Canon PowerShot SD1000 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver)

I'd like to say this was a happy camera to be with, but after a few months it petered out with the dreaded 'lens error'. I decided to write a review because i think there has got to be a bug in the price, i bought mine dec 07 and it was 170 bucks brand new. 300+ for this hunk of crap? I have a 450 that has withstood snow, sand, dirt, and rocks for several years with barely a mark. This one wasn't even close to a beach when the lens got stuck and wouldn't retract.. Canon needs to install a force sensing circuit on their bellows claw so that the motor doesn't jump the track when its got a lens obstruction. It wasn't the case on mine, but the it still would help.

I have snuck this little wonder and other Canon SD cameras into the following concerts and have captured wonderful quality video: Rush, Heaven And Hell, Testament, Slayer, Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquillity, Iron Maiden and Megadeth. Canon Powershot SD cameras are capable of taking excellent video with clear (although mono) sound. When burned onto dvd and viewed on a tv, the colors simply pop off the screen. For those of you interested in capturing your own concert memories, always pack a Canon.

Small, comfortable, great pictures, easy to use, awesome vids for it's kind. Overall a winner.

I love this camera because it's so small that I can take it anywhere, even in a very small purse or even a clutch. I've had it for just under a year and have yet to experience a problem. It's lightweight and sleek and comes packed with different modes and functions. The only thing I can say about this camera that bothers me is that it takes a bit of fiddling for it to capture dark skin tones indoors without the aid of flash. The 'dark skin' setting actually hasn't been a help. But otherwise, this camera is ace. It takes beautiful pictures outside and does well in low light/mood lighting.

The video it captures is very utilitarian but it has colour modes and sound which is really all that a very point-and-shoot camera needs.

Best parts: comes with battery and charger (no fussing with AAAs), very streamlined and compact, many functions, great colours

Cons: some adjusting needed for darker skin, if viewfinder gets dusty it stays dusty (on the inside!)

This is a great overall camera for our family for a great deal. It is small, feels relatively sturdy compared to my previous cameras, and has all the basic feasture that I need in a camera. It also has good battery life, and you can easily purchase spare rechargeably batteries on Ebay. Since it has so many features, sometimes its difficult to get to what you want quickly, but I think Canon did the best they could.

The one feature that I was most pleased with was the video feature which was important to me because I have kids. It takes decent video even indoors at night when you just have regular lamp lighting. My previous camera - Kodak C743 - couldn't take a proper video unless you were in sunlight.

Videos are saved in AVI format, making them easier to edit instead of Quicktime on my old camera which was impossible to edit. You can also adjust if you want 15 or 30 fps and at high or low quality pixels. One thing to note is that if you record at 30 fps with high quality, then be prepared to need a lot of disk space. I normally record at 15 fps in low quality to save disk space and I think its good enough.