Canon PowerShot SD1000 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver)
by Canon
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon PowerShot SD1000 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver)
Customer Review: Trying to make a decision between Canon A series, S series, SD series?
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned several Canon A series, Canon SD series, the Canon S series and also the S2/S3 IS. So here's the skinny as an amateur user.
If you don't want to read the long review, here's the summary. Buy the SD1000 if you are looking for the tiniest camera that you can take everywhere. It takes good shots indoors given its tiny size and fabulous shots outdoors.
If smallness is not your top priority then you should consider some other Canon cameras which may work better for you (including others from the SD Series).
A series - The A series is best for you if you're looking for a low cost camera that gives you a wide range of features, many manual controls and great image quality. Although, the size is bigger than SD series making it a jacket-pocket camera, the advantage is in the styling. It gives you a convenient grip on the side which helps hold the camera steady and results in less "blurry" pictures. The mode selector dial on top helps you zip through selections. The convenience of AA batteries which are available in every corner of the world, no missing out on pictures as your battery was discharged, might be a selling point for those who travel a lot.
{Update 11/10/07: Canon launched many new A series cameras in August 2007 with Image Stabilization and improved zoom. The 7.1 MP A570 IS with 4X zoom is cheaper than this SD1000. You may want to consider it seriously if you don't care so much about the slightly large the size and increased weight.}
The S3 to S5 IS series cameras have a great image sensor, the wonderful image stabilization, a great zoom, and super macro function that can produce never before pictures. The flip out screen helps take shots from angles you've never considered before. The videos mode of the S series is also better with stereo sound and a sharp picture. The cameras in this series are also just a little more expensive and pretty bulky. If taking great pictures is all you care about and do not mind carrying a big camera, the S series will be a great choice. It's the first step towards a real professional camera.
And finally (drumroll) - the SD series. Small. Cute.
The SD 1000 slips into your shirt front pocket without making it sag. If you're wondering about the style, the square "retro" design is boxy but I like it better as it is very compact. It also does not slip out from my fingers as easily as the curved edge ones.
Since the cameras in SD series are so small some features like different shooting modes are accessible only through the menu which makes changing between them more cumbersome. Sometimes I've just preferred to stay on Auto rather than missing the shot while I navigated to the right mode. SD series cameras also have less manual or user defined controls like flash power reduction which I miss. The flash incidentally, can get very strong in lower light or indoor situations and often bleaches out color from people's faces. If you turn off the flash then you have to use a tripod or have the camera on a flat surface to prevent shaky pictures. I also find that the smallness and lightness of SD series makes my hand shake more than when I'm holding the A series camera with the side grip. I get more fuzzy pics with the SD series than my A series (comparing the models without Image Stabilization) and it's annoying to see the camera-shake warning each time on the screen I am trying to take a shot. I also get a little more red eye with this series probably because the flash is so close to the lens. On the SD 1000 however, there is a red eye correction feature so you can remove red eye right on the camera. The other improvement over the previous SD series is the automatic face detection which helps reduce the flash glare on faces so pictures come out better.
Having used many Canons, although I prefer some other models for their pictures, guess which camera travels with me most often. My SD1000. Just because it's small and fits into my tiny party purse or jeans pocket. Canon recently launched some SD series cameras with Image Stabilization like SD850 IS which is slightly more expensive and a bit bigger and heavier than the SD1000. I'd probably never take it along with me on daily basis and would miss some great photo ops...Many of my friends bought the SD1000 camera after seeing the size of my camera vs. its range of features (and the reasonable price!)
And what about some other Canon features? (If you're a regular Canon user skip reading this section, as you already know all this good stuff.):
- It has an intelligent focusing system with DIGIC III (up from DIGIC II earlier) auto red eye correction and face detection (see above).
- Goes up to ISO 1600 which improves it's low light performance. Although beware of camera shake if you turn off flash in low light. In my opinion, Canon has always out-performed all other consumer cameras in outdoor pics. For indoor low-light pics you'll have to turn on the flash or end up with grainy images. However, compared to other brands in the same class the SD1000 still takes pretty sharp pictures.
- SD card slot - cheap to buy 2GB cards.
-Photo-stitch - For stitching together panoramic views. I have shot countless seascapes, 'bridge'scapes, and landscapes from all my Canons using this function and stitching together 6-10 shots in one. It's easy.
-Macro mode - Great for close ups of babies or product shots
- The SCN mode (special scenes)- Fireworks, Beach, Snow, kids and pets, Underwater, Foliage, Aquarium and Indoor is great. Now even amateurs can use Canon experience to get the best shot quickly before they miss the photo opportunity while trying to set manual controls.
-"My colors" option - Allows you to choose a color you want to highlight in a picture or even darken and lighten skin tones. Color Accent allows you to capture only a particular color in a shot while the rest of the picture is black and white. I did a black and white Christmas group portrait with only the Santa hats, ornaments and poinsettias in red color. Or with Color Swap you can swap out one color with the other, like change your car or (or hair color!)- red to blue. The possibilities are endless, even my kid loves to use the color accent feature as it's really easy.
-Special effects (B/W, Sepia, Vivid, Nuetral etc.) I've used sepia a lot when taking portraits giving them an 'old world' feel. Vivid has been helpful in special situations like a red kite against a blue sky to bring out the colors. You can do all this in Photoshop later but how many of us actually get the time to do this, once a pic is taken it's over with for me!
-You can also take videos in 3 different resolutions with this camera and edit them right on the camera.
-You can create a slide show of all the images you took on the camera itself with fancy transition effects of your choice, it adds to the fun when you hook it up to a TV to view your pics.
-The zoom button shows one or many images at a time in the replay mode and you can zoom into each individual image to see parts of it closely. You can also add sound bites to your shots to remember a location.
- While replaying, the images auto-rotate to landscape or portrait mode to align with how you're holding the camera. It's a nice feature. The screen has been made more durable than it was earlier with an anti-reflective coating.
All in all, if you want a small and sexy yet very feature rich camera go for the SD1000, you'll find yourself using it more often than your previous cameras.
Customer Review: Great Camera, Based on First 1500 Photos
Summary: 5 Stars
Advantages:
1. Small, Lightweight, Pocket Size
No excuse to not take it with you. Excellent for travel. Never miss a photo.
2. Excellent Picture Quality
High resolution; can crop image and maintain detail.
3. Real Image Viewfinder
Great for action shots e.g. panning kids sledding on a snow covered hill. Viewfinder is great for photographing in bright sunlight when the LCD is difficult to see. Camera is always more stable, less blur, when using viewfinder vs. LCD screen.
Must Have Accessories:
Buy a 2 or 4 GB SD card. Get a small, Samsonite zippered case ($ 8) to protect the camera while traveling with camera in your trouser or jacket pocket.
Features You Have to Learn to Use:
Auto setting for everyday photos
Night setting for flash photos of people in low light buildings. If not set to Night, the background is dark/black = high contrast. Setting to Night lightens the background scenery = better contrast
CM manual settings:
Set color to Positive Film for rich, saturated colors
Reduce exposure for sunsets
Portrait setting = soft effect for portraits
Photostitch = essential for pictures of landscapes, wide buildings, etc.
How to Zoom Beyond 3X Optical Zoom:
Don't use Digital Zoom. Turn it off on the menu unless you want crappy, low resolution photos. Instead, take very sharp, highest resolution photos. For outdoor photos in bright light, use CM manual setting with ISO set to 80, and SuperFine, Large files. This will produce the sharpest, highest resolution photo. The jpg file is larger and sharper than you'll ever need. Use software to "zoom" 2 or 3x by enlarging and cropping the photo. It's like having a camera with a 6X optical zoom lens.
Limitations:
1. The major limitation is low light photography. The camera sensor cannot collect enough light to take excellent pictures in low lighting such as in a cathedral. The high ISO settings produce poor quality, very grainy pictures. If you carry a tripod or monopod, you could overcome this limitation. But who does that with a pocket camera?
2) Flash is for relatively short distances, but it's good enough for family photos.
3) The wrist strap has hard plastic sections. The hard plastic can press against the LCD screen while the camera is in your pocket and permanently damage the screen.
4) There is NO pocket-sized (credit card sized) documentation listing all the menu options, at least the frequently used settings.
Conclusion:
Overall, it's an extremely powerful, low priced, extremely versatile camera packaged into a tiny, lightweight case. It takes great photos. You can't go wrong with this camera. A slightly better camera with Image Stabilization for better, hand held, low-light photos is the new Powershot SD1100. Image stabilization is a must have if you want to take photos in cathedrals, museums, etc. I bought the SD1100 for my wife.
Customer Review: Super Easy to Use Non Techy - I LOVE My Canon PowerShot SD1000 7.1MP
Summary: 5 Stars
First, this is not a review about all the technical features and a electronics expert review. This review is from a non-techy perspective on the Canon PowerShot. Please do read some of the other reviews for that from electronics experts. I needed to get a camera that was...
1. Really GOOD (Took Great Photos)
2. Super Easy to Use
3. Easily Portable.
The Canon PowerShot SD1000 7.1MP meets all three of those criteria like a CHAMP.
I carry it with me just about everywhere because I can it is such a PERFECT portable size. So I have a small camera with me at the restaurant when I am with my cousins. And I have a small camera with me when we visit Disneyland. And the picture quality is excellent. Again, I am not aiming for professional quality photographs. But I did want excellent quality photographs. My Canon totally delivers that.
Where were you this past year where you were kicking yourself because you either didn't have a portable camera or where the quality of you camera (like the one on most digital phones) was poor? Well, buy this camera, and end that happening again in the future.
Because this is your portable digital camera, you will want to also purchase a protective case for it to avoid scratches and nicks. Something like Kroo Camera Case for Canon Powershot Camera Digital Camera + Bonus Bundled with Universal LCD Screen Protector Kit + Cloth (Many Color Available) (Slim NylonPink) for the color options, Protective Case For CANON PowerShot Digital Cameras ***Includes Convenient Shoulder Strap & Mini Tripod*** which has both the case and cool mini-tripod for about the same price, or one of the spiffy leather cases like Canon PSC-55 Deluxe Leather Compact Case SD Series Digital Cameras.
The one product "drawback" is that the Memory Card holds really only about 15 pix. Which is fine for one evening out with your family. However, when you are traveling for vacation or on a weekend wine country jaunt, you want the freedom to take LOTS of pix without having to run to your laptop and download them to clear some memory. While you are ordering your Canon here, just add a more robust memory card (I bought two because I just NEVER wanted it to be an issue and they are super cheap.) BLAZING 4GB Secure Digital SDHC Memory Card and you are good to go and have fun.
Customer Review: Excellent images at a GREAT price
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I've had 4 Canon cameras before this one (the legendary A80, the A95, the recent A560, and the Rebel XT, which was stolen). Also, I work as a photographer for a local newspaper and we constantly use high-end Canon SLRs and G series compact canons. Let me tell you that the quality of this little guy (the first Elph I've had) is impressive. Actually, I would say this is on top with the "G" and SLR series picture quality, if you know how to make a few adjustments.
I've had the powershot SD1000 for 6 months, I've taken it to a few trips, parties, work events, and I carry it in my pocket every day. The features it has (like face detection, digital macro, time-lapse video, color accent, etc.), for the price, are fantastic. However, the best thing this camera offers, IMHO, is a quick operation. It takes VERY FAST pictures, and if you set the color to vivid, with a proper white balance, the images you get will surprise you. I recently had a trip to Cancun and took the camera with me. When I came back I wrote an article about my trip for the Sunday Magazine at my newspaper, and they used my pictures, as they looked very professional.
If you're a casual photographer, you can't beat this price, get it now.
There's ONE thing, however, I still hope canon introduces in the future: a more practical video mode format.
I'm not saying the video quality is bad. Actually it is the best I've seen in ultra-compacts. The thing is, that after having owned a Pentax Optio s5z for a year (before this one), which used good quality divx compression (much smaller files), I found myself taking many videos without worrying about remaining space in the memory card. The "video thing" started growing a lot on me. However, canon uses almost no compression in the AVI files and so, for each 1GB of memory, you can only record 8 minutes of video (2GB = only 16 minutes!).
About the image stabilization: I don't miss it. If your hands are not very shaky and you use the proper ISO, you can overcome this. However, if you're using 1600 ISO, you will see "grains" unless you keep the picture to "web sharing" size. It's normal with compact cameras.
My next camera will be (if it's still on sale) the SD750, because I recently found it has a 3 inch LCD, and I don't really use the viewfinder in SD1000 (a personal choice).
Bottom line: for vacations, every day use, social snapshots, pets, the occasional "artistic" inspiration, fantastic response and pro-quality images at a very affordable price, you can't go wrong with this camera.
Customer Review: A Phenom of a Camera with Digital Macro!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you're doing research you already know about many of the features of this amazing camera. But, let me add my two cents.
While the digital zoom may be a farce to many, let me tell you that the "Digital Macro" setting is not! You can get amazingly and eerily close to little flowers and such with stunning clarity. I mean like professional results type pictures.
I encourage anyone to experiment with this setting no matter which elph camera you get. You'll be totally impressed at a whole other tiny world right in front of you.
TIPS:
1) Keep the ISO setting at 80 or 100 when in digital macro mode. This forces the camera to choose to keep the f-stop low (f2.8-f4.5)and the lens wide open for MAXIMUM resolution,clarity, and depth-of-field.
2) Keep the metering on "Center Weighted" [ ]. Spot Metering, [o],doesn't work as well for this venue.
3) I also like the the "Vivid" setting in "My Colors" to make my little subjects' photos "pop". Naturally, keep the camera on "Superfine" and Large (3072x2304).
4) You can get the camera's lens closer than you think and still get the camera to auto-focus........I mean like 1-2 inches close!
5)Push the Menu button and set the AiAF to "off". Set the Auto ISO Shift to "off also because you don't want the camera automatically choosing a higher ISO and causing you to lose resolution. Set the AF-assist beam to "off" because, in "Digital Macro", you're so close to your subject the beam is useless and causes fuzzy focusing.
6) You can get better results with a tripod stablizing the camera.
7) Set the shutter timer to "2 sec" with your camera on a tripod and then step back and let camera do the work. This is only good with a tripod. If you're hand holding just be steady and gently push the shutter.
8) After you're done shooting. Connect the camera to the TV with the supplied cable. Put the camera on "slide show" and sit back and watch you wife's jaw drop open when she sees your work.
Hope this helps inspire you to use "Digital Macro"! Don't worry if you don't understand a thing I'm saying. Sit down with the camera's manual, print this review, and work it through. You can do this! It's worth the effort and you'll have a whole new sub-hobby. You'll be infatuated....especially if your wife has a lot of flowers for subject to shoot. ENJOY!!!!