Canon SD1200IS testing...

I got my small, lightweight, Canon SD1200 IS dark gray camera the other day. It is slightly thicker than the SD780IS but not much. It's made of some kind of plastic instead of metal, but hey, what is most bike helmets made of? I bet you it will hold up just fine, and maybe even better, in a drop test than it's sibling. But I am not going to test that for you... Anyway, the build quality is solid, just what you expect out of Canon.

I did do some ISO test shots if you are interested. Since it's 2Mpixels less on the sensor than the 780IS, it is possible that it might be just a bit better, but I would not be able to tell. The scene looks like this:



And here are all the shots, first in 10Mpixel resolution:
ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600,
ISO 3200.

And then the same using "M2" resolution, 4Mpixels in camera:
ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600,
ISO 3200.

And last, 10Mpixels, using full zoom:
ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600,
ISO 3200.

Why the 4M samples? Well, to tell you the truth, I usually put the camera on 4M (M2) size when just taking everyday snapshots of the kids and family. I find that 4M is ok for a decent looking 8x10, for personal enjoyment. If you are selling or so, that would not be the best option. But the 4M size gives smaller file sizes and is just right. Anyway, that's me.

How is the video? For the 640x480 30fps size that I will be using, there are two bit rates. One normal (~16min on 2Gbyte) and a long play (~32min on 2Gbyte). Here are two examples from the very windy beach. Standard and Longplay. Directly out of the camera.

I would say that it looks like the SD1200 is going to be my choice. It is lighter than the SD780, a touch thicker, and roughly the same photo quality. And the lens is actually just a tad faster (f/2.8 at wide compared to f/3.2 for the 780). I will post more in a few days. Check out the prices on Amazon below. The SD1200 dropped a little, just like the 780. The dark gray is selling for $200 and some others also (4/27).

SD1200IS at Amazon: Light gray, Dark gray, Pink, Blue, Green, Orange.

Canon SD1200IS?

After being very annoyed that our PCs are not capable of the proper display of the SD780IS HD videos, and at this time have no other reason to upgrade them, I have decided to check out the Canon SD1200IS. It's 10Mpixels instead of 12M, and it is a little thicker, but also weighs less, but the main differance is that the SD1200 is not taking HD H.264 videos, "just" 640x480 30fps motion JPEG ones. In a few days I will post what my take on this cheaper, less capable, camera is.

Canon SD780IS: 87x56x18mm (3.4x2.2x0.7in), 160g (5.6oz)
Canon SD1200IS: 86x55x22mm (3.4x2.2x0.9in), 120g (4.2oz)

Question is why there seems to be no SD1200IS reviews out there... I guess this one from Cnet Australia cannot really qualify as a proper review, or? And this one from "dpinterface". Not much of a review, I think.

SD1200IS at Amazon: Light gray, Dark gray, Pink, Blue, Green, Orange.

SD780IS price drop! April 20th...

$230 for the silver one here at Dell small business, and for $250 at here, Dell home.

The prices have dropped at Amazon also and there you get a free 4GB SDHC card also ($250 for Silver with 4GB card!). Order Canon SD780IS from Amazon: Deep Red Black Gold Silver

Low light samples - Video and Still

Here's a quick test of how the ISO 800 performance of the SD780IS (IXUS 100 IS) is. This was taken in full auto, where it recognized the scene as a macro (was quite close) and therefore did not fire the flash. The camera is not that great at throttling back the flash for macros. The photo is (click on it to view the original):



Here is a 100% crop from the 12Mpix photo:


And if one would downsize the photo to 3Mpix (2000x1500) then the 100% crop will look like:


Now, considering this is an ultra compact camera with 12Mpixels, it's hard to not be at least a little impressed. If you have been using digital cameras for a while you know what I am talking about. My first digital was an 1.2Mpixel Olympus camera...

Anyway, I also took a very short and utterly boring (and messy looking) 720p video in our dining room where the light is not that bright. I will try to do a better sample soon. You can download that clip here.

Order Canon SD780IS from Amazon: Deep Red Black Gold Silver

In stock - at Amazon...

Now Amazon has the camera in stock. Please use the links to the right if you are going to buy this camera :)

Yesterday afternoon, I had a chance to test the camera in a family gathering. No new full size samples, but below is a sample of a ISO800 1/13s shot. Sure, the original 12Mpix is noisy, but I think for a 4x6 it would print rather well. There are other high ISO shots in the Picasa album if you click on the photo or link below. Overall I am please with it. Focusing performed well in the low light and the snappy performance is nice. The real test I guess is to see how well the prints are, as looking at 100% on the computer is not always pleasing (at ISO 400+).

From SD780IS - Samples 2

Day 3 with camera...

I got the camera on Friday, and thus spent ~3 days with it now. It is quite annoying that my PC is too slow to play the HD videos as that was one of the things I wanted. But I guess one cannot say a ~5yr old PC is "state of the art", can I?

I took some more photos this morning, and there are a few samples below, as well as a link to a Picasa Web album for screen size resolution images, and a link after where the raw jpeg images can be downloaded for your analysis :)

The reflections I have done so far is that the tendency to overexpose in auto mode is by far the most annoying thing (and it seems like DC resource's review of SX-200IS is also finding the same on that camera. Maybe it's a DIGIC-4 thing?). I have done some trials also with video mode, and it seems like the camera is only focusing when one start the recording, after that the focus stays the same. In most cases this is not really an issue, but it would be nice if it could re-focus.

The camera handles very nicely and is quite fast in all operations, with the exception of flash recharge after a flash photo is taken. It takes several seconds until it is ready again.

Here are some more sample photos (click on photo to go to album with more):

From SD780IS - Samples

From SD780IS - Samples

From SD780IS - Samples

From SD780IS - Samples

And here is the raw jpegs for download.

Order Canon SD780IS from Amazon: Deep Red Black Gold Silver

Walkabout with SD780IS

I got to take a walk with the new Canon SD780IS this morning. And I will post some photos and videos (pretty lame videos) in the end. The thoughts on the camera are that the AUTO mode is actually really good with one annoying exception, that the camera tends to overexpose a little and that one cannot dial in exposure compensation in AUTO mode. In fact, except for the image size, there's really nothing to set in auto mode. You can force flash off, which is nice. In AUTO the camera seems to try to keep ISO under and at 400 for most photos down to 1/20s shutter speed. Then it will try (if allowed) to use the flash. If the flash is forced off, the ISO will go up to 800.

The video works fine, although on my 4 year old home computer, I cannot really play them :( They seem to take too much cpu/graphics power. With the lens starting at 32mm, and when one take HD video, the top and bottom gets blanked out, so it really feels like too zoomed in when shooting indoors. And one cannot take photos when taking video, as the start/stop button is the shutter and no other button in use. One can dial in some exposure compensation in video mode.

Here is a picasa album link to the photos (click on the photo or link below the photo):

From SD780IS

From SD780IS

From SD780IS

And the full (original) photos and videos can be downloaded here.

Quick samples and videos

Nothing to write home about, but here are some quick samples from my new camera. More to come in the weekend.

Three raw movies: Video 1, Video 2, and Video 3.

All original out of camera photos and videos can be accessed here.

And some (again, quick snapshots, at base ISO) photos:











All original out of camera photos and videos can be accessed here.

Order Canon SD780IS from Amazon: Deep Red Black Gold Silver

Size matters...?

Got it! Best Buy now had it in stock so I went and picked up a black SD 780 IS right now. And this camera is sleek. Almost too small, but perfect for your pocket. And although the initial samples we've seen looks good, a camera that you bring with you is always better than a camera that you don't bring. Time to test...

USA release - first shipments in stores near you soon

I noticed that OneCall also now said that they have SD780 IS in stock, so that, with the ebay sighting, probably means that it is likely other stores will get them now. Probably this weekend. Maybe it is time to put in that order now and get ahead in the line.

SD780IS in stock in Indiana....

If you checkout "Gary's Camera" on ebay, you will find that there's an item that claims to be a Canon SD 780 IS, in stock. So within a few days I think all stores will be getting it. I am hoping mine will ship from Amazon today :)

New SD 780 IS/IXUS 100 IS review

Not by the largest camera review sites, but still a pretty good review here. Overall I think that it is a favorable camera. One cannot really expect noise free images of 12 Mpixels on such a small sensor/camera.

Indoor video in office

Here is a link to a pretty boring video taken by the IXUS 100 IS. But it is indoor with panning, so I thought I would post the link anyway. Be sure to click on the "HD" icon in the lower right.

PC Online samples

If you want more samples, go to PC Online. Seems to be a Chinese site with IXUS 100 IS samples. If you click on the image, it will take you to the next one, and just under the image, there's a link to the full size photo. All samples seems to be ISO 80 and 100.

Yet another 720p example video

Here's another video from the SD 780 IS camera from Canon. Link to vimeo here. I must say that with this small camera and full 720p H.264 video with image-stabilization is pretty impressive. We gave up using our mini-DV camcorder a long time ago and have been using a Canon SD800IS for all our video of the kids. And now (soon), we'll have HD. And the still photos also looks nice from this camera. Wonder when Amazon will ship it....


Canon PowerShot SD780 IS / IXUS 100 IS 720p video from Gordon Laing on Vimeo.

SD780IS - First samples from review site

Imagine-resource has posted their sample photos. There are many, many to look at and a neat feature on their site is how you can compare two cameras side-by-side.

Full size ISO test - SD 780 IS

Actually this is an IXUS 100 IS, but same thing :). Thanks to a very friendly owner in Denmark we can now peek on a indoor bookshelf at all ISOs. I have cropped a part of the center of all ISOs (note that ISO 3200 is a 2Mpix 1600x1200 photo) in one image. Click on the image for a larger view. There is also a bitmap version here.



The full scene looks like this:



And here are links to all the sizes: ISO 80, ISO 100, ISO 200, ISO 400, ISO 800, ISO 1600, ISO 3200.

I know all the pixel-peepers out there will want to get them all.

Order Canon SD780IS from Amazon: Deep Red Black Gold Silver