Canon PowerShot SD1200IS 10 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD (Blue)

The SD1200 has some big changes over its predecessor SD1100, and is the smallest, best designed Elph I've used thus far. I've owned many models of Elph, this is my 6th or 7th, so my review is aimed especially at other serial Canon owners. I mostly compare the SD1200 to the SD1100. * The big changes: Digic4 and a larger CCD sensor. The slight increase in CCD size (1/2.3" vs 1/2.5") should make for "cleaner" photos. And Digic4 promises faster/cleaner shots also. * You get 10MP vs 8MP on the SD1100, and "medium" (M1) size is now 6MP. JPG quality is down to 2 setting: Fine or Normal. * SD1200 is only slightly smaller than the SD1100, but feels notably smaller by virtue of curved edges and the LCD being flush with the body (no bump-out). * The 1200 now feels as small as this design can shrink. Good news: my average-sized male hands can still comfortably hold it, barely not covering lens, flash, or resting on the LCD. But the round power-button is now almost too small to press if you had big fingers and no fingernails. * 1200's new battery is a higher capacity 1000mAh (vs ~760mAh for SD1100). There's also a new charger (not compatible with the old batteries), a glossy white-colored model to blend into your wall. * The buttons and menus are streamlined. There's now a button for review mode, pressing it a 2nd time takes you back to the previous state. Handy. The slider has dedicated AUTO and Manual settings, no longer need to use menus for that switch. * Continuous mode and ISO now are in the Function Menu (on the SD1100, they had dedicated buttons). * A SD card is no longer included. This makes sense to me, a 32MB card is barely useful, and with the downward pressure on electronics prices, I can't imagine Canon wanting to bundle a more expensive/bigger card. Some people will find this lack annoying. * The A/V output is gone, and the USB connector now serves both purposes (both kinds of included cables now have a USB-end) * A new version of Canon software is required for this model, Zoombrowser 6.3. Canon typically requires a new release for each new family/season of cameras. Unfortunately, the CameraWindow software has been intentionally dumbed-down in the 6.x software and no longer offers the options to delete your photos (have to go through the OS), nor to chose custom naming for the downloads. I say intentionally, since I asked Canon customer-support about it and they stated the changes were not bugs. The last Canon software to still have that functionality was 5.x, corresponding to the SD1000 and other cameras released that season. * In casual indoor tests, the 1200 seemed more ready to go to ISO400 (often too "noisy" to be useful) when the SD1100 would have chosen ISO200. * The SD1200 and SD1100 have identical specs on their optics. However, I noticed a more pronounced barrel-distortion on the 1200 at extreme wide-angle. (still only noticable in close-up shots of straight-edged items at wide-angle) * In a casual speed test, the SD1200 took/stored photos notably faster the SD1100 (same scene, continuous-mode, same brand SD card), despite the 1200's image size being larger. * Canon's paper manuals have been shrinking steadily. With this model, the only manual included is a quick-start guide, the rest is on CD-ROM. * The packaging is even more efficient than before, about half the size of the SD1100's box. * Sadly, there is no HD video mode, although all of the other Elphs released this spring had HD. SD1200 owners are stuck with 640x480 video. Canon has several sub-series within the compact Elph line, varying mostly by asthetics and optics. The SD1200 is successor to the series that included the SD1100, SD1000, and SD600. These all favor a classic, slim design. If you're unfamiliar with Canon's Powershot cameras, there's lots of good material out there on camera sites such as dpreview. In general, the small sensors and optics in all ultra-compact digital cameras lead to some optical quirks (such as barrelling), chromatic aberrations, over/under-exposure in bright sunlight/shade, and underpowered flashes. That's intrinsic to the size of camera, and vendors try to correct these effects in their on-board processing. My opinion is that Canon does a good job of correcting for these issues and the Elphs including the SD1200 take very good photos for their size. It's questionable that a SD1100 owner would specifically find this a compelling upgrade other than the Digic4, but this is an excellent compact camera in all ways. Apart from the noteworthy quirks: the lack of HD and the limited features in the download software, this camera is Highly Recommended.

I'm very satisfied with the Camera. It takes great well exposed, sharp images and is very compact, It's roughly the size of a 7/8" thick Credit Card and it has a nice solid metal body feel to it. I use it as a second camera when I don't want to haul around my bulkier Digital SLR. The optical viewfinder is a nice feature. Canon seems to be one of the only brands to still make subcompact/compact cameras with an optical viewfinder. It saves battery life and if you take shots with the LCD function turned off Canon claims you can get around 700 shots, more than double if you use the LCD display.The optical viewfinder is a nice option in bright sunlight when the LCD display is hard to see or if you run low on juice without a spare. You can always review your shots on the LCD with the press of a button if you have the auto review set to off. To load your images, You can simply plug and play with Windows XP. Using Windows XP there is no need to download any of the Canon software (Including ZoomBrowser EX) if you have any basic Photo Editing programs. The supplied Canon package gives you just the basic photo editing functions and the Canon Movie Maker is pretty much the same as XP's Movie Maker 2. After seeing what the Canon software did, I quickly uninstalled it and just went with what XP and my Photo Editing program had. You plug in the Camera turn it on and follow XP's Camera wizard. Same with the Movie files. The Video function is very nice and takes nice images. On best quality (640x380) 30 frames per sec, You can get up to 32 minutes on a 4 GB card. Only the digital zoom, not the optical works while in movie mode so whatever focal length you start out with it's pretty much set. The digital zoom just digitally magnifies the image so zoom quality will drop off. Not too bad considering the small size and convienience of the camera. With the RCA cable ends on the supplied adapter you can hook the camera up to your TV and view photos or Movies. If you have a DVD recorder you can record your movies direct to DVD, just remember to press the Display button to turn off the Time Display info overlay on your camera or it will record that too! Another note, I had a tough time to get the Auto Focus Assist Beam to turn off. I wanted the little light that assists focus to stay off at all times. I turned the function off in the menu but it kept firing up. I discovered that in the Flash menu you have to turn off the Red-Eye Lamp option too. That keeps the light off permanantly.

This is, overall, a remarkable camera for the size and price. Wide aperture photography in reasonable lighting is where this excels, such as shooting portraits indoors or in shade. Unfortunately, the size of the camera means some very strict limitations in the conditions under which you can get good photos. The aperture at high f/# (i.e. when the aperture is stopped down to let less light in) is so small that you get noticeable diffractive blurring. Take a picture in landscape scene mode outside on a sunny day (which stops down the lens to increase depth of field), for example, and you'll notice a certain fuzziness to the picture due to the small aperture. Another problem area in the camera is in the auto mode. For reasons I still haven't figured out, while the camera seems to do a great job picking out the correct mode (i.e. portrait versus outdoor), the results in auto are almost never as good as if you just leave it in P (program) mode. For some reason auto mode usually results in overexposure and too high an ISO setting. This is especially true when using the flash. I'm guessing that the camera errs on the side of having too much light to work with, rather than underexposing, but the results are frustratingly poor compared to what you get with P most of the time. Despite the photo quality limitations, many of which are unavoidable on a camera of this size, this is a very nice camera. As they say, the best camera is the one you have with you, and the compact stature of this camera means that more often than not, this will be the best camera. You'll almost always get good shots, and sometimes you'll get great ones, just using the auto mode. If you know what you're doing, you can get surprisingly good results from this camera. In summary, while one should be aware that sacrifices have to made in the optics with a camera this small, this is about as good a camera as you can get at this size. I recommend it.

I don't often write reviews on many purchases but this camera deserves the praise! I bought one for my son when we were looking for a small, easy to carry, inexpensive camera for him to take on his college study abroad in Tunisia. When he came home and showed us his over 500 photos I was blown away by the quality of the pictures. For this reason, when my wife and I were going on a Caribbean cruise, instead of schleping my Canon XSi or her S2IS both of which are much larger and clumsier to carry, we decided to order an SD1200IS along with a 4G card, accidental damage warranty and carrying case from Amazon, all for just over $200. Well, we are back from our trip, attached the camera to directly to our TV to look at the pics and the SD1200, once again, did not disappoint. Although I know my way around a digital camera I am far from an experienced or professional photographer. I can not give a detailed, technical review as many other have posted here. Let me just say what I liked: 1. As I stated, the picture quality is wonderful and consistent given the price of this camera. 2. The image stabilization works well and even pictures taken out the window of a moving vehicle are clear and crisp. 3. Having an optical viewfinder is a plus, especially when taking pictures in the bright Caribbean sunlight. 4. The size and weight make it comfortable to stick in a shirt or pant pocket while still being easy for someone with large hands to operate. 5. I was concerned about the modest 3x zoom but found that the pictures are good enough that zooming into a particular area of the picture while in your photo software (or even while viewing on your TV) allows you to see close up clearly. 6. I did not find the need to bother with any special settings, other than the occasional use of fill flash in the program mode. Otherwise I just left it on full auto and let it do its thing. 7. Although the movie mode is not "HD" and I did not use it extensively, it is certainly good enough for the occasional recording of a video. The bottom line is that, for the price, size and ease of use of this camera I don't think it can be beaten. You will not be disappointed!

After toying with a Canon SD1100 IS that belongs to a friend of mine, and deciding that my 7 year old Nikon point-and-shoot needed to be upgraded, I had made my decision on a new purchase. However, the Canon SD1100 had been discontinued by Canon and was no longer available from retailers. Most sites direct you to the SD1200 IS as the "newer model", just like Amazon does. Thinking it really was just the "newer model" to the Canon SD1100 , I went ahead and purchased the SD1200 . The price was right, and there was free shipping to boot - what did I have to lose? Apparently - a lot. When I opened the box I was taken aback by the feel of the SD1200 IS camera. It is EXTREMELY light weight compared to the SD1100, and almost feels "plastic-y" and "cheap". But, this really wasn't a big deal to me as it was small, light, and portable, and my primary focus was with the feature set. So I charged up the battery and waited in anxious anticipation to try out my new toy. Once the battery was fully charged, I powered up the camera with a blank SD card to give it a go. Immediately, I was disappointed. The #1 feature I need was GONE from this camera. Stitch Assist, or what other manufacturers call Panorama Assist, is NONEXISTENT on this camera. Nada - zilch - zero. Some people may tell you that "technically, you can still stitch photos", you just need to do it manually. Yes, that is correct. You can take photos in a sequence and stitch them manually in the Canon software, but that doesn't mean they will look good. Without Stitch Assist, the camera's ISO and white balance settings will not lock, and will likely change between photos. This results in a patchwork looking panoramic photo. So while the photos may align, the colors/exposure will vary between frames. Yes, you could manually set the ISO, etc., but now you are adding multiple steps (which you must remember to do) for what used to be a simple procedure of selecting a preset "scene". This is a huge knock to this camera, which relegates it to the "beginner" or "novice" category of camera. I am involved in engineering and architecture, and rely on the Stitch Assist feature daily for my work. Removing it (along with some other shooting modes, like Color Swap, etc.) from the SD1200 was an obvious attempt by Canon to get you to spend an extra $60 on a better model for these features, which are now provided as basic options from most manufacturers. To me, this is a useless camera, and it has already been boxed up with a return label to be returned to Amazon. Canon - you really let me down with the SD1200 IS - and you should never have marketed it as a "newer model" to the Canon SD1100 . It doesn't even compare. Fool me once, shame on me.

This camera is exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something that is very portable but still takes great quality pictures, has enough but not too many features, and operates quickly and easily. It turns on quickly, it has much less delay between pressing the shutter button and the camera taking the picture than cameras I've used previously, and you can take another picture right away without much of a delay at all. In fact, you can hold the shutter button down as long as you want to (providing the flash is not on) and it will continue taking 1.4 pictures per second, which is much faster than many others I looked at. This is something the newer 1300 and 1400 models don't seem to have. I also like having a viewfinder for those bright sunny days where it is difficult to see the LCD screen, although the screen is great in most conditions. The viewfinder is small, but it's better than not having one. You do have to keep in mind that you need to zoom out more than you think you need to while using the viewfinder, though. The viewfinder and quick burst mode are what made me choose the 1200 model over the newer ones. The 1200 doesn't have HD video (which is fine since I don't have an HD TV), but the quality is still good, and you can zoom while taking video without hearing the shutter move in the video. And there is sound when you play them back on the camera, as is not the case with many other point and shoot cameras that don't have a speaker on them. The only thing I wish this camera had was a little more zoom, but it's not bad. It actually stops zooming in between optical and digital zoom and then you can hit the zoom button again if you want to zoom further, which is nice if you don't like the digital zoom as much. There is only a basic printed manual that comes with the camera, but a more detailed one comes on the provided CD that you have to upload onto your computer to read. I haven't checked out the software that came with the camera for modifying the pictures or printed any pictures yet, but I anticipate both will be fine. Also, other reviewers have commented on how blurry their pictures were, but they probably had the megapixels on the camera set too low. I have gotten lots of nice crisp, sharp pictures so far (both still and action shots) with the camera set at 6 MP so my file size isn't too big. And I am taking a lot more pictures than I have in the past because the camera is more portable than my previous cameras. I love the green color and it feels comfortable to hold, but it is a little slippery so you do have to be careful. The buttons are small as well, so I have to use my fingernail to use them, but I like how the camera is all laid out (both the menus and the location of the buttons). For being a point and shoot, it's a great choice at a reasonable price. Overall, I am very satisfied with this camera and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for the same features I was.

Ordered this from amazon.com .It was shipped via USPS by amazon.Packaging was not that great The camera LCD did not have a protective film.Everything was loosely packed just the strap had a tape.I was kinda scared if i got a refurb lemon . Battery charged up fine in about an hour and half .Loaded up the battery & memory . Now comes the irritating part .In the Auto mode this camera makes a irritating buzz .I read this in some other reviews too and was thinking i can live with it but the sound does really gets on your head. Picture quality is really good .I have only tried it indoors and at night so far .I am going to try it outdoors and see how it fares. The camera looks very fragile and the components seem they will break easily.I hope it lasts atleast one year .

Okay, first off- don't listen to the idiot who thinks this camera doesn't totally kick ass. They don't know how to take full advantage of this canon masterpiece. It comes in several colors, it's small, sleek, sexy, lightweight, 10MP! (which is plenty enough. trust me. any higher and you're just throwing your money away), long battery life (I went to italy for a month and snapped over 200 pictures before it showed low battery), takes awesome pictures (so sharp-even with motion, and looks even better on your computer), and it's easy to use. Comon, WHY ARE YOU STILL READING THIS?! BUY ONE ALREADY! For people who aren't intersted in switching modes for everything, It's as simple as this... Use the Auto mode (The small button, pushed to the top) when its very dark and you need a flash, like in a bar/club or outside patio Yatzee! tournament(hey whatever floats your boat). Use the Manual mode (The small button, centered) when it's in the afternoon, like at a soccer game or something, and you don't want a flash. That's it. Now if you want to take advantage of all the modes this camera has to offer.... READ THE BLOODY MANUAL. Don't complain that this canon1200 hasn't impressed you over your outdated canon110 when the truth is- YOU DONT KNOW HOW TO USE ONE! FINAL THOUGHT: Buy this camera for your daughter, sister, mother, friend, wife- WHOEVER. Just get it while the price is nice and low. As soon as an undisclosed number of these are sold- The price will jump high. Most likely into the 250s or low 300s. Think I'm lying? Look at the prior models. They cost almost a third more than this one. It will surely jump in price, and you don't want to be the one guy that was like, man, i should have listened to that kid and bought one while it was so low. SO BUY IT NOW. This review WAS NOT made to entertain you at all. :)