Canon PowerShot SX100IS 8MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)

I have used this camera for one month and will comment on my observations. First the zoom lens is superb. It works smoothly and is easy to operate. I use it all the time. The pictures at full optical zoom (10X) were crisp, detailed and clear. The color was bright, warm and true to life. I found myself saying, "Wow, wow, wow. I can't believe how great these pictures look ". They are superior to the ones I take with my Canon S2 1S. One brght and sunny day, I took some pictures of a near by river and pedestrians who were at least 100 yards away. I used the digital zoom to enlarge the pictures 40X. They were surprisingly good..again couldn't believe it. However, on a gray day this was not the case. The pictures were pixilated and of poor quality. However, the 10X optical zoom pictures were always excellent. The superb image stabilization system contributed greatly to the quality of the zoomed pictures. My Canon Powershot SD 1000 is a wonderful pocket sized camera but at times frustrated me because it only has 3X optical zoom without image stabilization. The macro setting of the SX100 IS is superb and easy to use. The picture quality caused more "Wow, I can't believe how good they are." Some of my most exciting pictures have been in the macro setting. The camera is small enough to fit in my pants pocket albeit with a noticable bulge. I have been carrying it this way for the past month even though I have a carrying case for it. I wanted a camera with a decent zoom lens to carry with me on most days. It works but it is definitely not as portable as the Canon Powershsot SD 1000. I don't mind the increased size because I love the zoom. Thus far the unprotected LCD screen has not been damaged in my pocket. The screen itself is good size, easily cleaned and scratch resistant. The screen in no way reproduces the fine quality of the pictures as seen on a computer or when printed out. The screen has fewer pixels than the SD 1000 screen. This is not a problem for me. There is no viewfinder but the screen works reasonably well for me in bright sunlight. The camera has a solid feel which I like and is relatively easy to hold steady for zoom shots. The battery and SD card cover at first felt a bit fragile but on repeated use it seems to work just fine. The movie function is average at best. The low resolution movie setting takes poor quality movie that are unacceptable to me. At the high resolution setting the movies are o.k. You can zoom during a movie but it goes out of focus. If I want a close up movie shot, I zoom first in the camera mode and then switch to the movie mode and shot the movie. The results are o.k. My Canon S2 1S zooms while shooting a movie which I like. I have not used the manual controls so I can't comment on them. I have use the programed shooting modes for evening and inside shooting etc and they work just fine. This is a great camera albeit not perfect. For me, the picture quality is it's greatest asset. It is a pleasure to give it a 5 star rating.

Bought this because all of the rave reviews I read here about the Canon SX100IS! First the good things: The few pictures that I took looked great and the zoom was wonderful. IS worked like a charm even after I shook the camera on purpose to TRY and create a blurry picture, but couldn't! Now the reasons I returned it: I hated the "wheel" on the back of the camera. While trying to spin it I would always end up clicking it and end-up somewhere else, total design flaw! I hated the feel of it. It felt like cheap plastic and did not feel sturdy in my hands. Always felt like it was slipping out! But the reason I returned it was because of the battery life, or lack there of. I used the batteries that came with it all of about 45 minutes. I then replaced them with re-chargable ones that came with the "accessory pack" ,that I bought from Amazon, and got about 5-6 minutes with those. Put the other set in and only got 2-3 minutes with those! Went and bought a brand new pair of lithium AA's and only got 20-25 minutes with those. WHAT GOOD IS A CAMERA IF YOU CAN'T TAKE PICTURES!!! Unacceptable. I returned to Amazon awaiting my refund! Bottom Line: This camera felt cheap and not sturdy in my hands. Battery life was a joke and not acceptable.

I pre-ordered this camera and paid full price because I couldn't find another camera with a similar features list at this price point. I haven't been disappointed. I've taken it on trips to San Francisco and China and it performed flawlessly. I took about 75 pictures before I had to swap the rechargable batteries I'm using (Energizer sells a nice 120/240V collapsible charger with 4 2300 mAh rechargable AAs for about $15). I haven't used all the features but made good use of the manual mode settings for night photos of the Golden Gate. I had to deal with camera shake at high zoom levels but that is a problem with any lens above 200mm. As expected, digital noise begins to show up at ISO settings above 400. If the lighting is good the processing time is short. However, processing is a bit longer in low light conditions. In general the controls are logically placed, the buttons are not too small, and the menus are easy to follow. I find the scroll dial on the rear a bit clumsy. Occasionally, I push too hard and make a selection by rocking the dial rather than scrolling. I added a SanDisk 2Gig Ultra II memory card with the USB feature and highly recommend it. I was looking for a camera that I could use in Auto when I don't have the time or desire to compose a shot but offered the option of manual controls. I found it. With the features, 8 meg resolution, and 10x optical zoom (36-360mm equivalent) this camera is only one step shy of a DSLR without the bulk.

This is my first Digital Camera, and I am very happy with it. Ive had it for about 2 months now. It takes extremely sharp detailed pictures, which can easily be cropped and blown up and still retain their quality. The zoom is great, 10x optical and 40x if you add the digital zoom, although i normally wont go past the optical unless there's good lighting. It takes great pictures both indoors and out, but when indoors you will have to use the flash very often, unless the room is well lit.The video quality is not the greatest, but a very nice feature to have. You can zoom optically before you hit record, but can only zoom digitally while recording. The battery life with AA Alkaline batteries is very poor but with NiMH Recharbales it's great. I only get about a half hour of on time and 30 pictures off of one set of Alkaline batteries. Take everyones advice and get 2 sets of NiMH Rechargeable batteries off the bat they work wonders. I get over 200 pictures and several hours of on time from one charge. I bought Sony Quick Battery Charger with 4 AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Batteries as a pack and works great. The camera is very self explanatory and easy to use out of the box, and with a little reading the advanced options are easy enough to get the hang of. Some people were saying that when you change memory cards the batteries fall out, but that hasn't been an issue, if u get a large 2G or 4G sd card you wont have to change them very often, and just be careful. The one and only thing i don't like about this camera is the long delay between shots when using the flash. When using the flash it takes 5-8 seconds to recharge before you can take another shot. I don't know how long this recharge period would be on other digital cameras. However its not a very big deal and all of the other great things about this camera make up for it ten fold. A great camera well worth the money.

I have had this camera more than 2 years and I continue to be disappointed. It is good outdoors and for Video but indoors it is just bad. Don't use the flash and your pictures have a 50 50 chance of turning out. Use the flash and it is ungodly slow. I have had 100 dollar cameras that warm up quicker. I will keep this camera for videos and buy another for photos. I miss out on way to many photos waiting on this camera flash to be ready or just to warm up for the next photo. I tried several different sd cards thinking it was slow because of them but it has made no difference. I read here that people like how small it is. It is not that small. Pros for me Good outdoor photos Good video clips AA batteries(use enerloops) Cons SLOOOOOOW bad indoor photos kind of bulky

The SX100IS is an excellent camera. My fiancé was interested in buying a Canon Digital Rebel but since we have been without a camera for quite some time, we decided to start with something simpler before getting up to speed with a more professional model. The performance of the SX100IS has been outstanding, excellent image stabilization, even in low light conditions and indoors, the pictures will not be blurry (they may be somewhat dark but not blurry). The fact that the flash will only work when manually lifted up is one of the best assets of the camera! No more need to fight against the annoying pop out flash! I also need to mention that the camera took a bad fall; it was unintentionally dropped by a close relative. Since I had previously owned a camera that suffered a similar fate and stopped working afterwards, I feared that this camera would suffer the same consequences after the fall. However, to my surprise, the camera kept working with no flaws! The video quality is very good, with sound, and you can zoom in and zoom out during the recording. The macro works great as well as the manual controls. The camera is flexible enough to use it as a point-and-shoot as well as a professional camera. The zoom is flawless and even at the maximum zoom levels the pictures turn out without blurs! The digital zoom can be turned off therefore minimizing the chances of getting grainy pictures. I could keep going with a list of good stuff! If there is anything I could criticize is the fact that when you turn the camera on and off the lens makes a slight noise when coming in or out. There is also a slight noise when zooming in or out and I was concerned that would show in the videos, but no, the zoom noise is not apparent. In summary if you want good optics, great zoom capabilities, flexibility between point-and-shoot and manual features, and an affordable price the SX100IS is for you.

I bought this Digital Cameras about three months ago because of the good reviews particularly with the image quality.The camera truly produce very sharp and crisp images however I have noticed that the camera seems to have a problem with action shots.I have a eighteen month old baby girl who moves about quickly and I have notices that the camera struggles with fast moving objects. None moving objects come out very sharp even at 10x zoom. Video quality is also very good. This is unstandable for a Mega Zoom or non SLR camera. Summary Pros Very sharp crisp pictures Very compact 10x zoom Good image stabilization Good quality video Cons Problems handling action shots Not too great in low light

I'm not sure of why Canon introduced the SX100 IS. Its most distinctive feature is a 10x zoom of the usual Canon quality. It appears intended to compete with the Panasonic Lumix TZ series. Compared to the TZ, it is larger and heavier, but it does have a pop-up flash which can offer slightly better modeling and, more important, for many photographers, a manual exposure mode. Canon apparently intended the SX100 to fill what they perceive as the "gap" between the venerable (and excellent) A series and the DSLR lookalike, but not function alike, Powershot S5, which is also excellent. The SX100 has, in my opinion, one major design flaw. Instead of the more typical 4-way touch mechanism for function selection, the SX100 has a rotating wheel. This is, again in my opinion, a massive error since the wheel is very difficult to rotate accurately: fingers tend to slip off and either set a function prematurely or hit another button bringing up an unwanted function or, worst of all, both. Perhaps people with very small fingers and an acute sense of touch can reliably use this wheel. I cannot and see it as a major negative in the design of the SX100. Other than that flaw - which I think of as a showstopper for many people - the camera is typical Canon, which means very good value for the money. The 8 Megapixel images are crisp. As always, except for very expensive DSLRs, noise becomes a problem at higher ISO values, in this case starting at about ISO 200. If the choice is between having no picture at all and a noisy picture, the decision is obvious. The SX100 has face detection and it seems to work. The 2.5" LCD viewfinder is okay. There are a few specialized scene selectors, such as beach scene and portraits. In video mode, you can capture 640 x 480 video at 30fps. Audio quality is passable. But you cannot zoom while doing video. Up to one hour of video can be recorded. The zoom range is 36 - 360mm. I wish all the manufacturers would lop off the top end and make the wide angle wider. Shot to shot recyling times are a bit on the slow side, but not unusual for this class of camera. Flash recyling time is just plain awful and much slower than other similar cameras. The camera runs on two AA batteries, which I consider a plus since such batteries are available everywhere in the world. But make sure you carry extras because this camera eats batteries. Rechargeables are a must with this camera. Overall, this is a general purpose camera with no truly outstanding features. While image quality is high - and the primary reason for the 4-star rating - the rest of the camera is kind of ho-hum. You might want to carefully consider this camera in comparison to its competitors. Jerry