I'm an avid Canon fan and recently purchased this camera (in blue) for it's compact size. I own a 40D which isn't so practical to carry around for everyday use, especially with my battery grip on it! I previously owned (a now ancient) S40 "compact" camera - which in comparison is not-so-compact. The SD1100is is amazingly small and light in weight. It features a viewer which I think will come in handy (and has) in bright light situations where the screen does little or no good. The 2.5" screen is plenty big, although noticeable smaller than the 3" on some of the other models. I think the viewer is worth the small trade off. IS is also an invaluable feature especially with low light situations or non-flash moments.

The main issue I have heard of with this series is with potential lens harm if the camera turns on accidentally while in it's case. It's pretty hard to do since Canon has now made this on/off button flush with the body. But, my best advice to avoid this situation is to make sure the camera is in play mode (vs. camera mode) when you put it back in the case. This will prevent the lens from zooming out upon turning on. I'm not really worried - this has not happened to me yet (well, in the month that I've been carrying it around . . . EVERYWHERE!)

Navigation is easy to pick up on this one - quite different from my older S40, but easy enough to figure out even without reading the manual. I do suggest buying a spare battery to have on you just in case, especially if you plan on using the video mode (which is really good) since it sucks life quickly from the battery. I also bought a 8GB HCSD card and reader to go with it to make room for quick videos of my kid :-) and pictures, of course.

Other than that, it performs like I expected. The flash is not the strongest, but then, it's a pocket camera. If you're looking for more strength from a flash, you'll need to go with external flashing - on a different camera as this one doesn't have that option. Knowing it's limitations, it does the job for the everyday moments when you "wish you had a camera."

Now that Canon and its rivals are offering numerous compact and ultracompact point-and-shoot cameras in the 10-12 megapixel range, the price on this 8 megapixel unit has dropped dramatically. But don't be fooled by the notion that more megapixels is better -- in this class of camera, it's not necessarily true. Unless the sensor is larger, which it generally isn't, you will often not see any difference in the 10 and 12 MP cameras. In fact, you might get more noise. You are also likely to get a longer delay between shots. So if you are buying a high end digital SLR, sure, go for 12, 14, or now even 16 megapixels. But for a point-and-shoot compact, 7 or 8 MP is more than adequate.

This model offers 8 MP, face detection, and a variety of shooting modes that can be easily selected from a menu. It provides excellent results for everyday photography. It is also extremely compact and easily fits in a pocket or purse. If you want a camera to take along wherever you go, this is a must-have. It's also an incredible value, now available for as little as $160-$180.

If you buy this camera, note that it only includes a 32 MB memory card, which holds roughly 10-12 photos. You will certainly want to purchase a good, fast card. The SanDisk Extreme 4 GB works great and will hold over 1000 photos at the highest resolution (1800-2500 at lower image settings). You can now get one for $30-$45. Also, you may want to get an extra battery. Lenmar makes a good Canon equivalent that you can get for about $10. (Beware of no-name knockoffs that cost $2 or $3!)

Overall, excellent ultracompact point-and-shoot camera. Get this item to have with you all the time. (And save up $1000-$3000+ for a high-end digital SLR if you have serious, semi-pro photography needs).

I can't say anything about the Canon Powershot SD1100 IS that hasn't already been said... but that's never stopped me before, and it won't now.

First a tip; When shooting videos, there is a 4GB maximum file size. For this reason, I use several 4GB SDHC cards, rather than one larger one. That way, in the rare event that a card craps out, you're not sitting on the shoulder, you have a spare tire. And two 4GB cards are often cheaper than one 8GB.

But understand that a 4GB card will hold well over a thousand photos at even the highest quality, so if you don't care about videos, just use your old, smaller SD cards. (but not the tiny 32MB one that comes with the camera... it's useless, and not heavy enough to use as a paperweight or big enough for a coaster).

This is a decent little camera, compared to the competition at it's price level. It's popularity, and overwhelmingly positive customer ratings, attest to that.

But nothing is problem free, and this complex product is no exception.

It's inevitable that there will be a certain number of product failures and customer service problems... sort of like the ones I had with Amazon during the ordering of this product... multiple calls with promises but no resolution, made me want to smack my head against the wall. Giant waste of time, but that's how it goes sometimes.

In their defense, they have done well on other occasions. I will continue to buy from them if they save me money, but my advice is to know exactly what you want before ordering, and don't even think about making changes to your order... it's like opening Pandora's Box, pandemonium will ensue.(slap forehead, denoting irony, and wring hands in frustration).

I see complaints about the camera, and some are valid. But some are not, like, (paraphrase) "It's too difficult to turn off the flash".

I don't see how it could be easier, unless someone invents a camera that you can change the settings by "thinking" or "willing" it to change. You press the flash symbol with your thumb to view modes (auto,on,off), press again to set preference... it literally takes one second, and is about as complicated as lifting a toilet seat... and much cleaner.

However... I did not perform hands-on tests of multiple competitors of this camera to compare complexity and intuitiveness of controls, so all I know that this camera is not as simple as my old 3.3 megapixel Sony DSC-S75.

It takes some time to learn dozens of features, modes, and controls. I am a computer guy, some (me) say a good one. I have MCSE, MCP+Internet, and A+ ratings. That means that I am both a software and a hardware genius, LOL.

However, I can tell you that both you and I will have to show more than a little bit of dedication to learn all the tricks and abilities of this camera, and the more you learn the more fun it is. But the manual is 225 pages, so turn off Jerry Springer and start reading. It's worth the effort.

Alternatively, just reset to full auto defaults and go to town immediately.

This camera won't perform like a digital SLR, but SLR's don't cost $200 bucks and they weigh a lot more than 4.41 oz. I bought this camera to be able to carry it around in my pocket 24/7, and in my opinion you can't reasonably do that with anything even slightly larger or thicker... even the chunkier Powershot SD's are too big. Again, only my opinion.

If not for that, I would have gone for the thicker Canon Powershot SD890 IS with the 5X ZOOM, which is also half again more expensive, of course.

I read a lot of reviews on the internet before choosing this unit. I have had the camera for a couple of weeks. After learning the features, I spent a whole day burning it in... as I said above, I have two 4GB SDHC cards plus a 2GB SD card, and two spare Lenmar batteries in addition to the Canon battery that came with the camera. I smoked that sucker, continuous mode with flash. I took hundreds of pics and lots of videos, including the time-lapse variety, cool. I like it. Homey says five stars.

ADDENDUM, after spending more time using the camera, possibly belaboring some earlier points;

At this writing, about 93% of buyers give this camera a 4 or 5 star rating. Now, some of the complaints from the other 7% are valid, like the one that states that the color swap feature doesn't work very well (but who cares, really?)...

But others are not, like the one that states that the time-date stamp doesn't appear until you print out... clearly, the time-date stamp appears very nicely when you review the photo in-camera.

The PDF user's guide for any camera is readily available from the manufacturer's website for any camera, and you should read it before buying to make sure that the camera has the capabilities you're looking for.

Also, it's a good idea to at least read the same information in the user's guide booklet that comes with the camera after purchase... something that some buyer's clearly don't do. And with the number of features programmed into this and any other comparable camera, you are bound to have difficulty if you try to wing it.

If this review was of any use to you in making your buying decision, click YES below.

I just returned from Europe and took over 1500 images and videos with the wonderful camera. I have a neck strap and keep the camera handy my my chest pocket. This works so smoothly. When wishing to grab a quick shot I just pull it our and is seconds it is on and ready to take a picture, video, or record audio.

The face detection works well and if the shutter is pressed half way down the face will be highlighted and sometimes enlarged to show you where the focal point is. The exposure will be on the face most of the time so if the back ground is bright you will have a properly exposed face. This works especially will if the person(s) are close to the camera. I have taken some beautifully exposed faces all over Europe under some difficult lighting conditions... back light or total darkness.

The image stabilization really helps in dim lighting like in museums where you might like to take photos of art hanging on the walls. No flash is permitted so the IS really helps. In large churches that are often dimly lit one can rest the camera further on a bench or stable surface for further help with long exposures.

I took and extra battery and swapped it out every 4 days or so to keep the battery always ready for a shot. This worked all but one time when I took about 200 shots and a few videos and ran out of battery.

The Amazon price is one of the lowest I've seen. In Europe they are about 225 to 250 Euro or about 300 to 400 American dollars, so we get a very good deal here.

The 2 Gig memory cards work fine and store a ton of information. I recorded picture tags with the camera to place audio clips with the photos at concerts, family reunions, travel directions and friends voices telling stores. I just aimed the mike on the front of the camera in the direction I wished to record. It was fun to playback the audio at a later time and relive the moment.

This camera is a fantastic buy. Small, convenient, reasonable settings. It's about everything you could want in a point-and-shoot digital camera that can fit in your pocket.

HOWEVER, a certain percentage of these cameras experence a fatal "lens error" which basically means unless you send it back for repair you will never be able to use it again. Canon does not like to admit that this is a common error on their cameras, has not fixed the design flaw, and WILL NOT REPAIR it for free if you are out of warranty.

I am fortunate that this happened to me while still in warranty (acutally less than two months after purchase) and have sent it back to Canon for repair. It remains to be seen whether they will attempt to charge or blame me for the malfunction. I am very upset about this because I bought this camera specifically so I would be able to take pictures of our trip for our 2nd wedding anniversary, and now I cannot because it will still be in the shop.

To summarize: fantastic camera when it works, totally useless if you're unlucky and get a defective one. Just hope if you do, it shows the defect before your warranty expires or you're out $100-200.

I need a camera for everything, business and pleasure. And, this is an ideal camera. I had the predecessor and will continue

purhasing cannon powershot cameras. Clear photos, great size cameara fits in the pocket or purse. Can't go wrong with this one. Purchase a memory card that holds dozens of pix, though.

The SD1100IS is, for me, a backup travel camera. I have another much larger digital camera that serves for taking studio shots (art work) and telephoto details in scenery. That said, I find the SD1100IS just excellent. Get a decent neck strap so you can slip the 1100 into your T-shirt pocket (guys here) and you are all set. The little camera is very adaptable--recent night shots of Philadelphia came out nicely. The macro setting works well too--flower details can be recorded with ease.

Before buying this camera, I researched all of the Canon Powershot (ultra compact) cameras on Canon's website, as well as, reading blogs and reviews elsewhere online. This camera is fantastic for someone who wants to take a great picture ALL of the time with the image stabilization (IS) feature. I would NOT buy any camera without the IS feature. I bought this camera because IT HAS MOVIE WITH SOUND (SOUND IS KEY) as many other models do not have sound. I also wanted a view window (viewfinder) in case the sun was too bright in Arizona to see the images on the nice 2.5" LCD screen. I haven't had to use the view finder yet. :-) Now this camera isn't for zooming and taking far off shots in nature as the zoom isn't nearly strong enough for that. Things look smaller on the screen (mountains) than to the naked eye. But if you want a great camera for taking pictures of people, pets and with the macro setting (up close such as jewelry to list on ebay) this camera will be your new best friend. It is easy to work and the instructions are actually easy to understand. I am so thrilled with it. THE PICTURES ARE FANTASTIC!!!!!!!! And, with amazon, you have no sales tax ... so you will be hard pressed to find a better deal. And, you can choose the various colors vs. just having another silver camera like everyone else. I chose the Brown and love it. God Bless!

Some people might say (or complain) that this is not a simple point and shoot camera, but if you leave the camera in the auto setting--this camera is as good as they get. Those complainers might want to consider a disposable camera instead. This is not as complicated as using those $1k+ cameras. The manual setting allows you to different things like stitching multiple pictures if you're trying to take a wide scenic pictures, auto focus, video, etc. I really didn't know what to expect from this camera. I also own the Canon 30D but wanted something a little more portable. I had owned others but always had problems with my images (or my hands) moving too much. The image stability feature on this camera works perfect. When you point this camera at a person/object--one or more boxes come up on the screen to show you what the camera will focus on. This is very useful if you want to focus on objects that are either close to you or farther away. The boxes actually move if the object is moving so you can get a clear picture of them. I which I $1400 camera had this feature. I read the manual while on my flight to Rome and couldn't believe the feature this thing has. I made sure I had a couple of high capacity memory cards for this trip. Don't bother trying to take pictures in dark places using the flash. The pictures will come out dark. This is a common problem a lot of cameras unless you have enough flash power. When I used the video features of this camera, I was able to take some spectacular video inside several churches (dark inside)in Rome. The videos are stored on the memory card in .avi format. I actually downloaded these videos on my computer and pulled out individual frames. I bought an extra battery for the trip but never used it. This thing doesn't use a lot of battery power. I went a min of 2 days (350+ pictures) without charging it. Even then--I really didn't have to charge it. The menus are easy to understand and the camera allows you to adjust the video/audio quality so you can take additional pictures/video. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 to put all my pictures on a DVD with music and narration and played it on a 32-inch TV. The results were better than I expected. I'm going to try and upload a couple of pictures from my Rome, Naples and Capri trip on Amazon. I uploaded the pictures on amazon and can tell you that the results don't do this camera any justice. You can email me--I'll send a couple of video samples that I took when I was in Rome. Please take the time to read the manual and take some sample pictures. I would not manually change the auto settings unless you are familiar with digital photography and how those changes affect your pictures. The auto mode worked very well for me.

I wanted a small point and shoot camera for in my pocket when I am not carrying my Nikon SLR, which is huge and bulky. I miss too many shots that way. I bought this one a couple of weeks ago and I am amazed. The shots are clear, and good enough to be sold on stock photography sites that are very picky. I even shot video with it to send to my husband in Iraq and it is as good as a small hand held video camera, and picture cameras never have that quality. Buy this one!! It is soooo worth the money :)