39 out of 39 people found this review helpful.
Fairly Intuitive, Point-n-Click, Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS
Date of Review: Jun 1, 2008
The Bottom Line: A good purchase - I recommend it if you're in the market for a new digital camera.
It's been years since I purchased a digital camera. The last one I had – I have to be honest – I couldn't figure it out and therefore, after a few times, I put it aside and it's collected dust ever since.
With the advances in photography (meaning, the fact that they seemed to be making the whole area more consumer-friendly), and because I felt the need to revisit my home town, I gritted my teeth together and set out on finding me something that could be usable – for longer than 15 minutes.
With the guidance of my friend
Howard Creech, I landed upon this camera – the
Canon PowerShot SD1100.
So what about it made me take the leap?
1)
Canon is a good brand. As a consumer, I know this – I read this – I've experienced this with some of their other products that I use.
2) This "point and click" camera was on the small-ish and light-ish side (about 4 ounces and 3.5 by 2 by 1 inches)
3) I had a choice of colors – I picked Rhythm and Blues. It's a really pretty, stylish matted/metallic color.
4) It looked easy to use.
5) The examples of the pictures it could take seemed very much up my alley. It had zoom (times 2), lighting adjustment (day or night), object adjustment (people, pets, nature), and the ability to record – like a camcorder (just to mention a few of its features).
6) It was $259 at
Best Buy – a price I felt was reasonable for a "point and click" type of digital camera.
7) It had just been released by
Canon – and I liked that I was getting the latest/greatest from the company.
So how has my experience been?
I must warn you – I don't like to read instruction booklets. My philosophy on electronic items is that if they aren't intuitive enough, then I will have issues using the product.
I'm happy to report that the
Canon PowerShot SD1100 is fairly intuitive (on a scale of 1 to 10 – I give it an 8). After charging the battery that came with it (you must do this for a 24 hour period), I easily found the place to insert it and the camera powered on easily.
The
Best Buy dude told me to purchase a memory card. At first, I didn't use it. I just used the built-in memory. I was able to take about eight photos before it ran out of space. Now know this – I didn't change anything – any of the default settings. Is this normal? Not sure, but I was absolutely thankful that I purchased the memory card.
After inserting card and formatting, I found that by flipping through the settings (the menu), depending on the size, the speed, the lighting, the object – and many other factors – that determined the number of shots I could store.
I experimented with just about every setting and I was pleased that I didn't have to read the instructions to "get" how to use my camera.
Battery life seems average. I spun through about 200 shots and then needed to recharge. Mind you - this also included me messing with all of the settings.
Don't tell anyone - but I've dropped this a couple of times (on padded floors) - and so far, there's been no negative consequences.
The camera came with some software that I could load – but honestly – I haven't loaded it. I just plug in my USB wire (camera to computer) and I use my
Microsoft program to pull the pictures off of the camera (it even deletes them too – if I so choose).
Four weeks into this purchase, I have snapped more than 1000 shots. Many have been experimental and many I have kept and share with others. I am really pleased by the quality of the photos and the flexibility of the camera.
