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

Lots of reviews out there, but few mention how snappy this camera is. Nearly instant start-up, which I consider a requirement so that you don't miss that special photo b/c you are twiddling your thumbs waiting for the camera to boot. Similarly, the camera responds very quickly when taking a photo. Again a requirement for me.

I have been thoroughly impressed by image quality.

I was recently disappointed when I dropped the camera onto a hard floor and the lens cell became inoperable..."lens error" or something similar...my favorite camera is not useless...but then again, maybe I shouldn't have dropped it onto concrete...

Great camera I have one and bought a 2nd for my folks, as the film cameras are getting harder to find and have the film developed. The movie mode is good if you can't get the right still shot, the voice recorder is wonderful for getting the whole story during a family story time. Paired with the Micca Slimm
[...] Mom and Dad don't even have to have a computer to see their pictures, listen to their voice recordings or watch their just shot movie on their HD TV. The auto mode on the camera does just about everything for them to get a great shot.

I love it! The color is starting to chip but that's okay. I always use it and I take it with me whenever I don't feel like using my DSLR. It's compact, perfect for when you're clubbing or during parties etc.
Easy to use and less complicated than DSLR ( of course!)
It's well worth the money.
;)

This little camera takes a great picture, is easy to use, and is small enough to put in your pocket. The pictures from the printer are great, and you can also transfer the pictures from the camera to your computer. I love the little printer, though, for puting pictures in a photo album. I was really surprised at the quality of the pictures from the printer. They are great.

Many of the reviews I read on Amazon, and other places, are left by people who just recently purchased the item. Not real helpful. So I waited 11 months. That should be enough time to properly evaluate the Canon PowerShot SD1100IS.

I'll cut to the chase: this is a perfect point and shoot camera for people taking candid shots, vacation photos, kids, and general every day use. The quality is good, the options robust, and it's compact enough that it will fit you in your shirt pocket.

This IS not the perfect camera if you're trying to take professional looking photographs, particularly of nature and especially outside. You just don't have the focal depth to get rich pictures. My father in law has one of the Canon SLRs and you can really see the difference in quality. But you can also see and feel the difference in the size of the camera you're carrying around (a few ounces that can fit comfortably in your pocket v. a few pounds that needs it's own case). I'm not saying it doesn't take good outdoor pictures, it just doesn't pick up everything that your eyes do.

If you need a camera to take to parties, the kids' play date or soccer game, or just having fun, then this is a great camera. It has nearly all the features of other Canon cameras. Also, the video is really good quality and it saves it in .avi format.

This camera is similar the model before with some advanced features, such as functionality to select portrait or certain scenery options. The only factor I am slightly disappointed with is the ability to take night-shots. The pictures often come up blurry or completely dark. There is a night setting which helps slightly but not perfectly. The zoom is quite good and picture quality exceeded my expectation. The battery lasts well over 400 pictures. It is light-weight and easy to travel with, just got back from Hawaii and am quite pleased with all my scenery pictures. Would recommend this camera for every day needs, would look for a different camera if intending to take a lot of pictures at night.

I was very relieved when I received this camera. It said "used but looks new" or something on the description, so I was hoping for the best. The camera really IS like brand new and works like a charm. Since nothing's completely perfect, there IS a couple scratches on the front, but it's not noticeable at all, and like the description said, it has been used (and anything used gets a scratch or two eventually). It's lovely with taking photos and videos, and so it was definitely worth the money. I'm glad I was able to trust this seller.

I have had this camera for over a year now. I like it very much. It is small, easy to use, and takes very good pictures. The only negative I have is that the Red Eye function is only OK, not great. I still get a lot of red eyes in my photos, especially in-doors and especially with kids. But having said that, the camera still takes a lot of great photos, much better than the last digital camera that I had. Also, the videos it takes are outstanding. What a great feature!

I've had this camera for a few years now and still enjoy it. It has held up extremely well and easily fits in my pocket for those times when I know I'll want pictures without the fuss of a bulky bag or other unnecessary accessories. I find the quality of the pictures to be clear and crisp, especially once you master the slight delay after pressing the button down. My favorite feature is the Color Accent where it grays out the rest of the colors except for the one you choose. I find it to be extremely user friendly, considering as soon as I got it, I started to play around with it, not once needing to look at the manual.

I find the battery life to be pretty substantial, considering I can take pictures and video for hours without a problem (I also don't need to bother charging the battery all the time). When it comes to video, the sound and picture quality is pretty good for a camera that takes photos. A few downsides to the video, is that sometimes the quality is a bit pixilated, you'll really need good lighting and you cannot zoom once in video mode. You have to set the zoom before pressing the record button. Another down side to the photos is that although it has 12X zoom, most pictures are a bit fuzzy or blurry that close up. I've learned to try to keep an extremely steady hand when zooming that close.

Overall, I love this camera, and whenever it breaks I'll most likely buy the exact same one all over again. It has helped capture both photo and video moments in my life with ease, creating wonderful memories.

would deffinatly buy it again. quality is great for the size and price. this camera has inspired me to take it to the next level and am now buying the canon dslr xsi. i will deffinatly keep this model for pictures when out with friends.

I bought the Camera after playing with it one day While I was at work at Best Buy, I loved the fact that it was the 1st camera I have ever seen that had the Color Accent feature. At first I liked the camera but once I started taking it with me on trips and other outings I really started regretting spending my money on it. The pictures came out nice maybe 1/2 of the time, the rest of the time they were blurry. If your on auto mode it will use the anti blur feature which is good for me because I shake but any of the other modes I tried like the color accent feature one of the main reasons for buying the camera ALWAYS came out blurry. Not to mention the number one thing I couldn't stand about this camera was that it was so slow at taking the picture. I missed so many great pictures of the kids and animals because you have to wait for this thing to focus which again it only would do half the time. I ended up selling the camera to my sister and going with a 99.00 Kodak that does everything this camera couldn't. this was my 1st and last time buying a Canon.

This is my 3rd Cannon digital camera and what I can say is: It rocks!
Very good product! It takes and films with a very nice quality, it is small, the batery doesn't run out quickly even if you are using it as recorder.

This is my 2nd Canon camera. First camera lens got stuck after month. Got it repaired. Broke again about a year later. Out of warranty, now its a $350 paper weight. 2nd canon camera. Lens got stuck after about 5 months. Got it fixed. Broke again about 2 months later. Now I have to send it in again. I am going on vacation in a week and will not have my camera. Had to buy a Lumix just so I could have one.

Also, in order to get it fixed you need to pay for shipping and insurance. So throw that cost in, not to mention go without a camera for 2-3 weeks. Stay away from canons.

What a camera! I did a LOT of research before buying this camera for my wife and I, and I have been VERY, VERY pleased with the photos we get with it. I've taken several photos people can't believe came from a pocket camera.

I bought this to replace the one I gave to my mom. That one I had initially gotten because of a great deal I got on it. Since then I have used it more than my "big" camera. It is the nicest little thing I have gotten and man does it take pictures. The pictures are amazing and it is very very versatile. It is also easy to use and just very handy to have around. Put it in a nice carry case and it can go anywhere with you, mine is always in my purse, ready to go at a moments notice. Now my mom and 2 co-workers have the very same camera. Definitly a great buy.

I ordered this camera for my aunt. She loves it. I did it because my son bought one and he recommended it. I recommended it to him after reading all the info on it I could find.

This camera is the best camera I have ever owned. I have had it for over a year now and it operates as if it were brand new. I will always buy canon's from now on. The pictures on this camera are great.

Purchased to replace a stolen Canon, different model. Construction is light so it seems flimsy but the pictures look great, it's pretty easy to use, and can't beat the size for portability.

I absolutely loved my Canon SD1100 IS. I had it for over a year and I hardly ever had any issues with it. I definitely got a great camera for the price when I purchased it. I had previously owned a Panasonic camera I had purchased for approximately $200 and it didn't have anywhere near the features that the SD1100 did. The Panasonic didn't even have an optical zoom. My only issue with the SD1100 is the poor picture quality in low-light settings without a flash, but, then again, it's not a professional quality camera. Unfortunately, it was stolen this weekend while I was out on the town with some friends and in looking to replace it, I was flabbergasted that it is selling for almost $400. I bought it for $160 last year! I'm going to upgrade to the SD1200 IS and I'm hoping that it delivers on par with the SD1100.

i researched many many cameras. i have a nikon D70 (which i love as as well) but it is rather heavy to take every where so i decided to look into getting a smaller camera that i could shove in my pocket yet still have the features that i liked in my large camera.... it apeared that i was to picky i gave up the search untill i went into a ritz store that was closing ( :'( ) the man there answered my question and pointed me in the right direction.... this camera it the camera i couldnt have desighned better!!! idk y they dicontunued such an amazing little camera!!

has the 'fun' settings of color and you can edit and crop a little bit on the camera itself
the light is good indoor and out and is a little slow on the recharge of the flash but still much faster that the average point and shoot.
the zoom goes farrr out and still the pic it almost in perfect focus dispite the photographers camera shake
i have droped this camera several times and it still works perfectly. i have also jammed the lense but when this happens the camera tells me to shut it off. when it comes back on the lense is fine!
it is a heavier point and shoot which again i like... makes me feel like i am holding something that wont break or fall apart.
the macro setting is awesome!!
it dones not have an action setting but had many many others to compensate for that

again i say amazing little camera! i would pay the 300... worth every penny!

Camera broke after only 5 months. Sent camera to canon repair shop who would not repair due to "water damage" which is next to impossible. Customer service nice enough, repair turn around took about 2 weeks, but poor outcome. Missed childrens b-day and 1st day of school, just isn't worth it, I would NOT recommend this camera, it is too sensitive!

I do serious photography with a large Digital SLR and all the lenses. I wanted a small camera to carry for personally use when i didn't feel like lugging all my other gear with me. This camera fits the bill perfectly. There are certainly trade offs with low light performance and ability to control all the aspects of taking a photo, but that isn't what this camera is for anyway. Save youself some money and get this instead of getting the latest camera with the highest MP count. It seriously doesn't make a difference for what you are going to use this camera for anyway, and infact may hurt low light performance (more pixels packed into the same chip size generally equates to more image noise).

Personal favorite features
-Very light and sleak design
-Nice LCD screen
-Refined user interface
-Decent low light performance
-Optical stabilization (helps sometimes - but remember this just helps in holding the camera steady, not in increasing the shutter speed to catch a moving object in low light - like my always on the go daughter).
-Good quality video

Wish list
- Ability to turn the flash on/off in auto mode. This is probably my only gripe. I use it in auto most of the time, but you can't make it use the flash for fill lighting or motion stop unless you go to manual mode. I always have to flip back for my wife afterwards :-)
- better default compression on the video. This is a common problem for this camera segment. The video will take up a lot of space, and may need to be convereted/compressed before sending/uploading to blog/ etc. . .

I bought this camera to replace my old Kodak easy share. I was impressed with its features and overall photo quality but was disappointed when I got the "lens error" message less than one year after buying it. Canon did fix it, but less than six months after that I got the same lens error message leaving the camera totally useless.

I expected more of this product because of all perfect reviews. There is no manual focus, only lock focus function. Somethimes lock focus help, but sometimes you just need to set it by your experience. Now I'm more then sure that my old Canon A70 makes better images than this one.

Bought for my daughter going off to college. You can spend more, but this does everything you need. Small but not too small. Nice quality video mode. Optical viewfinder useful in bright light. She likes the color swap function. I DON'T want more disk-space-consuming megapixels than this one has, for snap-shooting. I'm a Nikon SLR guy, but I prefer the Canon compacts...

I am amazed that after having to wait and file a complaint and eventually received my money that Amazon sent me a request to review a product that they clearly know I never got.

Small enough to fit comfortably in my pocket so that I can use it in situations where I would have never planned to shoot. Functions smoothly and quietly with good picture quality. Easy to transfer shots to my computer for e-mail.

Companies need to introduce cameras where they have beaten the "feature-creep".
I got this camera for my parents and they have a lot of difficulty understanding how to interoperate amongst the various features.
It should be as simple as auto/manual, flash on/off, zoom. Auto is what most people with average knowledge of technology need/use.
Again, zoom need to be only up to 5MP.
Otherwise, the camera is good.

We got better-than-expected results from this camera. All daytime shots could be enlarged up to 18" X 12" size without loss of crispness.

Excellent camera. This is the second PowerShot camera we have owned. Easy to use full auto features, as well as manual settings for more "serious" picture taking. Battery life on the PowerShot series cameras is about the best I have ever seen. Superb quality pictures even in adverse lighting conditions. There is some noticable lag time between multiple shots, but this is not an SLR camera. The lag time is reduced a little by using high speed memory cards. All in all, a great camera for everyday family use.

I like this camera. Nice to have a view finder. Lots of options. Good quality photos. Zoom is good for such a small camera.

I have been thrilled with the performace of the Cannon I purchased a couple of weeks ago. Three days after I recieved the camera we left for a week in Yellowstone National Park, MT. and my pictures turned out with exquisite colors and very clear images of wild animals, geysers, Old Faithfull, gorgeous scenery, etc. I had researched digital cameras and Consumer Report also recommended this Cannon camera.

I had dropped my other Canon (on carpet even) and bent the lens just enough so that it won't close or focus right. Costly mistake. Now I hold my camera with the strap. I love this little camera and so far, would buy it again.

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 bought this for my mom for christmas dec 08. it is now july 09. everything is still working fine. she absolutely loves it and is amazed by the details it captures when she takes pics of her garden.
i bought this for 199, 3 days later it went down to 150. i havent seen it cheaper than that. now it is at 399, that is ridiculous. dont pay that much

Purchased this based on recommendations from a CR review. Size and picture quality is excellent. I've only been able to use this for a couple of weeks. Biggest issue that I've found so far is the inability to MANUALLY turn on the flash. Using a flash outdoors is important, particularly with backlit subjects, to fill in shadows and allowing to see faces clearly. However, try as I might, I cannot find a way to turn on the flash manually (it can be turned off). This is an inexcusable omission for an otherwise fine and compact camera.

I bought this camera for my trip to India. I spend a lot of time doing research in rural villages, so I needed something robust enough to handle multiple lighting conditions, something rugged enough to handle the heat and humidity, and something small enough so I can take photos without attracting people's attention. So far it has held up well.

When there is good ambient light, the pictures come out crisp and clear. However, it tends to get grainy and washed-out in lower light. The start-up time is great, taking me just about a second between removing it from my pocket to actually taking a photo.

I got an 8gb Kingston (class 6) memory card, and the Digipower BP-CN4L Replacement battery to use as a backup. The camera is very intuitive to use, and I like the color-swap manipulation and time-lapse video features.

What I particularly DISLIKE is the flash. The default is for it to always switch to 'Auto' whenever the camera is turned on. In my work, the flash attracts too much attention, and so I constantly have to manually switch it off every time I turn the camera on, which could be up to 80+ times a day. Very annoying. Another con is the flimsyness of the battery/memory cover. Even a vague attempt to make it seem sealed from moisture would go a long way.

If these are not deal-breakers for you, then I'd say go for it.

I got a lens error after using the camera only for about 3 months. It is well documented across this forum.

I used a Sony Cybershot 5 MP for 5 years from 2004 till now and it was flawless and gave excellent picture quality.

I thought of an upgrade and decided to buy this camera as it has the best reviews. However, the picture quality is lemon compared to my old Sony. It is not what I thought it would be. Overall waste of time and some wasted picture and video clip opportunities as I am stuck with a down camera. I am initiating a complaint to Canon now - hopefully I get the model replaced.

No problem with delivery and I am very happy with the camera. It takes great photos, is compact and easy to use.

This is a great little performer. Very small. Easily fits into pockets. Image stabilization is great. Recording video is very smooth. Battery life is very good and it's very easy to get in and out of the camera. I like the color accent feature although I've rarely used it. Scrathes easily, though. And flash doesn't work as good as I hoped in very dark settings. Notes...For some reason, the blue camera is about 20% cheaper than the other colors. Get at least a 4Gb SD card for it; especially if you plan on recording video. I found several for only $10 at Amazon. The software that comes with it isn't very good; especially if you're trying to transfer video -- I keep getting errors. I now just use Windows Explorer to drag the files into my destination folder.

I ordered a refurbished Cannon SD1100 on June 8 and received it in a Cannon box, just like new in less than one week. It came with all the instruction books, battery, recharger, and other items just as though purchased new. Great product, and it was delivered on time and in perfect condition.

1st off vendor terrific, packaging terrific, no complaints. Unfortunately I had to replace a camera I lost and it was frustrating that I could have got a brand new one with the same capabilities for less money.
BUT - that is not the purpose of the review. It's a great camera, of course if you are camera shopping you will buy the cheaper upgraded model which will be even better, but this vendor is great, no problems at all, and the refurbished camera was as good as new. Just the price was a little high. But the best deal I could get.

I've only had this camera a few weeks but I love it! It takes great pictures, even in the dark. The camera I had before was a Canon also. I will always buy Canon.

I bought this 6 months ago, and have been very happy with the purchase overall. In fact, I lost it on a camping trip and I am back to buy another of the same model.

I am an artist who sells hand-dyed yarn on the internet. Getting true-to-life color is essential. I had purchased a point and shoot Sony, 1 year before, that cost twice the price of this Canon. The SONY did not capture enough red to even be corrected in PhotoShop properly for my needs.

I take a lot of still photos of textiles at a close up, to place images on the web. I take a few for print, but mostly web.

I also take photos of children, musicians and dancers. The Kids/Pets feature sounded good for this function when I ordered. It is good outdoors in full light.

Taking photos of musicians or dancers on a stage is still a blurry experience much of the time. I realize that is a hard job for any inexpensive camera... but my old 2004 Kodak EasyShare had a sports setting that was incredibly good (fewer pixels probably helped it).

I still take that 5yr old Kodak to my troupe's dance concerts instead of this Canon. (For the record, the 2 yr old SONY was much worse at dancer shots than even this Canon, no doubt because it did not have Image Stabilization. Normal photos of people sitting were even a problem on the SONY.)

Pluses: good screen, weight, size, long battery life, excellent color that can be corrected to nearly-perfect (for web) via PhotoShop. Great closeups/macro.

Down sides: A little too blurry no matter what setting I use, in bright/dark contrasting stage environments with moving subjects. Button for delete too close to the OK button (don't ask me how I know). Button for OFF too close to the shutter button.

Also the Canon menus are much more confusing than they need to be. This one is a little better than my hubby's 8-year old Canon but not good enough. Kodak has menus in English, though their photos aren't as good as Canon's. I've taught computer classes for years (now just part time) and the Canon menus can confuse me, though I've used menu systems for decades. Pity a grandma who wants to do anything but point and shoot.

I sure wish there was a setting for making the default to NOT flash unless I tell it to flash! Every time it powers off, it turns on the flash again, and that is no good for textiles or candid photos of children.

I have had it give me the lens error message a few times when I tried to turn on the camera with my fingers on top of the lens/zoom area. I just turned it off and back on with fingers out of the way, and it has always responded properly.

Over all, this is perfect for my work and for carrying in my purse to take reporter-type shots for my blog. Dance and low-light shots without flash can be hit or miss, but if your subjects sit relatively still and you mostly want to take standard "automatic" point and shoot photos, this will be an excellent choice.

Great quality photos, flexibility in various shooting situations, perfect for traveling -- as heavy as an empty wallet -- and easy as pie to download on to my laptop.

The lens error happened to me, twice! I bought a Canon digital camera and had it for not even a year and the lens stopped working, then I upgraded and bought this camera, same thing happened again...do NOT buy Canon! You would be wasting your money!!!

When taking pictures, take a moment to half-press the button so you can focus better and make the red square go green. Then the shots are clear and better. Other than that, I got what I paid for.

Like many others I had the famous lens problem. The camera was working for 9 mounts and the lens just stopped working.

Many people had the same problem.Just google it - E18 error

I bought the SX100IS as well and it had a lens problem too. Both cameras made good pictures but broke so my advise is stay away from Canon. Buy a SONY or Nikon!

I am an old SLR camera person (Minolta XD-11, with both aperature and shutter priority options). It was time to make the change to digital, and since I am now much older, unable to hike to distant mountain meadows, etc., this point & shoot camera turned out to be an excellent choice. Although my old SLRs were much more expensive and the top of the line in their day, this Canon surpasses my old Minolta in many ways--not the least of which is in cost and style.

I am thrilled with the exceptional clarity of the pictures, the crisp colors and the ease of operation. I recently took a trip from my home state of Montana to California, and had an option to try the video on this camera for the first time. Pictures of the various colored fish at the Scripp's Birch Acquarium are first-rate! Buy this camera while it's still available.

Today I am ordering more 4GB memory cards, as the video takes up so much room that you need to have extra cards on hand--just in case the opportunity to catch some good video presents itself.

I purchased this camera as a gift for my niece who I was taking to Italy. She exclaimed, "I love this camera!", numerous times. Her camera would take pictures in low-light situations(in churches) where flash was not an option. Her camera exceeded my more expensive camera on many occasions. It's small, light weight, and does an excellent job. I only wish I had bought one for myself.