Friday, July 31, 2009

Price alert!!! $209 for SD780 at Amazon

The Canon PowerShot SD780IS is on sale at Amazon. Lowest price I have seen so far, "just" $209 for the silver version with free shipping. Not sure how long this price will last. Click below to check it out.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

More SD1100 vs SD1200



The battle continues between the SD1100IS and the SD1200IS. I have taken some shots directly after each other with both cameras. Default colors, shot only IS, max resolution, min compression, and the rest as default. In the crops below, SD1100IS is always on the top, and SD1200IS on the bottom. Enough said.

First shot, roses indoors at ISO80, all zoomed in:

Direct out of camera JPGs are here: SD1100IS and SD1200IS.

Crop (SD1100IS on the top and SD1200IS on bottom):



Next shot, landscape taken in ISO 80, wide angle:

Direct out of camera JPGs are here: SD1100IS and SD1200IS.

Crop (SD1100IS on the top and SD1200IS on bottom):



Next shot, landscape taken in ISO 80, wide angle:

Direct out of camera JPGs are here: SD1100IS and SD1200IS.

Crop (SD1100IS on the top and SD1200IS on bottom):



Next shot, close up taken in ISO 80, full zoom:

Direct out of camera JPGs are here: SD1100IS and SD1200IS.

Crop (SD1100IS on the top and SD1200IS on bottom):



I am not sure that I have that much to add. Contrast seems better for SD1100IS, but it is just to dail it up one in the custom colors and they would probably be the same. In one of the shots, I seem to see some softness to the lower right corner for the SD1100IS, but it probably varies from camera to camera anyway. I say they are pretty much equal when used in ISO80.

I also took a outdoor video. There are four clips, the first one is SD1100 at wide ange, then the SD1200 also at wide angle, then the SD1100 at tele and last SD1200 at tele. As you can hear, it is pretty clear that both camera lack even basic wind noise reduction...

Slightly larger - SD890

Just FYI, the Canon SD890IS is on sale at $170 on Amazon right now (probably will not last long).

Monday, July 20, 2009

Canon SD1100 vs SD1200



I had a bit of luck today. I found a SD1100IS on Craigslist that was listed as damaged and possibly not working. I emailed the guy and long story short, I gave him a used ink jet that I was getting rid of anyway, and I got a new camera. After a little fiddling, it seems to be fully functional again. Yeah... :) Only "problem" seems to be some dust creating a blob on the right side sometimes (like dust in a DSLR).

So, I thought why not do some testing to compare it with the new sibling, the SD1200IS. And that's what I did. I will in the next few posts do some more testing, outdoors, but right now it will be a side by side, indoors.

First a few more product shots (nice, don't you think):




What I did was to do a silly, but for some very interesting, ISO series using a tripod, 2 second delay, IS off, Standard colors for both cameras at the highest quality setting. The camera were at the widest setting (not zoomed in). This is how the scene looks like:


And here are links to the full size, directly out of the camera shots:

SD1100IS: ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600.
SD1200IS: ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600.

Now, if you do not have the energy to look download and look at all of them, well, here is one sample comparison for you. It is a 200x400 pixel area of the ISO400 shot. In my opinion, ISO 400 is where I would stop with both cameras, although ISO800 with the SD1200 could be acceptable also. SD1100IS on the left.


Then I zoomed in as much as possible, and redid the test. This is what the scene looked like:


And here are links to the full size, directly out of the camera shots:

SD1100IS: ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600.
SD1200IS: ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600.

Again, if you do not have the energy or will to download all, here is a sample of ISO800 for you. SD1200IS to the right.


As you can see, the SD1200IS has a little bit better noise reduction, I think. I would not want to use the SD1100IS on the ISO800 setting, if one can avoid it.

The last thing I had energy for was to shoot a short video, side by side, and since it was late, I figured a low light one was best. In the next few days I can try an outdoor one, maybe. The SD1100IS comes first and the SD1200IS after. Sorry for the bad music selection, it was old files on my old Xbox...



The raw video files from both camera can be downloaded here for the SD1100IS and here for the SD1200IS.

I guess I do not need to tell you, that if you found this useful, and want to buy one of these cameras, please click through the links to Amazon for either camera :) Thanx!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Canon SD1200IS photos from today

Nothing new, just a few photos taken with the SD1200 during two walks today. Enjoy.





Friday, July 17, 2009

Kindle 1.0 - only $199

Amazon has refurbished Kindle for only $199 right now. Some users seems to prefer 1.0 as it has a SD card slot for more storage.