Canon PowerShot SD1000

Review Date
April 4, 2008

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.33 of 5, 3 votes

Reviewed by
judeinga , Intermediate

Price Paid
$169.00 at Best Buy

Photography Experience
11-20 years

Summary
I bought this camera because I unfortunately dropped my Canon A95, and needed a replacement. The A95 is a 5Mg camera, so i thought another 2 megs would be even better, and more compact. WRONG!

This thing STINKS - picture quality, color quality, contrast/intensity/saturation. AND it chews thru SD cards like they are doughnuts. i'm 3 months in and on my 3rd card.. it starts to take a loooong time to process pictures, then it begins taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R to download to the computer, then finally just quits being able to transfer the images... still takes them, but the files are corrupt apparently and can't be seen by the computer. i know this is the camera because it's done the same thing on three different computers.

anyway, spend the money no a better camera or get another brand. i am NOT a fan. let me also say that the A95 was more than i had ever hoped for in the price range camera. it was wonderful. i am going to be purchasing a new camera, and will probably get another canon, but not this low-line model. i'm a bit put off by the horrible quality of this canon. i'm surprised that they would stake their reputation on this camera. if i wasn't already a Canon fan, and this was the first camera i bought from them, i wouldn't be back.

Strengths
compact.

Weaknesses
if picture quality and color correctness isn't important to you, this camera would be fine. if, instead, you are capturing your memories, steer clear.

Similar Products Used
Canon A95
Canon 35mm SLR's

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Review Date
December 30, 2007

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
2.67 of 5, 3 votes

Reviewed by
xxsjxx1 , Casual

Price Paid
$150.00 at best buy

Photography Experience
0-1 years , People

Summary
nice camera for the price as long as you have a steady hand, alot of my pictures with no flash come out blurry because of the motion blur. not sure how well optical image stabilzation would fix this so i cant really compare it to anything. but i can say that all of my still pictures are very sharp and nice

Strengths
picture quality
size
design
ease of use
accurate lighting and color

Weaknesses
no image stabilization

Similar Products Used
sony dsc w70

older fujifilm

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Review Date
September 17, 2007

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.14 of 5, 7 votes

Reviewed by
Laura Clifton , Casual

Price Paid
$293.00 at Best Buy

Photography Experience
6-10 years , People

Summary
My son bought me a Canon SD1000 camera for Mother's Day. I liked it fine. Until the LCD screen broke. Then I went to various camera shops and was told the LCD screen would cost anywhere from $135 to $200 to repair. I contacted Canon and was told to send the camera and a self addressed return postage paid envelope and they would send an estimate for repair or repair the camera and send it back.. I was told by Canon that the repair would cost $89 and the shipping would cost $8.
I looked through the internet and have found that these cameras are notorious for the screens breaking. There is no lip to protect the screen and they tend to break from the inside as mine has. Canon is well aware of this and they do not stand by the products LCD screen at all in anyway. This camera is not even 6 months old and there is no warranty for this product failure.
Just a word to the wise. If shopping for a new camera. Go with Olympus. I recently got my Husband an Olympus Digital camera and I have to say, the quality of this camera is far superior and the price range was exactly the same as the Canon.
I paid for the repair only because my Son gave me this camera. In the future I will not deal with Canon again.
Thanks for reading my venting, and please take my advice on this one. You will be glad you did.

Strengths
Compact

Weaknesses
Canon does not stand behind their products. Unless you want to pay a fee.

Customer Service
Told me that if I sent a self addressed postage paid return envelope they would sendback my camera. They still charged $8 for shipping.

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Review Date
May 24, 2007

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.50 of 5, 4 votes

Reviewed by
yvzzz , Expert

Price Paid
$245.00 at Bel Air Camera, Los

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Outdoor

Summary
I am a Canon EOS 1DsII user, but needed a pocketable camera. I tested several cameras in store (well outside, in better light), and found this one to be the best for the price, quality, and handlability. Among others I tried were the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ2 (and Leica equivalent), Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX30, Canon PowerShot SD800 IS, Canon PowerShot SD900, and Olympus FE-240. The Olympus was clearly the worst in terms of image quality. The Canons are all similar in quality (whether higher pixel or not, viewed at 100% on a large Apple 30" display). The Panasonics are jewels of cameras, but all suffer from the well-known noise and smearing problems. That's really too bad because they would be my camera of choice otherwise, especially with RAW capability in the TZ2 model.

Strengths
Fast focussing, responsive, small, easily carried everywhere, good quality files (but see problems below), cheap! Noise is quite well handled.

Weaknesses
My first camera had noticable softness on the right side of the image (sensor alignment?) and I returned it. The lens is of course nowhere near as good a SLR lenses. There is some corner softness wide open at the 35mm equivalent, and some vignetting and color distortion for those images that are flatter in nature (skies, sand, etc).

Similar Products Used
See summary

Customer Service
Was able to exchange camera no problem.

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Review Date
May 1, 2007

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
4.71 of 5, 45 votes

Reviewed by
armyslowrdr , Casual

Price Paid
$250.00 at Circuit City of Kill

Photography Experience
2-5 years , Outdoor

Summary
I use a Digital Rebel but wanted something smaller to take on my bike to shoot road rides and single-track adventures. The elcheapo Kodak I was carrying finally wore out. This cam seems like it will fit the bill nicely; sized like a deck of cards, and very light in weight. The menus are intuitive, however the view finder is too tiny. Lithium battery powered and very sleek and sexy.

Strengths
Size, priced right, Lithium rather than AA power. Wide screen aspect ratio as a choice.

Right now Circuit City has it 50$ less than Best Buy. You can pick up a 2GB card that will hold over 800 wide aspect ratio pictures at the highest quality and a case for 308$, tax included.

Weaknesses
Screen smudges easily. Almost too tiny, be careful you dont drop it. The battery, memory card slot cover seems very flimsy.

Similar Products Used
none in this class really.

Customer Service
unknown, however I did deal with a Canon Service Center on Oahu a few years back--service was extremely fast--they fedex aired it to a bigger repair center on the west coast--120 bucks are so to fix a bent pin inside--that was on the digital rebel.

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