gparr
May 22nd, 2008, 06:52 AM
Last week I took my new Canon SD1100 IS Elph camera with me to New England and gave it a thorough test run. Overall, it is one impressive camera, particularly when you consider what can be done with a camera the size of a deck of cards. Here are my reactions so far, though I’m just beginning to learn what it can and can’t do.
The most impressive thing I’ve learned so far it that it is extremely good at determining exposures in its primary automatic mode.
The lens is very sharp and captures details well.
Controls are easy to learn and intuitive.
The LCD display on the back is large and delivers an accurate view of what the image will look like.
You can place a Rule of Thirds grid on the display, which isn’t a big deal in terms of composition, but a big help in keeping the camera level/squared up to the subject.
In full sun, the display is relatively hard to read, but it has a brightness adjustment that I’ve yet to use, so it may not be as bad as I’ve experienced.
The viewfinder is essentially useless.
IS is a tremendous benefit, particularly when most of your shooting is done holding the camera out away from your body.
It does an excellent job of changing ISO settings in automatic mode.
Noise builds up rapidly at ISO 400 and higher.
It will easily blow out highlights in strong sun.
If you switch to “manual” mode and underexpose to control blown highlights, it will quickly start to introduce noise.
Noise is easily removed with noise-reduction software without damaging the image.
I did all of my shooting in the largest image size and superfine resolution.
A 4 GB SDHC card will hold in excess of 1,100 images in the largest mode.
The camera goes through rechargeable batteries like a kid eating candy. Get at least one additional battery if you want to shoot for very long. I’m sure a lot of it is powering the display.
Keep the wrist strap on your wrist because the finish is very smooth and the camera easily dropped.
Macro and digital macro modes are very good.
The flash is adequate at best.
AWB, pre-set, and custom white balance are very good.
Powerup and shutter lag are essentially non-factors.
The most impressive thing I’ve learned so far it that it is extremely good at determining exposures in its primary automatic mode.
The lens is very sharp and captures details well.
Controls are easy to learn and intuitive.
The LCD display on the back is large and delivers an accurate view of what the image will look like.
You can place a Rule of Thirds grid on the display, which isn’t a big deal in terms of composition, but a big help in keeping the camera level/squared up to the subject.
In full sun, the display is relatively hard to read, but it has a brightness adjustment that I’ve yet to use, so it may not be as bad as I’ve experienced.
The viewfinder is essentially useless.
IS is a tremendous benefit, particularly when most of your shooting is done holding the camera out away from your body.
It does an excellent job of changing ISO settings in automatic mode.
Noise builds up rapidly at ISO 400 and higher.
It will easily blow out highlights in strong sun.
If you switch to “manual” mode and underexpose to control blown highlights, it will quickly start to introduce noise.
Noise is easily removed with noise-reduction software without damaging the image.
I did all of my shooting in the largest image size and superfine resolution.
A 4 GB SDHC card will hold in excess of 1,100 images in the largest mode.
The camera goes through rechargeable batteries like a kid eating candy. Get at least one additional battery if you want to shoot for very long. I’m sure a lot of it is powering the display.
Keep the wrist strap on your wrist because the finish is very smooth and the camera easily dropped.
Macro and digital macro modes are very good.
The flash is adequate at best.
AWB, pre-set, and custom white balance are very good.
Powerup and shutter lag are essentially non-factors.