The Canon PowerShot SD1000 digital ELPH is an ultra compact camera no bigger than the size of a pack of cigarette. In Europe and Asia it is known as Canon IXUS 70. Designed as a point and shoot camera, it contains some features suitable for some tuff tasks in its price range. Let´s find out how this little guy performs.
Evaluation
Test Runs:
As I went through the available settings, I noticed the lack of Shutter Speed and Aperture priority selection which comes in handy for certain conditions in photography. Another feature presents in the SD8XX series Canon that is unavailable here is the stability control.
The following sample shots are taken in Auto Mode and Manual Mode as noted (whenever a mini-tripod and regular tripod are used they will be noted also). I put in a 4GB SD card from Geeks Computer Parts instead of the 32MB card that came with the camera.
Pictures:
Digital Macro Shots
First three taken indoor in natural lighting; last two outdoor. Other than Macro setting, camera is in Auto mode.
From left to right- Silver Dollar head/tail, outdated stamps, little Daisy and last is what every housewife in the Mid-west trying to kill "weed flower" measuring 10mm in width.
Zoom
In order to fit our website these photos were taken free hand at 3072x2304 pixels reduced to 1600x1200. The last photo is cropped from 3072x2304.
Flash
Condition - with and without flash comparison.
Photos above were taken at approximately 8:45pm in Northern Illinois in the middle of July (from my back yard): 1st photo using spot meter without flash (A tripod should have been used, the small SD1000 is difficult to hold steadily at long exposure time); 2nd spot meter/auto flash aiming at the thermometer; 3rd Macro/spot meter/auto flash.
Outdoor structure in rainy day
Face detection
Face detection can be found in many mid-range digital camera; here a wax dummy's face is detected.
Stitching
Stitching tool came with works easily; 4 photos merged
Depends on how the photos were taken, here is one that is not so good
Continuous Shots
No Tommy Gun rate of 12 shots per second, but you will get about 1 shot per second.
Video
Video with a touch of zooming
Bear in mind this is no digital video camera. It is not bad, I've seen better ones from Casio and Nikon of similar class/price range. There is a strip of vertical line depending on the angle of the sunlight appears on a few frames.
Video with lots of Zooming
Avoid using zoom in video; you are not going to like the result much. Image stabilization would have come in handy.
Battery life test
Battery life test consists of two segments, considering certain conditions as such evening wedding party where all photos are likely be taken with flash on or day light beach party where no flash is used. In addition, the size or resolution selected affects writing speed and battery consume. For this test, the camera is set at 1600x1200. Of course, using the view finder without LCD will prolong battery life. Battery life is also reduced by the length of time the users review the photos taken; taking time with LCD screen sittings and image construction before snapping. As a result, this test is merely for reference.
No Flash
Full Strength flash of 100, remaining no flash for 200. If the battery is still kicking, back to full strength flash.
That's equivalent to about 11 and 22 rolls of 36-shot-film.
Canon spec sheet indicates a modest 211 shots which factors in the time users spent on photo playback and other battery draining activities, smart move to reduce unnecessary complaints. I did notice the popularity of the NB-4L battery and purchased a non-Canon brand spare for less than $10.
Comment
from Sidney@ 2007/08/08
Although the SD1000 does not have RAW image capability, the bundle software includes RAW image process. This is good news because I believe Nikon charges for this software.
Canon Customer Service is quite responsive in using email. The review unit "dust inside the viewfinder" required me to send the unit to local repair facility. Rather than doing that, I simply returned it to Sam's Club where I purchased it and I walked out with a new replacement.
The Canon Rebel was also returned to the retailer for replacement when the flash did not work the first time. I wonder what others may experience with Canon quality control.
Comment
from wutske@ 2007/08/09
no ISO test ? It's incredibly important to know, film grain or not. Sometimes you have to bump the ISO and it's nice to know whether this will return a useless image or a somewhat usefull image. Some camera's (escpecialy the smaller ones) even have a lot of noise (and noise reduction artifacts) at lower ISO settings.
Though the SD1000 has an ISO of 1600, the noise levels were too high for my taste. I usually kept it set to ISO 800 or below.
Comment
from Sidney@ 2007/08/09
I normally stay away from using any high ISO; no difference than film. Likely compensate by using tripod for longer exposure or fill in flash. Higher ISO means more grains or Noise.
Nikon D40 has ISO starting 200
Comment
from wutske@ 2007/08/09
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazyman
I normally stay away from using any high ISO; no difference than film. Likely compensate by using tripod for longer exposure or fill in flash. Higher ISO means more grains or Noise.
Nikon D40 has ISO starting 200
sometimes, a tripod or a long exposure isn't always possible or wanted. I usualy stay away from high ISO too, but sometimes you can't do anything but using high ISO. Luckily my camera supports RAW .
The D40 might start at ISO200, but it has a CCD that is a lot larger, so signal/noise ratio is compareable to a fixed-lens camera at ISO50.
Comment
from Sidney@ 2007/08/09
Night vision camera
Most compact and ultra compact Digicams don't have RAW, you have to pay for it.
There is only slight improvement; it is a matter of physics despite image compression. We will get there closer. Otherwise, we don't need flash.
Better to have a fast lens if money is not the issue.
Comment
from jmke@ 2007/08/16
IXUS 30 Macro shot, cropped, no resize ->
Comment
from Sidney@ 2007/08/16
I'm stealing this picture
Comment
from jmke@ 2007/08/16
no manual F setting, otherwise I could have gotten much sharper photo
Comment
from Sidney@ 2007/08/16
manual F setting = $$, that's why I'm keeping the oldie
Comment
from jmke@ 2007/08/16
Canon G5 on ebay $200 Gdzilla just bought one, Piotke payed his G5 $250 one year ago, also ebay unit. I bought mine in store, $700 total (change $ to € for EU readers)
Comment
from wutske@ 2007/08/16
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazyman
manual F setting = $$, that's why I'm keeping the oldie
didn't see
.
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Canon Customer Service is quite responsive in using email. The review unit "dust inside the viewfinder" required me to send the unit to local repair facility. Rather than doing that, I simply returned it to Sam's Club where I purchased it and I walked out with a new replacement.
The Canon Rebel was also returned to the retailer for replacement when the flash did not work the first time. I wonder what others may experience with Canon quality control.