Review:Canon PowerShot SD1000 Digital Elph Camera

From AJS.COM

Monday, August 20, 2007
Review by Aaron Sherman - AJS Reviews
Overall: An excellent amateur camera that's both easy to use and featureful: 9 out of 10

The Canon PowerShot line has been my favorite non-SLR digital camera for several generations now. I think my first was the S200, way back in the day. This camera gives me everything I need for taking pictures for the Web, and compared to my Digital Rebel SLR, it's both easier to get started with, and much more convenient to carry around. You will want to pick up a 2GB SD memory card or something like it, since it comes with a tiny 32MB card.

Some basic specs:

7.1 megapixel picture resolution (JPEG only, no RAW mode)
Basic movie features including VGA, QVGA, QQVGA and time-lapse modes
Retractable lens
2.5-inch color LCD
ISO 50-1600 modes

PowerShot Features

The features that I find the most useful in this camera are:

A slim, rectangular profile that fits in any pocket
A large, color LCD display on the back
Easy to navigate menus
A manual mode that lets you control exposure time, white balance, and various other features
Lots of useful presets for night photos, fireworks, portraits, kids, etc.
A digital macro mode that does crystal-clear up-close shots of flowers, insects, or anything
The time-lapse movie setting is wonderful for driving, walking or taking pictures of clouds

Probably the single thing that has impressed me most about this camera has been the various night photography features. With the camera set to "night snapshot" mode, a 5 second exposure time, no flash and focus subject set to infinity, I can take some stunning pictures of the night sky, even from a dark driveway in the city. On the other hand, I can take pictures of city streets at night that rival what I can do with my SLR. The only drawback for night photography is the lack of RAW mode image files, which you really need to extract detail from darker shots.

Overall, it's the Swiss Army Knife of cameras without being overwhelming to the amateur.

Negative

Some things do annoy me:

It took me a while to figure out that the "digital macro" mode in the mode menu is far superior to the normal macro mode that you can get to by just pressing a single button
Looking at the camera wrong seems to reset your flash setting
Retracting the lens re-sets the optical zoom
The tiny 32MB card that it comes with