Smoking flash - SD1200

Wow, this I had not seen before. When I was taking some photos earlier today and the flash (auto) was on, I saw smoke come from the flash after use. Not much but some, enough to make me worried, not enough to make me stop using the camera. Everything seems to work fine still, but in situations where the flash is needing to go full strength, smoke is coming. Just check out this video taken a few minutes back....


What do you think? That's not normal, not in my book. I guess I will be calling Canon tech support tomorrow to see what they have to say. Have you ever seen this? Please comment and pass along....

Update 1/4/10 Called Canon and a friendly and nice guy said that it is likely some dirt, grease, or lotion on the Flash that makes the smoke. Previously this has been fixed with an easy external cleaning of the Flash. I tried, but it still gives off the smoke and when looking very closely, the surface of the Flash seems damaged. Camera is now sent to Canon for evaluation and hopefully paid warranty repair.

Update 1/14/10 Canon got the camera 4 days ago, and today it was logged online as "repair complete" covered by warranty. I guess in a few days I will see what they did as I have no idea. No call or questions has been asked.

Update 1/21/10 Camera back. Read here

Just a macro - SD1200

Just a macro taken with the SD1200IS. This dragonfly was sitting just outside the entrance to my work. Click on the photo for a larger view.

Price drop on SD1200 and SD780

Looks like Canon is lowering the prices. The Canon PowerShot SD1200IS is now also lower at Amazon with free shipping. Right now when I checked it was $149.95. And I bought it at $220... Well, I guess that proves that one should never buy anything directly when it comes out.

Andt he Canon PowerShot SD780IS has dropped to a new low of $199.

Check out the prices here:



And here are some photos from yesterday taken with the very same SD1200:





Do I need to point out that I live in California? It is pretty dry here now.

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...

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!

Canon SD1200IS photos from today

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