Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

Most Canon digital cameras still use the CompactFlash memory card. CompactFlash is much thicker and larger than the Secure Digital card used in the SD100 (this model). It's cheaper per-megabyte, but is slower and draws more power. Canon is doing a good thing by using the increasingly dominant SD format in this dimunitive digital camera.

Function-wise this camera is a good point-and-shoot replacement. You won't find many manual controls (beyond the usual exposure comp, white balance, flash control, and a few other common controls), but it's a good "pick up and snap away" camera. 2X optical zoom is rather inadequate for any semi-serious photographers who travel a lot, but ok if you just carry this to events and parties.

Picture quality is much better than my first-generation S100 digital elph camera from a couple years ago. I still find the exposure a bit on the underside and the color tone a bit on the cold side. If you want top-notch picture quality, consider the 4-MP Canon S400 which has excellent image quality and color balance.

In summary, this is a very capable digital camera in a great form factor. It's light and easy to carry, and does a fine job as long as you don't do serious photogrpahy with it.

If you are looking for a camera to replace a traditional film camera, the SD-100 is it. I'm an avarage user and this is what I've found:

PRO:
1. Small size. Easy to carry in a pocket or purse.
2. Decent Zoom
3. Burst mode for taking a series of quick pictures.
3. Movie mode...WITH SOUND!
4. Intuitive controls
5. Supplied Cannon software makes transferring photo's a breeze.

CON:

1. Expect to buy a memory card. The 16MB supplied with the camera is useless.
2. Red-eye. Even with the red eye reduction turned on, you still get some red eye. It's mildly annoying, but you can fix it on the computer easily.
3. Mysterious small halo. Must be a function of the lens. occasionaly you will get this small halo in a picture. Doesn't happen often.
4. A second battery is highly reccomended.

The only people who will complain about this camera are high-end photographers. They'll whine about everything. "Zoom is tiny" "Aperature control" "Lack of filter". Crybabies the whole lot of them.

If you are a normal person, you'll love this camera. Point, shoot, done.

After a long research, I decided to purchase the Canon IXUS II (or SD100 in some countries) as my first digital camera. As a background, I am generally a point-and-shoot person with aspirations to take up photograpgy as a more serious hobby. I've been using it extensively for about two months now, and here's what I think are the good and bad points of the camera:

GOOD POINTS

1. Amazing picture quality for OUTDOOR shots - Pictures are sharp and crystal clear. The photos produced are exactly like what I saw with my own eyes.

2. Small, slim and solid - Can fit in my pocket easily. Now I can take it everywhere and ready to take a snapshot whenever I feel like it. It opens a whole new possibilities.

3. Relatively easy to use - The buttons layout are spot on, everything important is within reach of your thumb or index finger. On-screen menus are logical and easy to use. For advance features, I still need to read the manual though.

4. Movie quality is generally good. All movies I took plays well (with good sound) on the camera's LCD and and also on my 29" TV. The sound playback on the camera is quite loud and can be heard even in noisy areas.

5. Fast operation - fast starting up time and time between shots, you wont notice any delays. Transferring images to PC is also relatively fast.

6. Battery life is okay, I managed to took 68 shots (plus a hell lot of picture playback on LCD and on TV) before the battery died.

7. Great LCD display. Sharp images and good colour reproduction. Can be seen easily in bright sunlight.

BAD POINTS

1. Average (on the borderline of poor) INDOOR picture quality. Every photo I took that uses the flash turns out ugly. The photos have this unnatural yellow glow (from the flash) on the subject, and the background becomes very dark, even though the room was evenly lit in real life. The best that I could do is to use Manual, and set the Exposure to -1 2/3, White Balance to Tungsten, and set the Effects to Neutral, and ISO to 50. That manages to turn my indoor pictures from ugly to bearable. The other alternative is to take indoor shots with flash off, as suprisingly it produces good pictures. But you need to use a tripod to get sharp images, which isn't always convenient. I'm really dissapointed with the indoor performance of this camera. None of the glowing reviews I read in my research highlighted this problem.

2. Low battery indicator only shown on screen when the battery is on the verge of dying. If you don't have a spare battery and you are outside, your camera would be useless until you get back and recharge the battery.

3. Need to take out the battery to recharge.

4. Only 2x optical zoom.

5. Movies has a limit of 30 seconds per clip. You can fill up the whole memory card with movies, but it has to be in a series of 30s clips. You can't take one long continous movie shot.

6. Once you downloaded your movie shots to PC, and you deleted the movie from your camera, you cant upload the movie back to your camera. You can upload still images back to your camera, but not movies.

7. The bundled Canon software is not the best, nor is it the easiest to use.

Conclusion: A great all round compact camera that is easy to use, and takes excellent outdoor shots. If you can live with average indoor shots, then buy this. Otherwise, I would recommend Sony Cybershot as it can take much much better indoor shots compared to this camera. I give this camera 2.5 stars.

THIS CAMERA ROCKS.
I average about 100 photos a day plus a few videos 7 days a week. This camera has been totally abused, Its been dropped almost 10 times, somtimes from about 6 feet landing on tile and concrete surfaces. Ive spilled beer all over it 3 times so its been soaking wet and all i do is dry it off and its fine. It been in the rain, the snow, the heat, the humidity, and below zero tempertures. The lense has 3 dents in it, one from a metal cup being thrown at it by an angry photo subject where the lense was smashed in about 1/4 of an inch on an angle, and all i did (the next morning while sober) was just click out the lense and it worked FINE hahah. A few of my friends have digital cameras that broke just from them bumping into a table with the camera in their pocket. This little Canon can take anything and I recommend it to ANYONE who brings their camera with them wherever they go. Its small and compact, sturdy, takes excellant photos (excepcially of hot chicks) in all conditions, great options, fun options like sounds and custome start up images, easy to use menu, and fits well in my hand. The lanyard is also of great design and makes the camera even more secure. IF this camera EVER breaks I will instantly buy a new one as I believ it is the only camera that can take the abuse I give it.

BUY THIS CAMERA!

This camera is very nice. I will go down on the pro's and con's.

Pro's:

1. Very small. It is with ease that you can put this camera into your pocket, or even into your glove dept of your car (and just how many things can you put in a glove dept these days?!!) And the size really makes it easy for handling when taking pictures.

2. The digital rear view is very nice. You get a clear vivid view of what it is that you are taking a picture of. This is a fantastic feature, considering that many other camera's do not have a good view in the rear view... which sort of really goes against having the picture view in the rear of the camera in the first place! Bright and easy to see.

3. For a 3.2 mpixel camrea, these pictures are pretty good quality. I really like them, but would consider this a lower end camera... don't try to take shots of stuff far away. This camera is for use close up.. like under 5 feet in distance for any definition.

4. Easy to use downloading from camera. You can use the software they give you with this camera... or just skip it and use the windows XP software that automatically detects the camera, and loads the windows software that will work with your camera. This is really nice that Canon and Bill Gates talked to each other and they shared information on drivers and software. This does NOT alaways happen BTW. Kudo's for Canon.

Con's:

1. Battery life. The battery is horrendous. After six months, the battery rarely last over 15 - 20 minutes. This is pretty bad. I mean, this battery is easily the poorest quality of any battery in any device I have ever used. And Canon should be ashamed for issuing the darn battery with this type of quality. With Canon, you expect better quality.

2. Starter Camera. This camera is really not for use for anything other than really close pictures. Which is sorta what I said in the Pro section, and it is a pro for that reason.. but with the small zoom, I expected to get more than five feet or so for definition... perhaps I was over optimistic...

3. Outershell of camera. After a couple of months, the color of the case of the camera sorta rubbed off. It looks very dull, and old... I have had other cameras that are considerably older than this camera, but look a heck of a lot newer than this camera. What did they put on the outer shell of this camera? I do not know, but Canon should not use whatever it was again. My camera looks like it is 50 years old.

Overall: A very good starter camera. I would not get this again, but I would get it for someone who is just taking fun photos. Perhaps get it for a youngster, or someone who might not really care that they can't get super good pictures.

Have fun!!

Had this two days and so far LOVE it! First the size is not as small as the Pentax Optio S but it was small enough to fit in my pocket no problem. Default settings out of the box with 16MB SD card allowed me 19 clear shots in a room that only had my TV and one 25 watt flourescent light on (no adjustments whatsoever) or 16 shots and a short 20 sec video. SO GET A BIGGER SD card (I got an OEM 128MB sd card which works fine and cheaper than Canon's branded one)! Manual is easy to understand and controls are easy to manipulate, well spaced and LCD display is crisp. I was first considering the A70 since I wanted a good 3 MP below $300 but found the A70 too heavy and bulky to fit in my pocket. The 2x zoom is not great but I figure to be using this mostly for indoor shots that I can move closer to anyway. And from all the test shots I have done objects about 20-30 feet away still very clear and crisp even when zooming in from a distance and then zooming into the object itself. So far though it does what I want it to do, is small, has a solid feel and great pictures! The movie resolution in default is also fluid and clear and sound is clean too. I have yet to change any settings on this and out of the box I LOVE it!!!!Easy to use, good picture quality, small size, great looks, cheap price... what more could I want?!! Oh and the fingerprints are not an issue either cause they wipe off easily off the stainless steel body. 5 stars!!!!

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.

I've had the camera for a good week or so. Been playin around with it and it takes some great pictures. I was looking for a camera I can take when I go on trips and stuff that would fit into my pocket with ease. I didn't want any more embarassing comments from people like a "Is that a camera in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" This guy slips into the pocket with ease and is not bulky at all. The camera was a little heavier than I expected, but thats no big deal.

Picture quality has been good thus far. Not great, but I didnt want to drop another hundy for just 1 MP improvement. I bought a 512 MB SD card off Amazon for $75 (after rebate), so I don't have any problem fitting pictures on here. Just splerge a little and you'll never have to worry about filling up the card. I also bought a genuine Canon battery off of Ebay for a backup, but havent found battery power to be a problem as of yet. The zoom does the trick for what I need. If you are just taking pictures of friends, random hot chicks, etc this is fine. Yeah, 3x optical would be nice, but this will suffice. I really didn't intend to rhyme there, sorry.

Here is my story on the durability of the camera. So, my first outing with the camera. A baseball game between two big crosstown rivals. Tailgating in the lot before the game, pretty intoxicated. Took a bunch of pictures already, turned out great. Then the incident occurred. Someone is standing a good 200 feet away throwing a softball back and forth with another guy I am with. Random people are walking by left and right and an errant throw approaches my group. I attempt to protect some bystanders from taking a head shot with the ball. I throw my hand up in the air to block the ball, however, my blurred judgement threw up the hand with the camera in it. Next thing I know, my new camera is airborne. It flies about 8 feet high and 10 feet away from me, crashing into the side of a truck and then hitting the concrete full force. It was like taking the camera and just whipping it against the ground. I thought, "well, it was nice having a digital camera for a few days. This one is gone" Upon picking up the camera, I was pleasantly surprised. The battery holder on the bottom fell off and the battery went flying. After 3 minutes of searching under cars, the battery was found. I popped it back in, snapped the cover back on, and the moment of truth came. I hit the power button, and boom, it turns on like nothing ever happened. All my old pictures are still there and I took many pictures the rest of the day. All turned out great. Two scrapes on the bottom is all of the lasting damage. Gives my camera a little personality. Matches the scrapes on my cell phone from similar instances. So, this camera is definitely durable, will be able to take a few shots. Also, if you drink too much and become a little clumsy with your possesions, this is the right camera for you.

Overall, a great camera, defintely worth the price for me ($209). I bought a somewhat cheaper one knowing that I might do something stupid and lose it or break it quickly. That did occur, and it still works, so a plus for me. Takes good pictures and is very easy to use and take around with you. Overall, this is a great camera for the amateur photographer, who likes to travel but not be bogged down with a huge camera. Take pictures of your friends and family and you will be happy. And of course, if you are a twenty something, obnoxious, can't control your drinking kind of guy, I give this my 100% recommendation.