Canon PowerShot SD1000 Review

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gabe goodwin • April 12, 2007
Rating: 4/5
This is only my 2nd “pocket” digital camera so I can only compare it to my last camera, a Casio Exilim – both cameras have the same megapixels so it’s a good comparison.
At first, I was a little skeptical of the cannon because I really liked my Casio, but after a few weeks of use, I am converted.
There are little things I like about both cameras, but in the end, it comes down to the picture quality and the cannon simply takes better pictures.
The night time shots are much better with cannon because it has better flash. It also seems that Canon does a better job with colors – flesh tones seem more real and natural. Cannon also does a better job of eliminating blur from moving subjects and shaky hands. The face recognition is cool too.
I wish the cannon had a better battery life, needs to be charged about every 2 or 3 days with heavy use(Casio lasted a week) and the zoom control is a little small for my fat fingers, but if you want a very portable, simple to use camera that takes good, every day pictures, I highly recommend this cannon.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Nobody • May 20, 2007
Rating: 5/5
This is a great camera. It was my first camera and is really easy to use. The picture quality is great. There are few controls which makes easy to remember them. It is overall a great camera.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Honest Reviewer • June 4, 2007
Rating: 5/5
The SD1000 is a great little camera. I dropped like $300 for it. It takes great quality pics, has great resolution and it seems fairly quick from pic to pic. No PHD in photography required. Just aim and click the button. My concern with this camera is with how delicate it seems to be. The outer casing/shell, which seems to be made of Aluminum or something..seems to scratch very easily. If you put this camera in your pocket, make sure you don’t have anything else in that pocket (no coins, pens, passports, keys, matches, money)..NOTHING, as everything that comes into contact with it, including my wedding ring scratches it.
So, for function it gets an (A+)
For FORM it gets a (B- or C )
This camera is strictly for point-n-shoot picture taking. Don’t expect any manual SLR (aperture & speed) ability. It’s all AUTOMATIC. Which is something else I didn’t know.
It takes great pictures and records great film. I suggest buying a larger Photo Chip (1 or 2 Gig) vs. the 32mb that comes with it.. It should be priced at $200 or slighty less..but Canon has to make a profit.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Nicholas Herbert • June 20, 2007
Rating: 4/5
I bought this camera and off the bat thought it was terrible becasue my shots were completely out of focus, I later realized that the "Face Detect" auto focus feature isn’t a great setting to have it on, instead I switched it to AiFi-On, which seems to be much better, but I think i might have fiddled with a couple other setting aswell and have yet to figure out how to switch them back. This is a great little camera and I have found that pictures taken inside, with flash, create a lot of red eye. And pictures I take inside tend to be out of focus more then when i take them outside. If any of that will bother you then this might not be the camera for you, but i definetly think that the pros outway the cons on this one…you can find almost all the pros on the cannon website or on any other retailer website. All I am doing to giving you the cons so you aren’t mistaken by the filtered reveiws on the retailers websites.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Michael • June 21, 2007
Rating: 5/5
I was basically looking for the smallest camera I could find that had quick response, relatively high resolution, and sold at a competitively low price. Well, after looking at internal-zoom lens cameras such as Sony’s dsc-t20/t100 and Nikon’s S50, I decided on the SD-1000 for it’s style, easy to use menu, and for the vivid clear test-shots i took at demos. So far i can’t think of anything negative to say about this camera.. it lacks an optical image stabilizer, but I haven’t had any blur-related issues that wouldn’t have turned out alot worse with larger, more expensive cameras. It takes stunning day shots, night scenes, and super close macro images. The 60fps movie mode is also a plus. I would definitely recommend this camera.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Jenna • July 2, 2007
Rating: 5/5
This is my first point-and-shoot and I did a lot of reading. One good tip is don’t use its flash in dim or dark light, use it in variable light, for instance, in an outdoor shot where your subject might be in shadow but the background is sunny.
IMO this camera produces exceptional quality images particularly close-up shots. Very crisp. Actually my opinion is the camera is almost fail safe. I really haven’t taken a bad shot with it yet. Bad subjects – nobody needs to see the sidewalk where my finger accidentally hit the button, but no bad shots.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Tim Whalen • August 5, 2007
Rating: 0.5/5
I just bought a "Powershot SD1000 Digital ELPH and it is the absolute worst camera I have ever used. It is supposed to be a point and shoot and nowhere on it does it say "point shoot, and focus" because it DOES NOT FOCUS, IN ANY MODE". Not to be disrespectful to anyone but a blind person could focus better than this camera. The only reason I gave this camera a 1 on the score sheet is because there is not a "0".
Rating: 1 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
G • August 7, 2007
Rating: 4/5
I have a "good" camera that’s close to being a Digital SLR. Great for "art" shots, but I wanted something I could pop into a pocket and shoot "whatever" "whenever." So I got the SD1000. Its size is absolutely great, and the pictures I’ve shot are mostly OK — not breathtaking. It seems to have a bit of a focus problem, but then I use it in "Manual" mode most often. However, they’re great quality shots for the size of the camera. And considering I wouldn’t have had the shots otherwise (I wouldn’t be dragging my near-DSLR around anywhere near as much), I’m happy with it.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Ryan • August 8, 2007
Rating: 4.5/5
Just bought it today and only have had a chance to take about 30 pics. All the pics came out clear and the start up time on this camera is really fast. It powers up in under .5 secs. Great camera for the price and size.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Eric • August 21, 2007
Rating: 5/5
I have owned a few digital cameras and I have to say Canon make the best product. I have bought Pentax and Minolta and the Canon works the best in low light condtions.
I had and SD630 which was a great camera but lost it. This SD1000 is just as good if not better minus the 3′ screen. I paid a little over 200usd for the camera which is a bargin! Canon is the only way to go and I am speaking from experience!
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
James O'Quinn • September 28, 2007
Rating: 1/5
Flash can’t be set to “ON” – so, no flash in well lit conditions – faces are too dark. Almost every other brand, including the older Canon’s have an “ON” setting – why this doesn’t is beyond me. The flash is there, but, can’t be turned on! UGH!
Rating: 2 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Margie • October 10, 2007
Rating: 5/5
We grabbed the Canon SD100 as a last minute purchase on our way out of town for a long weekend.
Spent 3 days taking it everywhere with us and snapped portraits, indoor shots and many foliage and other landscape shots and we LOVED IT! I don’t think you can beat it as far as “bang for the buck” An absolute “10″
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Adrian Campbell • November 7, 2007
Rating: 4/5
Best (and worst!) feature is the fabulous bright clear viewfinder so it’s tempting and fun to waste batteries looking at what you’ve shot and batteries always run out at the wrong time -(must buy a spare). Best policy is buying a big memory card that takes lots of pictures. Delete later in the computer.
The direct viewfinder is a lifesaver as you near the end of battery life – turn the LCD off and squeeze out a few extra pictures.
Shame it doesn’t have full control of shutter and aperture but at least it tells you what it’s setting and if you want those features you’d probably want others too and so defeat the object of a carry-all-the-time-shirt-pocket camera.
I too bought the camera on an impulse away from home (and my trusty Nikon 5400), took a day or so learning its strengths and weaknesses and I love it.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Elsie • November 26, 2007
Rating: 5/5
We just bought the Canon AD1000 and LOVE it! We have been through 2 digitals: Kodak and Olympus and we researched very carefully before buying again. The choice was down to Sony or Canon but chose Canon because you don’t need to purchase Sony accessories which are pricy. This camera took 1/2 hour to figure out, takes fantastic shots, is very portable and we really like the quick power up time (something we hated about the Olympus with its 5 minutes warm up chug maybe I can take a picture now the hockey game is over!!). The AD1000 comes with very detailed and useful manuals and separates them into Basic versus Advanced, so easy to get going quickly and then research more complex functions later – no typos, no ambiguity, references to other areas of manual which related to same function are actually made WITH PAGE NUMBERS!! WOW!! A user-friendly manual – worth the purchase just for that. Would HIGHLY recommend the Canon.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
DPM • December 31, 2007
Rating: 5/5
I did some research for sometime before I purchased the SD1000. I am very happy with the quality pictures that I’ve taken. Mr. Whalen probably needs some classes on how to use a digital camera. I have no complaints. Excellent camera.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Christine • January 4, 2008
Rating: 5/5
My boyfriend bought this camera for me and I absolutely love it. It’s small and I’m not gentle with my stuff; it’s survived through quite a few pretty nasty spills.
The photo quality is great and the recharge time on the battery is painless.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Robert G • January 14, 2008
Rating: 3/5
About 6 months ago I bought a Canon SD1000 for my wife. She keeps complaining that it “doesn’t work well”. So I finally got a chance to try it out this weekend and, turns out she’s right.
Before buying this one, I read a lot of reviews and the SD1000 had a lot of positive reviews. But, in the real world, while the video feature is excellent, shooting with the flash is nearly impossible (even in good ambient light), unless your subject is dead, because there is usually a delay of 2-3 seconds between the shutter press & the flash firing. I then switched to manual, ISO 1600, turned off all the bells & whistles and was able to shoot. Unfortunately, the shots are so grainy at 1600 that no amount of post processing will help.
Rating: 6 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Ginny • February 10, 2008
Rating: 1.5/5
I hate this camera, the red eye is the worst I’ve ever seen. I haven’t the time to go back and correct every picture one at a time with the built in red eye correction.
Rating: 3 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Joe • February 26, 2008
Rating: 2.5/5
Love the camera, but a bit crosses with Canon… Bought it about 2-3 months ago and one day when turning it on the lens got stuck out and the screen said “lens error”. Tried turning it off but to no avail. Took it back to where I bought it and they sent it off to Canon to be fixed. Just found out today that they’re not going to fix it under warranty as there was a ‘foreign particle’ (IE dust or sand) in the lens. So now I have a $300 camera that they won’t fix unless I pay for it… Ok – end of rant, but apart from that I love the features and quality of pictures :o)
Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
John LaPorte • February 26, 2008
Rating: 4.5/5
Just purchased the SD1000 as an inexpensive vacation camera. A lot easier to lug around then any of my eos dslr’s. For the price and the size of the camera, the image quality is excellent. The downside if any is that the menu is a little difficult to navigate and perhaps may be a little “overkill" I would recommend this camera to anyone.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Carvin • March 4, 2008
Rating: 4.5/5
Just bought this, and got to try it out in a variety of different situations. Amazing pictures in all conditions. Dark, bright, indoor, outdoor. The startup is so quick; I’ve never had a digital camera start so quick. I think the guy “not impressed”, doesn’t know you need to press the shutter button half-way to focus first. I haven’t had any issues at all with focus and flash. Would recommend this camera to anyone that wants a great point and shoot camera :)
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Frank • March 5, 2008
Rating: 4.5/5
I bought this camera and the first time I used it I went camping and the resolution is so good. The quality of the picture is so high I recommend this camera to anybody who wants to get a superb camera.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Shannon • April 20, 2008
Rating: 5/5
I purchased the camera & this would the first time for me to own a Canon. My previous camera was a Kodak. I love the quality of the pictures. It turns on very quick. The only thing that bothers me is when I accidently turn on the movie switch. I’m still learning how to use it. Overall, I love it!
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Rob • December 2, 2008
Rating: 5/5
Canon does it again with this one. This is a no-nonsence camera, incredible build quality and amazing photos. I love the retro styling (the black circle) and it is a departure from all the chrome and mirror-finish ”feminine” cameras out there. It has this stainless steel look that says this is not a toy but a real camera. Easy to use menus are intuitive and quick once you get the hang of it. I did a direct comparison to the Pentax Option S10 at 1OM pixels. The Canon in my opinion put their money where it counts, and that’s not in the pixel-count race, which is ridiculous past 6M mark for everyday use.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Allison • September 6, 2009
Rating: 3/5
Its a good camera with a lot of cool features, but it takes a long time to take a picture.
Rating: 6 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.