9 year old Olympus 3.75 MB digital camera (with an iffy macro), a Canon A620, but am now back to just the Canon S3 IS as my daily digital. However, I had a good experience with the S5 IS and so, when it came time to buy my wife her first camera (for her birthday) - even with 20 years' experience with Olympus SLRs and Zuiko lenses - I chose the Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Gold) , what I'm still calling an Elph. It's just easier. In showing her how to use it (the manual is twice the size of the one that came with my last computer), I fell in love with this little gem. It feels good. The LCD is big enough, but more important, the viewfinder is spot on. (It is not adjustable as is the S3 IS, but my wife doesn't need glasses.) 8MP is sufficient for casual photographers unless you're planning on printing billboard-size photos ... but then you wouldn't be a casual photographer. My wife wanted a camera to take picture of the grandkids and other family members (not that "other family members" become a secondary category once grandchildren arrive even though they do), but after taking a few picture of the dog, we went to San Francisco's Botanical Gardens. She took more than 200 pictures (ah, the difference between digital film) and, with no experience, came out with more than 40 fantastic shots including some macros that will certainly go into an album that she's now planning. I took another 100 photos around the local park and have posted them on my own "amateur" site where you can compare the four digital cameras I've now used for nature photography. The only feature that I would change IF it could be changed is to make the optical zoom 20x which, of course, is laughable in a tiny package such as this. The other features from macro to image stabilization are fantastic. There are many features which I'm sure my wife will never use, and there are some features the importance or value of which I've yet to figure out. Face detection is one, the print-share button (which gets you to buy a Canon printer, but also enables emailing photos), and to be honest, the LCD. Yes, when I got my Olympus in 2000, I loved the LCD. But within a month I found that, no matter how you set the display, about half the time you can't see the LCD clearly because of sunlight. But that's me. Most people I see using digital cameras use the LCD. All and all, this is just a great little camera with huge capabilities. If I wasn't afraid of missing a shot of a bird on my walks, I'd take my wife's camera instead of my S3. As I've said in all of my reviews of cameras, if you cannot focus, this camera will do that for you. If you cannot center a photo and come out with pictures of people without heads or other appendages, no camera will do that for you. Perhaps some people are born with composition and technique in their blood, and other just have a composition disability. If you fall into the latter category, read other reviews: maybe somebody has found the solution. Oh, and by the way, the gold SD1100IS takes much better pictures than the blue even though the blue is at times more expensive. Go figure.

I'm an avid Canon fan and recently purchased this camera (in blue) for it's compact size. I own a 40D which isn't so practical to carry around for everyday use, especially with my battery grip on it! I previously owned (a now ancient) S40 "compact" camera - which in comparison is not-so-compact. The SD1100is is amazingly small and light in weight. It features a viewer which I think will come in handy (and has) in bright light situations where the screen does little or no good. The 2.5" screen is plenty big, although noticeable smaller than the 3" on some of the other models. I think the viewer is worth the small trade off. IS is also an invaluable feature especially with low light situations or non-flash moments. The main issue I have heard of with this series is with potential lens harm if the camera turns on accidentally while in it's case. It's pretty hard to do since Canon has now made this on/off button flush with the body. But, my best advice to avoid this situation is to make sure the camera is in play mode (vs. camera mode) when you put it back in the case. This will prevent the lens from zooming out upon turning on. I'm not really worried - this has not happened to me yet (well, in the month that I've been carrying it around . . . EVERYWHERE!) Navigation is easy to pick up on this one - quite different from my older S40, but easy enough to figure out even without reading the manual. I do suggest buying a spare battery to have on you just in case, especially if you plan on using the video mode (which is really good) since it sucks life quickly from the battery. I also bought a 8GB HCSD card and reader to go with it to make room for quick videos of my kid :-) and pictures, of course. Other than that, it performs like I expected. The flash is not the strongest, but then, it's a pocket camera. If you're looking for more strength from a flash, you'll need to go with external flashing - on a different camera as this one doesn't have that option. Knowing it's limitations, it does the job for the everyday moments when you "wish you had a camera."

The very camera + 8gb sdhc card + spare lenmar battery that I had ordered 9 days prior, and USPS, as always, drops it off on my front door step, on a busy street, for the entire world to see. Imagine this... It's 4:08pm, I'm in my hotel room 40 miles away from home relaxing. My girlfriend is a bridesmaid doing her thing with the bride. I just finished kicking off my shoes, putting things away in the room, and wolfing down a huge chicken sandwich. The wedding is scheduled for 6pm and will be taking place on a yacht in Newport Beach, CA. As in a boat that will be floating away from the dock at 6pm sharp. Meaning you had better be on time for this one!! Well imagine my disgust, when I decided to hop on mobile web 2.0, and login to my amazon account to check shipping status. USPS tracking sucks by the way, and best as I could tell, it would be here on Monday, not today (Saturday). NOPE! The magic words appeared right there on my cell phones tiny 3x2 inch screen..... DELIVERED. YAAAAAOOOUUCCCHHH! Boats departing in 1hr 52 minutes, I'm 40 miles away from home. What would you do? You guessed it, turbo mode ENABLED. I was dressed and on the road in less than 2 minutes! Needless to say I made excellent time, while simultaneously obeying all traffic laws. When I finally arrived at home, I was ecstatic to see the package sitting on my doorstep! It probably didn't sit too long, but believe me when I say this, in my neighborhood it would not have lasted long, certainly not overnight till the next afternoon! Well, NO TIME to familiarize, aka play with toy. I tore open the amazon package with the force and gusto of 100 rats. Strait to the charger & battery, I know what needs to be done. The charger & battery are on the wall, and I'm changing into my suit which I brought with me from the hotel. Sweat beads were building, and before long I had a full on sweat-a-thon on my hands. Unbelievable! A 15 minute charge is all I was able to muster. It was time to leave now, or I'd be left standing at the dock! I Grabbed the camera (8gb card inside) and the charger + battery pack off the wall. No time to be neat, all this stuff goes in my pockets, LETS GO ALREADY!!! Luckily I was able to plug the address into my nav phone, which was a total life saver on this day. However, I was 30 minutes away from the boat and not in a good position to make it on time. At this point I was really starting to worry. 5:58pm and I'm stuck in horrifying traffic on Pacific Coast Hwy, just having got off the freeway, I was less than a quarter of a mile away!! It was at this point that I began to pray, you know the one. The "Dear Lord I'll do anything if...." prayer. Yeah that one. Well the Lord answered my prayer on this day. Even though I pulled into the wrong driveway. The driveway I was supposed to turn into was the previous one!!! I pulled into parking, and was VERY surprised to see my girlfriend pulling in right behind me! HUH! I beat YOU! WOW. So I helped her bring on board some parting gifts, and even though I was one of the last ones there, I was one of the first on the boat. Made it, unreal! There's still another dilemma here however, and this is I'm stuck with a camera I don't know anything about! Oh well, AUTO mode, and pray that "Point and Shoot" MEANS Point and Shoot! Luckily the layout of the camera is very user friendly, and it only took a few seconds to realize the basic functions of the camera. I also decided not to turn on the camera until it was time to shoot, because of the short charge time. One thing that did kinda irk me was the fact that red eye reduction is not set by default factory settings. So The night ended up with quite a few red eyed pics. The red eye could easily be removed in photoshop CS3 though. After going through the images the next day, I was extremely happy with the quality of the images. I left the camera in full auto mode that night, and will let the pictures speak for themselves. I was also very suprised that I took nearly 150 pictures on such a short 15-minute charge. I hope you enjoyed reading about my little dramatic experience, and hope you enjoy the pictures produced by this wonderful LITTLE camera. [...] The free print offer from shutterfly should come in handy!

I got this camera a little over a month ago. I still have a lot to learn. I like to try and play around with buttons and features before reading the manual. I still haven't read a lot of the manual so this is just from experience. Cannons are excellent cameras. The only reason i decided to replace my older cannon was because I am getting married, going to Hawaii and I wanted something a little newer/better for the trip of a lifetime. My old cannon still works fine and i plan on keeping it as a backup. Ok- on to my review. Battery life is excellent. I had the camera for over a month, used it a lot (especially playing around with the new features) and finally just had to charge the battery. I bought a spare battery so i never missed a shot. The flash is great- I seem to always have red eyes in every photo when a flash is used - this one is one of the better red eye reductions. I only had red eyes in about half the shots (which for me is great) There are a ton of different options as to how you can take your photo, (indoor, outdoor, beach, sunrise, color swap, fireworks, pets, kids etc etc) I thought this was neat, but according to my friend who is an artist, this is just a gag they use to sell more features. If you put your camera on "auto" it does all of the same things. I haven't experimented enough to say if this is true or not. I love the size of the screen - its definitely larger viewing then my old cannon however it still has a viewfinder - which i find important when owning a camera - sometimes in the dark, using the big screen is useless, you can't see anything on it, or sometimes when you ask other people to take a picture of you - they are not used to using a digital camera yet- this allows them to use the viewfinder like a regular camera and take a decent photo. Also if you god-forbid drop your camera on vacation and the screen breaks, you have a back up till you get home (i've seen this happen to people) Transferring photos to my iphoto program in my mac is really simple, just plug in and it goes! I have only played around with the video function a bit. I think it seems fine. If i wanted to take really nice videos i would use a video camera, but for an on the spot use- this is a great little video camera too! Thats all i can think of for now. Cannons never disappoint in my experience!

I bought this as a replacement camera for my wife, and so far, both of us would agree that it was well worth it. The camera is very easy to operate, produces stunning pictures for such a small camera, and is just plain fun to use. It has several modes to work with, but we mainly stick with just shooting images. We currently use a 1 gig card to store the pictures, and so far that has been more than adequate. For those that shoot a lot of photos before emptying the card may want to get a bigger one though. For casual home use though, the 1 gig has been more than adequate. The only nitpick I have regarding the memory card is that putting it back in takes a little extra effort for someone like myself who has big fingers. It's a very minor thing and should not be a discriminating factor as the camera overall is superb. Canon tends to produce some very nice small cameras, and this one is no exception. So far my wife really likes it and has been using it quite a bit to shoot general images she probably would have passed on with her previous camera. Like all gadgets, read the directions first as that will make it easier using it. Overall, we're both very impressed with it and would highly recommend it to anyone needing a small and dependable camera that takes outstanding images.

I did a lot of research before purchasing this Canon camera. Yes, the quality of the photo is excellent and it has many features, however, I did not read one single review which commented on the problem that the date and time is not imprinted on the photo when reviewing the photo but can be imprinted when printing out the photo if selected. What good is a photo when the date and time is not on the photo. Nikon and Casio camera imprint the date and time on the photos taken. The user has the option of turning off the imprint should it be necessary. I work as a residential property manager and frequently photograph rental units after the tenants have moved out in order to prepare the refunds of deposits. I have a nice Nikon 5.1 MP but the shutter time is extremely slow. I end up having to wait 5 seconds before being able to shoot the next photo. You can imagine how frustrating it is to spend time waiting in between shots. The problem of not having the date and time imprint when I download the photos on my notebook makes my work very difficult. I only print out photos when necessary, therefore, if I move the original photo from the memory card to my notebook computer, I can not print the photo with the date imprinted. The date can be imprinted by connecting the camera to the printer and selecting this feature. Do not purchase this camera if you need the date and time imprinted on the photo without having to print. Get a Casio Exilim because the quality is just as good and the menu is user friendly unlike Canon's. Canon needs to go back the drawing board and add this important feature.

Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom. This is a very good point and shoot Camera. I had a Kodak point and shoot (a $200 camera five years ago) stolen from me in June and this was the replacement. I'm not compairing the two but there is a pro and con here. The Kodak was my very first digital camera and I thought it was the greatest. It was only a 3 MP with a 3x zoom. I used the crap out of that camera and it never failed me. I probably have taken 15,000+ pictures with it. I researched many point and shoots to replace it. The best one I found for the price is the Canon SD1100. I went to a Best Buy and spent an hour playing with all the cameras. I wanted one that would power-up real fast and be very quick between pix. This was the one. The clearity of the pictures are awesome. Color is great, operation is easy, fun to use. I have taken about 500 pictures and they have turned out very good. My favorite aspect of this camera is the Macro. It is so tight. When I look at the final pic, it is crazy tight. I really am pleased with it. My only issue I have with the camera is I can't do a fill flash. I do a lot of car shows and need a flash for interior shots. (The Kodak was flawless on the fill flash) Overall I really do like this camera and would definitely recommend it. Absolutely the camera to go in the shirt pocket for the quick don't miss "that picture". Money very well spent.