Spiderider's Full Review: Canon PowerShot SD1000 / Digital IXUS 70 Digital C...
I bought the SD 1000 because I wanted a small point and shoot with good resolution, and enough versatility to meet various needs when carrying it around. I got it all in this camera.
The body is literally smaller than a cigarette pack, has no protruding buttons or lens, and it fits neatly into your shirt or pants pocket. That's wonderful!
I found that the 7.1 Megapixels yielded good, sharp photos in most situations. Best in good, outdoor lighting, falling off with flash somewhat, and sort of dismal in low ambient light without a flash (very grainy).
Autofocus is generally very accurate, and photos are sharp and well balanced in terms of light and color. It's an impressive camera for the casual photographer.
The zoom is great, giving you a great deal of flexibility to zoom in not only on subjects like people, but using the macro feature, subjects like insects, and still get great results!
The back screen is big enough to see easily, and an optional grid feature on the screen helps to compose photos well, and line up horizontal or vertical lines to prevent crooked images. Images are visible in all but the brightest sunlight conditions, when you may need to shade the screen to see your subject.
There are a number of features that are easy to call up using a minimum of buttons on the back of the camera. Some, I've just never had a need to use, such as selecting one color to show up in an otherwise black and white image, or substituting one color for another - though I suppose this could yield some artistic images in creative hands. I do my editing in PhotoShop afterward.
Others, like settings for portrait, landscape, etc., macro, self timer, flash (or not) are at your finger tips, though there are so many options that it can get confusing finding the one you want.
The camera also takes video images, which seem okay, but don't expect it to perform like a video camera. You can get a few seconds of moving pictures and sound, but I haven't figured out much of use for that feature myself.
Battery life on this camera was very good. It would go for weeks after a charge, always ready to capture a spur of the moment image.
The zoom, while very good, is limited by the optics (like I said, it's a very small camera, so you have trade-offs to make), so you can expect a good bit of barreling (vertical lines will appear to curve toward the outside edge of the image) when you zoom in on objects or scenes. Still, I think the ease and convenience of pulling the camera out of your pocket almost anywhere outweighs this drawback.
I used the camera for over a year, and was supremely happy with it. In fact, I usually used it instead of my Nikon digital SLR, which was just too bulky and cumbersome to carry around most of the time.
Then, one day, the lens stuck in the open position and would not close. The words "Lens Error" appeared on the back screen, and the camera was functionally dead. The lens would not retract, and the camera would not take photos.
I looked on the web to see if anyone else had similar problems, and found that MANY, MANY people had the exact same problem.
Apparently, this is a common problem with this Cannon, and possibly other models as well.
Without a doubt, it's an engineering miracle to get all the works crammed into the tiny body of this tiny camera, but still, as good as it is when it works, this is a good bit of money for what might be, in the end, a very fancy disposable camera. That's the only reason I didn't give this camera 5 stars.
There are forums on the web dedicated to the "lens error" problem of the Canon, and some people have been able to fix the problem. Others have not.
So, before you buy, check out "canon + lens error" in Google and read up on it. Forewarned is forearmed.
Undoubtedly, there are many who have no problem with the camera, but there seem to be a LOT of people who do.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 235.00 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Easy Enough for Anyone to Use
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