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Canon PowerShot SD100 3.2MP Digital ELPH Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom

Canon PowerShot SD100 3.2MP Digital ELPH Camera w/ 2x Optical Zoom

List Price: $349.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Corrupt data often
Review: My Canon SD100 has the same problem as the customer from Washington DC and the customer from Santa Margarita of California. I have lost many precious photos because the camera would suddenly stop me from reading the previous photos on camera due to "Corrupt Data". When that happens, I can not re-format my SD memory card. I have to borrow another SD digital camera to re-format my SD memory card before I can use the SD memory card again.

The camera flash is also too strong when the target person or object is within 4 feet of the camera. Too bad the auto flash does not correct itself with the distance of the target object.

Another drawback with this camera is the battery pack. I have to take out the battery pack out of the camera every time I want to charge it, which is every other day. I would much prefer just stick a cord/charger into the camera and charge the battery pack indirectly that way. This would reduce the wear and tear of the battery/memory card door. Hopefully, the next generation will have this feature.

Even though I'm not a professional photographer, I still wish there are more manual options with this camera, such as aparture and focus. I wish I could control the focus so some photos can have more depth and better focus.

Even with the above shortcomings, I still like this camera for its compact size, sleek design, hard case, good photo quality, and price ($260 as of 11/03). If the SD memory card problem can be fixed, I would recommend this camera to most of my friends.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Listen to this......Its indistrucable
Review: Ok everyone will give you the specs and the good and the bad about this camera. They are a bunch of winnies. I purchased this camera 1.5 years ago went to vietnam with it (it survived a rough trip). Shipped it many times to places when I needed it. The biggest one of all...I went fishing and fell in the lagoon with this camera soaked it to the bone. I thought it was toast. I would not turn on after that big spill. Two months later I was going to toss it. I thought I wonder if this thing would work? I put in the battery and the darn thing works! It works! Im telling you when I came out of the water you could see water draining from the viewfinder. I highly recommend this camera to anyone and any canon products since then I have bought the A 70 and could not be happier with both of them. This is one though hombre of a camera.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: BUYER BEWARE: Memory card compatibility problem
Review: Out of the box, this camera does not work. There's a compatibility problem with the SD card, and Canon wants you to either send the camera to them or download a firmware update from the web...

---quote---
The SD card compatibility problem
A compatibility problem has been found between PowerShot SD100 DIGITAL ELPH/DIGITAL IXUS II cameras and some SD card from other manufacturers. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have already experience because of this problem.
[Problem Description]
The [Memory card error!] message appears on the LCD monitor when the camera is powered on in Shooting mode.
Image replay is impossible. The [No image], [Corrupted Data], [Memory card error!] or [E51] message appears on the LCD monitor when you try to view images recorded on the SD card in the camera's Replay mode.
The [E50] message appears on the LCD monitor when you try to format the SD card in the camera and formatting fails.
---end quote---

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good camera despite some setbacks
Review: Previuosly I have used Sony Cybershot P3, p2 and Pextax Optio S. I decided to buy this one as Canon has a good name in camera products. The picture quality is the best so far for me. The optical zoom is limited but enough for an amateur like me. The problem is the movie mode as the camera will not adjust itself to white balance or light exposure. For example, if you first started your recording in an indoor environment such as your room and then proceed to record the view of outside your window(bright sunny day), the camera would not be able to cope with the bright light as it has been set for the light exposure of the room. The screen would just be flat white. It's a major setback as all my previuos camera would adjust the white balance. Other than that, the camera doesn't have a battery indicator. It only appears when the battery is almost depleted. Not helpful enough. Other than that, the size is awesome, compact, but not as small as the Pentax optio s.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Quality product, sharp images, good value
Review: Pros:
- Sharp images at 3.2MP
- Very fast (~1 sec) recycle speed
- Aluminum casing is scratch resistant and durable
- Quality optical zoom
- Fast refresh on LCD (not choppy like some Olympus models)

Cons:
- Slow shutter speeds at low light may cause blurring, but ISO mode is selectable to help compensate
- Red Eye is nearly unavoidable, even with the red eye option turned on, but since the photos are digital it is easily resolved later
- 2X optical zoom is far too low, a 3X or higher would be good
- Battery life is small, but a larger battery is available

Overall, I have been very pleased with the SD100 and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quality camera who doesn't want to spend more than $300. The sharpness and recycle speed alone make this a great buy. Honestly, the image color and quality is fantastic, and is by far the best feature of this camera (as it should be).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not bad for a few hundred dollars
Review: Pros:
1. Compact and easy to stick into a purse when going to a party.
2. Good for point and shoot. Not recommend for professional photographers (or even semi-professional ones).
3. Easy to use.
4. There is a meter telling how many more "pictures" I can take (I really like this function - I will then just switch to take smaller size of pictures if the memory is low and I don't have a laptop with me to download pictures right away).
5. The zoom is relatively sufficient if using only for the event like party or get together but insufficient for the travelers who travel the world.

Cons:
1. There are some finger-prints on body of the camera even I clean the camera everytime I use it. They make the camera look dirty and old.
2. Battery dies relatively quick and there is no battery meter telling that the battery is dying unless it is about to die. The brandnew battery that I have goes for ~100 pictures (using LCD mornitor) when fully charged.
3. 16 MB SD card that comes with the camera is useless, have to buy higher capacity SD cards.
4. No date and time stamp on the pictures unless they are printed onto papers. I find this annoying since I hardly print pictures and normally save them electronically.
5. Even the red eye reduction mode is turned on, there may still be red-eyes.

As a result, I use this one for small events and buy another camera (with higher zoom capacity and more manual functions - trading with price and bulkiness of the camera, of course) to use when I travel.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great LITTLE Camera
Review: The Canon SD100 is now an obsolete model which makes it an excellent bargain if you can find one discounted.

A sub-compact that seems to have been chiseled from solid steel, this will be a second digital camera to complement a more sophisticated (but larger) Olympus. Measuring only 3.3x2.2x0.9 inches this really does fit into a pocket.

The Canon is a true 3.2 megapixel camera with 2x optical zoom. Pictures can only be recorded in JPG format with the standard sizes and compression you'd expect on a camera this size. The omission of a RAW or TIF seems an oversight but this is a 'point and shoot'after all.

The camera has an automatic and manual mode. Automatic gives the photograher no control over the camera other than flash, image resolution and macro. Switching over to manual extends the control to exposure compensation (+/-2 in 1/3 stop intervals), white balance, ISO rating and digital effects (sepia, B&W, Vivid, Low Sharpening and Normal). In addition Manual mode lets you focus the camera to infinity for landscape shots.

Start-up and shut down times are very respectable and switching over to image review seems near instant.

The LCD panel on the rear of the camera is bright and clear, it also seems to match about 100% of the actual image recorded. The viewfinder has a center mark but is really too small to use practically. If the battery was low on juice, turning off the LCD would save power but shooting would be fiddly.

As well as images, the little SD100 can record short movies with sound in Quicktime format and you can add voice memos to shots. Recording sound memos takes a series of menu button presses to record the sound bite and an equal number of thumb presses to play it again - more of novelty than practical use.

The camera 'mounts' to the PC with the supplied USB cable and supplied Twain driver and software. The software doesn't seem as intuitive as it could be. I'd like to just see the camera as a drive under Windows and drag and drop the files I want. The supplied software allows you to review thumbnails on the camera but view 'full size' requires a download to the PC. A secondary SD card reader might be a future accessory.

Included with the software package are photo/video editing packages from Arcsoft as well as applications to create photo albums for printing.

No software included for creating on-line photo albums though - seems Canon only offer this for European customers!

Lack of battery indicator is the only other gripe, but since the camera is on its first charge and has now taken over 50 shots with/without flash, I see no reason to doubt the manufacturers claim of upto 180 images with LCD monititor turned on.

The Canon S100 series case, a snip for under $10, is nice touch to a well finished quality feel camera.

The newer SD110 is basically the same camera with a direct to print button and 32MB SD card. Does that justify the extra dollars - that's up to you

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: stylish 3MP camera, but only 2x zoom, few manual controls
Review: the sd100 delivers a stylish, ultracompact camera but with only 2x optical zoom and very limited manual controls.

pros:
- very good resolution, especially for a 3MP ultra-compact.
- good color response.
- good reliable metering.
- no color cast when using flash.
- low noise at ISO 50 (keep in mind that ISO 50 for this camera is actually ISO 100 for everyone else; likewise, ISO 100 is in reality closer to ISO 200, etc)
- 9-point AiAF.
- the LCD monitor (1.5") is bright and has an anti-reflective coating - gives good live preview and review even in well lit situations.
- shooting priority play mode (a half-press of the shutter release always returns to shooting).
- fast shot-to-shot times.
- fairly good startup time, especially for an extending lens camera.
- as with most canon digicams, the sd100 feels solid.
- USB connectivity.
- good battery life, although i would recommend carrying a spare since canon's batteries are proprietary.
- ultracompact: 3.3 x 2.2 x 0.9 in, weighing only 6.5 oz.
- has continuous shooting function, which you don't normally find in ultra-compacts.
- 15 second night exposure ability.
- long movie clips possible at VGA mode (up to 3 minutes including audio).

cons:
- limited 2x optical zoom.
- very few manual controls - no aperture priority, no shutter priority, no manual focus (this is okay if all you want is a point and shoot).
- average macro performance.
- you'll need to remove from tripod to open the battery compartment or replace the SD card.
- very small mode dial.
- the supplied 16MB SD card is inadequate - be prepared to shell out a few more bucks for at least a 256MB card.
- proprietary battery - again, a few more bucks for a spare.
- case tends to show fingerprints.

the sd100's mission in life is to take nice pics with as small and light a footprint as possible. on the nice picture category, it delivers. however, there are at least two other cameras that are smaller, have better optical zoom (3x vs the canon's 2x) and have a wider feature set: the pentax optio s and casio ex-z3. as much as i like canon digicams, i would recommend these two over the sd100.

i hope this helps you with your buying decision. peace.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not a bad camera in any respect.
Review: The SD100 is the newest itineration of the digital Elph series, but certainly it is not the most up-to-date digicam around. The original digital Elph was the S100 (I still have that one), and quite a few Sxxx models have been issued between the time that one came out and now.
This one gets the SD designation to denote its use of a Secure Data memory card, which is a very small card with a tiny lever that prevents the card's data from being accidently erased or overwritten. Frankly, I think it's much ado about nothing; I've never had a problem erasing my files by accident and I resent the fact that I needed a new card reader to accommodate this slight alteration. Of note, however, almost all SD cams will accept MultiMediaCards (MMCs) happily.
Anyway, in true Canon style, the optics here are good and the body is well constructed and attractive. The controls are fairly intuitive and (proprietary) battery use is above average.
The resolution is a more than adequate 3.2 megapixels.
The Achilles Heel of the SD100 however is the far too short (2X) optical zoom, the same power found on the original S100 nearly 5 years ago. You are much less likely to find a use for 3.2 megapixels (versus 2 megapixels) than you would be to find many photo opps where you'd wish you had a more competent zoom.
All things considered, in this price range and assuming compactness appeals to the Elph buyer, I'd say the Pentax Optio and the Minolta Dimage are both better cameras than the Canon SD100.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent camera with tons of features!
Review: The size and weight of the SD100 is simply perfect. I received this item as a gift and became quite impressed by the many features it carries. I would recommend it 100%.


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