I give it 3.5 of 5… good, I would buy it again, but it does not live up to the hype from Canon’s marketing department (unlike their pocket point-and-shoots).
I originally came to this camera from a price perspective. My SD1100 has a broken lens (through no fault of it’s own) and the latest greatest Canon point-and-shoots are surprisingly more expensive than they have been in the past. With the prices so close together, I figured I would spend the extra $75 to gain a few long-desired truly manual controls over my pictures and see what this "SuperZoom" thing is all about.
The manual modes in the camera are good enough I can put off buying a DSLR for a couple more years. As it turns out, most of what I wanted (direct control of exposure and white balance) can be accomplished with this camera in a semi-manual mode, which is great as Canon’s processors generally do a wonderful job picking out settings by themselves.
While the camera boasts 12 megapixels, effectively it is more like 8MP thanks to a slight grain/fuzz issue that is present on nearly every picture. I also found the lack of a "superfine" JPEG quality rather disturbing, as it is present on ALL of the other digital cameras I have ever used. Images taken at "fine" quality average about 80% smaller in file size than they do on the lower resolution (8MP) SD1100 set to "superfine". While the quality of the images does not appear to suffer, I can’t help but wonder if some of the grain/fuzz might be cleared up if we were allowed "superfine" quality JPEGs.
The interface is pretty much the same well thought out layout we’ve come to expect from Canon. Most controls are right where they have always been, and the few things that have moved (to make way for manual controls) are not difficult to find. Getting through the system to change modes or options is quick and easy. A more detailed look at the plusses and minuses of the camera can be found in the individual picture descriptions on Flickr.
A note on size if you’re planning to pocket this camera and don’t like wearing BDUs every day: this is a big camera. It will not fit in any of the pockets in my jeans at all, and I have trouble getting it into the pockets of some of my cargo pants. While I may have been able to put off buying a DSLR with this camera, I find I’m still in need of a true pocket camera to replace my SD1100.
For protection, a Pelican 1010 fits the camera like it was made for it. I STRONGLY recommend purchasing one as this camera is extremely vulnerable to dust intrusion. After only 5 months of careful use there are particles of dust inside the lens assembly I have not been able to clear (which show up in my pictures). The outside of the lens also gets dirty very easily, even when the camera is off, and is hard to get clean. I find myself cleaning the lens every couple weeks. By comparison, I had to clean my SD1100’s lens maybe twice a year.
