CELL PHONES
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
» TV: Phones
LAPTOPS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
» TV: Laptops
CAMERAS
» Coming soon
» Top 15
» Best-rated
» TV: Cameras
» infoSync TV » Review Center
» Digital Frontier » Expert guides
» RSS & Alerts » Ask The Editors
Home / Review Center / Digital cameras / Standard compact cameras
Canon SD1100 IS reviewBy Chris Coleman, Tuesday 1 July 2008
GALLERY
»
Video review
Canon Powershot SD1100 IS
Enlarge
Canon Powershot SD1100 IS
Enlarge
Canon Powershot SD1100 IS
Enlarge
Canon Powershot SD1100 IS
Enlarge
Canon Powershot SD1100 IS
Enlarge
 
 
We love the design on Canon's new 8-megapixel point-and-shoot, but are its pictures up to snuff? Get the answer in our in-depth Canon SD1100 IS review.

Review summary of the Canon Powershot SD1100 IS:
Video »   Scoreboard »   Features »   Side-by-side »   Gallery »
Canon Powershot SD1100 IS The Canon SD1100 IS is a superbly designed camera with a style that looks great and, even better, actually makes the camera easier to use. We loved the inclusion of an optical viewfinder - long the holy grail of compact cameras features here at infoSync - even if it's only a pinhole viewfinder and not truly optical. It's still a lot better than an electronic one. Still, the SD1100 IS isn't quite feature rich, but it makes up for that with great image quality, particularly in its deep color-rendering. For those who prefer good images over niftiness, the SD1100 IS could be a good choice. Release: March 2008. Price: $220.
Pros: Excellent design. Pinhole viewfinder. Great image quality.
Cons: Small LCD screen. Slight problems with fringing. Not a feature-set dynamo.
Poor
Mediocre
Good
75%
VERY GOOD
Excellent
Full review of the Canon Powershot SD1100 IS:
Design - Excellent

Canon has gone the extra mile in separating the Canon SD1100 IS from the pack, giving it a streamlined exterior and a contoured body that not only looks great, but makes the camera easier to hold. Our review unit was also an earthy red, a pleasing differentiation from the pewter tones of a typical point-and-shoot.

The twist zoom around the shutter release is a bit small, and a wheel on the four-way controller would have been nice. Otherwise we have no complaints, as the Canon SD1100 IS takes the standard compact layout and does no wrong. Shortcuts are available for most everything important, and Canon has included a helpful toggle for switching between camera, video and playback modes.

Best of all, and what particularly ingratiated the design to us, is the optical viewfinder above the LCD screen. Granted, it's not the same thing as an optical viewfinder on a DSLR – there's no system of mirrors to let you literally look through the lens – but a pinhole viewfinder like the one found in the Canon SD1100 IS will give you an unfiltered look at what's in the camera's frame. That said, keep in mind that pinhole viewfinders suffer from mild parallax issues (your eye is a few centimeters above the lens, so the geometry of what you're seeing is slightly different from how the photograph will look).

Interface - Very good

No surprises here: the interface on the Canon SD1100 IS is largely identical to what we've seen on Canon's other point-and-shoots, and it still works just as well. The function button accesses shooting parameters like white balance and JPEG compression, as well as a toggle for the camera's various shooting modes. The menu button accesses the system menu, which offered all of the settings we expected.

At 2.5-inches, the LCD viewfinder is somewhat undersized, but it offers a clear image at a good resolution. Low light performance is average, as the LCD remains responsive in dark scenarios, but gain distortion is visible and can be distracting (another reason it's a boon to have an optical viewfinder). This is true of most LCD screens, so it's not a heavy mark against the Canon SD1100 IS.

Features - Good

The Canon SD1100 IS isn't overloaded with features. It's not brimming with megapixels, it doesn't have stratospheric zooming, and it doesn't have a super wide-angle lens. Still, it does have one of the most important features to good image-quality – an optical image-stabilizer – and it has standard compact assists like face detection.

It also features an intelligent auto-mode that analyzes lighting conditions and subject movement, which should further reduce blurry camera-shake, as well as a continuous shooting mode. We also liked the inclusion of delayed shutter with a custom timer, so the user can specify just how long he or she wants the camera to wait before taking an exposure.

ISO speeds are selectable and range from 80 to 1600, with a 'HI' preset that automatically selects high sensitivities for shooting in dark environments. Canon has also bundled their 'color swap' and 'color accent' shooting modes; the former swaps one color for another in-camera, and the latter retains one color but renders the rest as black-and-white. These features are easily controlled in the interface: simply select the mode, point the camera at whatever color you want to swap or accent, and then press the display key to select that color.

Image quality - Very good

The Canon SD1100 IS takes great photographs for a compact, 8-megapixel camera. Lines are clean and colors are very well rendered. We'd recommend it as a solid choice for when you need a small camera that can fit in your pocket, like a day around town or a vacation to a colorful, tropical getaway. Images come out looking rich and colorful, and even in full auto-mode the Canon SD1100 IS did a nice job with no fuss.

Noise management is good across the board. Distortion is visible at ISO-400, distracting at 800 and quite dense at 1600, but even the maximum sensitivity remains usable. The character of the SD1100 IS's noise is also less ugly than most digital blocking. It seems Canon has taken some steps in making noise distortion appear more like film grain.

  • Scene test #1


  • Scene test #2


  • These two scene samples are superb and particularly show off the SD1100's excellent color rendering. The sky in the background, the foliage in the right corner and the red lettering at the bottom are all deeply saturated but still accurate. There is a slight loss of focus along the sides, and some edges are affected by fringing, but neither instance is serious.

  • Edge test #1


  • Edge test #2


  • The camera also did a good job in these two edge tests, both taken in difficult lighting. The first shot is especially impressive, as the Canon SD1100 IS extracted as much detail from the leaves as any 10-megapixel camera we've seen. Some fringing is evident along edges, but overall sharpness is high.

  • [Context]


  • Macro


  • The Canon SD1100 IS also has excellent macro capabilities. This shot is with the camera nearly flush against the subject, yet detail and color performance are still high. There is focus loss on the left and right edges (the defocus on the top and bottom is the correct result of a shallow depth-of-field), but this is typical of small, consumer lenses.

  • Color accent [green]


  • Color swap [green -> blue]


  • Finally, we took samples with the 'color accent' and 'color swap' features. Both appear to use a concept called 'chroma-keying', a system that detects and alters only certain color values in an image; this is the same process used for blue and green-screen effects in movies. They're both fun features, and they both work as advertised. The first sample is 'green accented', such that only the grass is colored. It's not perfect – it never is, and it remains notoriously tricky even in professional studios – but the Canon SD1100 IS did a good job of weeding out the wrong colors and preserving green, even if a few yellows and blues crop up throughout the picture. The second is a sample of green 'swapped' for blue, which leads to more psychotropic results.


    Price and availability

    The Canon Powershot SD1100 IS will start selling for $220 () in March 2008.

    Best Standard compact cameras
    Name Score Price
    C
    Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T2 76% $300
    Canon Powershot SD1100 IS 75% $220
    Nikon Coolpix P60 74% $200
    Canon PowerShot SD890 IS 72% $300
    Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z80 71% $180
    Canon PowerShot SD790 IS 69% $330
    Canon PowerShot SD770 IS 67% $215
    Nikon Coolpix S51c 66% $200
    Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS20 66% $250
    Olympus Stylus 790SW 65% $275
    Click here to see full and advanced chart »
     
     
     
    RECOMMENDED
    New Panasonic Lumix point-and-shoots up close
     
    New top-rated DSLR cameras
     
    New top-rated ultra-slim cameras
    TOP STORIES
    Digital camera model names and numbers explained
     
    Canon SD1100 IS review
     
    Best 10 megapixel digital cameras
    Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ50 Wi-Fi camera hands-on
     
    Top 15 cameras of the week
     
    Best ultrazoom digital cameras
    TOP 15 OF THE WEEK
    DSLR
     
    Standard compacts
     
    Superzoom
    Ultrazoom
     
    Wide-angle compacts
     
    Upcoming cameras
    Canon
     
    Casio
     
    Fujifilm
    Nikon
     
    Olympus
     
    Panasonic
    Pentax
     
    Samsung
     
    More...
    » Top 15 by megapixels
    14 MP, 12 MP, 11 MP, 10 MP, 9 MP, 8 MP, 7 MP, 6 MP
    » Search (New!)
    Search by digital camera features
    » Manual comparison (New!)
    Select up to 4 digital cameras side-by-side
    » By release
    September 2008, Q4 2008
    » Ask The Editors
    Have a question? Ask The Editors!
    NOW IN DIGITAL CAMERAS
    Pentax K2000 DSLR camera announced
     
    Canon EOS 5D Mark II full-frame DSLR with Full HD video
     
    Canon PowerShot SD880 IS, SD990 IS stylish cameras
     
    Canon PowerShot G10 14.7 megapixels camera
     
    Casio Exilim EX-FH20 20x ultrazoom joins the Casio Pro EX-F1
    Digital camera model names and numbers explained
    Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 Micro Four Thirds camera announced
    Sony DSLR-A900 full-frame DSLR camera announced
    Next 25 stories
    MUST READ
    CELL PHONES
    » Coming soon
    » Top 15
    » Best-rated
    LAPTOPS
    » Coming soon
    » Top 15
    » Best-rated
    CAMERAS
    » Coming soon
    » Top 15
    » Best-rated
    MP3 players
    » Coming soon
    » Top 15
    » Best-rated
    INTERNET TABLETS
    » Coming soon
    » Top 15
    » Best-rated
    GPS NAVIGATORS
    HDTVs
    CAMCORDERS
    Refreshed VZW lineup
    Hot WinMo Gear (!)
    Touch me, if you Dare
    MOTO flips out
    Yes, Palm still makes good smartphones
    Connecting People U.S. Tour
    Chocolate to the masses
    Who needs cell towers nowadays?
    About us | Site map | How to advertise | Feedback | RSS Feeds | | Archive
    Copyright 1999-2008 © infoSync World