March 6, 2009
Canon PowerShot SD1200IS 10 MP Digital Camera with
| Brand: | Canon | ||
| Average Rating |
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When a camera puts a smile on your face the moment you hold it, imagine how great you'll feel when you see your first pictures! The PowerShot SD1200 IS Digital ELPH has everything going for it - exuberant color, the sculptured style of Canon's famed ELPH series - and the innovative know - how that takes you to a whole new level of picture-taking accomplishment. Fun, smart and a style follow you everywhere. more info
Filed under Point & Shoot Digital Cameras by .


Comments on Canon PowerShot SD1200IS 10 MP Digital Camera with »
CANON CAMERA
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
GREAT LIGHTWEIGHT AND COMPACT CAMERA WITH PERFECT FEATURES.I HAVEN’T OWNED A BAD CANON CAMERA YET.SELLER SHIPPED AS STATED AND A SMOOTH TRANSACTION WAS HAD. VERY HAPPY AND PLEASED WITH THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS CAMERA AND I USE IT QUITE OFTEN. GREAT PICTURES.
Great Camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Camera is small, light, and easy to pack in your pocket. Its about the size of an average cell phone. The battery charges quickly and I like it much better than the AA that most other cameras take, it’s much lighter and easier to install. It takes great pictures outside and works pretty good in Auto mode. Inside pictures are not as good as the outside pictures but most are still good. I have owned it for about one month. I would recommend it to a friend.
Wonderful ++
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
A truly great camera. Very high quality pictures even in low light without flash. Easy to use. Long battery life ( several days and taking over 100 pictures per 15 hour day ) Easy manual off and on. Recommend this camera to every tourist. Shirt pocket size. Light weight. I did not expect any camera to be this good. Has plenty of functions for the camera geek but I/we tend to do everything on auto and all pictures per great except for those taken from a fast moving train in modest light. I was surprised these pictures were even “seeable”.
Amazing package
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I don’t know how this is possible, since every other website was selling just the camera for 200 dollars. This came with the camera (new in the box) and so much else for only like 10 dollars more. Everything was new in their respective box. It is fantastic
Great little camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I needed a small digital camera for my wife to carry around. I didn’t want to spend too much. Also I wanted to have it converted to infrared. This camera was exacted what I needed. It is small, responsive, sensitive in very low light situations,cost only $129 to have it converted to “infrared only”. The pictures are great! I carry it with me more than the much heavier in weight and price Canon G-10, also converted to infrared.
Can’t comment on its use as an unconverted camera, but from what I can see, it would have been a good one.
Very decent for a Point and shoot.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Second Canon I own.
First one also was digital Elf that was broken. (no fault of camera)
Got upgrade. Works well for something you can carry on a mountain bike or skiing slope.
Canon Powershot
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this camera to take to Italy with me on a study abroad trip. So far it’s been an amazing camera and I’m so glad I picked it!
Great Camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Nice compact camera for the price. The only thing I don’t like is if you have it on it is constantly zooming in and out trying to focus. Takes nice pictures.
great little camera for the money
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I got this camera to replace my old Canon digital elph SD510. I am really pleased with this camera. The recycle time is the biggest improvement as well as the image quality and great image stability. The facial recognition is excellent and quick. I even found that it will recognize a face on a TV screen. The battery life is also greatly improved and extra batteries are easy to find online. With a 4 GB chip you can take 700 pictures or so, plenty for most of us. Overall great little camera for the money.
Horrible Focus
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Normally I am a big fan of Canons but this model is horrible. The pictures are always out of focus and the image quality is so poor not nearly as good as some of the older models. No matter what you do, close ups, far away they all take crummy pictures. I bought this camera right before my wedding and almost every picture was out of focus. Some I didnt even realize until I uploaded it and saw some of the close ups of my daughter came out horrible. Dont waste your money.
Great little pocket camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
We bought this camera to replace an older Canon digital camera. This one has rechargable batteries, which our old one didn’t have. I like still having a small viewfinder in addition to the larger window. The picture quality is quite good and it has a really nice face-finding focus that even has multiple face finders if you are taking a picture of a group.
Excellent small camara
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The SD1200IS is an excellent camara. The controls are intuitive and the picture quality is outstanding. I especially like the optical viewfinder. Most of my photos are taken outdoors in bright sunlight and the LCD screen on my previous camara was impossible to see. I espacially like the fact that the green “focus” indicator is visible from the optical viewfinder.
No-Brainer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
There is a reason this is the best-selling PowerShot on Amazon. This is a great little camera… the functions are intuitive, and the design is compact, efficient, and aesthetically pleasing.
The “Smart AUTO” really works as advertised… it behaves intelligently. The days of the silly little click-wheel thing to select shooting mode are gone.
I would have preferred a little more user-control in Manual mode (such as shutter speed, aperture, etc., as on some of Canon’s other models) but this is truly a point-and-shoot camera, and as such it works marvelously well.
I haven’t experimented with it in all possible shooting conditions yet, but so far it has outperformed any other camera in its class that I’ve previously used (including older Canon models)
If you are already thinking about getting this camera, you should probably just save yourself the trouble of looking at other products and buy it now.
very fragile
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
so fragile… and didn’t like they changed battery size from SD1100 model.
But overall better quality.
Happy customer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My previous camera was a Kodak using 2 AA batteries which was frustrating in how fast the batteries would wear down. I can shoot away with this Canon and not be worried about running out of power. I like the large screen and I am very happy with this camera.
Great value
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I am very pleased with this camera. Easy to use, very good quality pictures for this price range.
My daughter loves it
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this camera for my daughter for Christmas – she loves it – she hasn’t had any problems with blurry pictures and it is small and takes great pictures for the price.
Love it!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Wonderful camera and excellent delivery time. The camera works fantastically, especially the video quality! Two thumbs up!
two oddities
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
just bought today — too early to evaluate photos but wanted to alert potential buyers that the CD which has the users manual and all the computer software DOES NOT WORK for Windows 2000, nor does Canon offer any substitute online.
also, a review I read had mentioned incesssant auto-focusing. It true and somewhat disconcerting. Not sure I am happy with this purchase.
WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I am typically the BIGGEST fan of these Canon ELPH cameras. I owned the SD450 and still do have the SD1000. The SD450 was a victim of being tossed around in luggage, so when that broke, I went with the SD1000 and was very happy. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the square nature of the SD1000, but loved the camera otherwise and soon forgot about its boxy frame. I have an 11 month old daughter and decided to get a second camera that way my husband could take the SD1000 and I would have the SD1200IS (in orange, of course) at my side all of the time to snap pictures of the baby. I could not have been more excited to receive my camera and was instantly disappointed. The sturdy feel that was found with the SD1000 had disappeared to a cheap, plastic feel. The battery cover door is flimsy and feels like it could pop open at anytime. However, I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and promptly popped the battery in to snap a few pictures to test it out. Indoor pictures are terrible. The AUTO position on the camera is a complete joke. I think it’s safe to say that 75% of those pictures were unusable and the remaining 25% were definitely not GOOD. After messing around with the settings a little (I’m not a camera pro, but I do know a few things about the ISO settings and such), I was able to improve the percentage of good to horrible pictures to probably 50%/50%. However, I still was lacking crisp, clear photos. After checking the photos and completely missing out on some AWESOME pictures that actually had my daughter looking at the camera because they were completely fuzzy, I have decided to pack it up and send it back. The video is not HD, but neither was the SD450 or SD1000, and I think that the SD1200’s is inferior. I cannot express how disappointed I am that Canon has released such a subpar offering. I paid just under $170 for this camera and am wondering if I would have a different response with the SD780 or SD940, but then will have to shell out at least another $100 for it. We paid $150 for the SD1000 and I almost got 2 of that model. I now wish that I had. The SD1000 is a 7.1 MP and the 1200IS is 10 MP. Honestly, I feel like I got pictures with my 2MP Fuji Finepix that I had 8 years ago.
I’m sorry to do this to you, Canon – I’ve been such a supporter and have recommended your cameras to more than a handful of friends/family members. I’m going to have to rethink my camera situation. I was blown away from the good reviews – but whenever something negative was said about this model – it did say there were a lot of blurry pictures. Perhaps if I haven’t been so wow’ed in the past by other SD ELPH models, I may not have not had such a horrible review. I do think that the SD1000 was a significant upgrade from my previous SD450; however, I think the SD450 did a better job than this SD1200 that supposedly has the “Image Stabilizer”
Excellent compact point and shoot
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Overall, I think this is a great compact camera and is invaluable for the spontaneous people shots that capture those special moments in life. It won’t take pictures worthy of National Geographic (meaning it won’t replace a dSLR), but it fills in well when a large camera is just too much equipment to be carrying around.
Pluses:
*Very short power up to shot time
*Pocket friendly
*Solid build, mostly metal body
*Great battery life
*Bright LCD with good resolution
*Sharp images in good lighting/daylight
*Image stabilization
*Easy to use
*Captures vibrant colors
*DIGIC processor picks appropriate settings for most shots (see below)
*No red eye!
*Fast zoom
Minuses:
*No manual controls or scene modes
*Tends to use higher than necessary ISO settings (more grainy pictures, sometimes making them unusable) in low light using Auto Mode (ISO can be set manually in P mode)
*Underpowered flash (common to most compact cameras)
*Paper thin battery compartment cover!
Mostly, the camera suffers from its diminutive size. It doesn’t offer much in terms of artistic controls, but does a very good job of making those decisions most of the time. This makes it ideal for the weekend snapshot photographer who wants to take good photos without much more than hitting a shutter button! Great all purpose camera, everyday camera.
Great little camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Great little camera – everything you could hope for in a purse or pocket sized camera.
Another Great Value from Canon
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Bought as Christmas present for my wife. She loves it. Takes great photos and is fairly easy to learn to use. The HOT PINK color is wild. Only suggested improvements: (1) include paper user manual with camera(Internet download version is too lengthy to print); (2)include an SD card with the camera so it can be used out of the box. This would be worth a few dollars more on the price if necessary.
Great Trip Recorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
After learning how to use this camera for a month I took a two week trip to Hawaii and gave it a workout. I was very happy with the results in automatic mode but I still have a lot to learn to become an advanced user.
Excellent price for an excellent camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The Canon Powershot is so easy to use – I love the Auto settings pictures come out great! When I have more time, I will play around with more of the features, but for now – I’m loving the ease of pointing and clicking away. I especially love the image stabilizer as most of my pictures are of my very active 3.5 year old!
Don’t use indoors
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
or with kids. The camera has a really bad flash and often cuts off one person. It is so shallow. That is inexcusable. The auto mode is really weak and the ISO is way too high for the situation. The amount of blurry pictures was way too high for the money. I used someones GE 1250 with (ES) and it was way better than this camera and the ISO was lower…yikes. This gives Canon a bad name. They are the next Kodak. I am trying to figure out why I’m in the minority…weird.
I used 2 of them…and I know it wasn’t user error.
Good luck with yours.
Great Little Digital!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I Love this little digital camera. A friend of mine had one and she was just taking such great pictures and the camera just seemed to have such ease to use and convenient features for being compact. I’m still learning the different things on it but I’m going to enjoy it for a long time. I also got such a great deal on it…of course thanks to Amazon!!!
The perfect camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS replaced our last camera, the Nikon CoolPix 4600, which was possibly the worst camera I ever purchased. I researched the Canon PowerShot SD1200 extensively, and was able to find a couple of friends who already had it to confirm that it was as good as the ads said, and it was.
Ese of use, fast first picture taking, and fast repeat picture taking as well.
The biggest problem we had with the Nikon was that it eat baterries in as little as 50 pictures, and we tried buying expensive batteries specifically made for digital camera, including the newest lithium batteries, but it still keep asking for new batteries.
I recommend the Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS to anybody looking for a great camera.
Good job Canon.
Very happy with purchase
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We are very happy with this camera. It is very easy to use right out of the box. Most of the features can be figured out very quickly without using the booklet.
The pictures are great. The ‘green square’ focus feature is great. We like the feel. Be sure to get a camera case for it – the camera is almost too small.
Be careful though, the high res can easily make the pictures too big to upload or email.
Downside: The preview mode is hard to get switched out of the ‘picture-in-picture’ mode – we never could figure out why in the heck they put that totally useless “feature” in for. It can also be a little difficult to change the resolution – but you’ll eventually figure it out.
We compared this to a Nikon Coolpix that a friend had and we liked this one better.
Camera OK, shipping SLOW
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
So far the camera has performed OK, although I have not had time to test it thoroughly. The problem I had was the shipping time. I selected standard shipping, which is listed as 3-5 business days. That would have been plenty of time (with room to spare) for what I wanted, which was to use it for my son’s birthday party and both kids’ baptisms. Unfortunately, it took almost 3 weeks to receive it! Not sure what happened, but that was too late for both events; very disappointing.
Comparison with SD1100
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
We have had the SD1100 for a year and love it. It takes amazing pictures for such a small camera, especially outside. Just got the SD1200 and did a comparison of 25 test shots between the two cameras, using only Auto mode. It was essentially a tie. A few times the SD1100 took a better pics, and a few times the 1200 took better pics, and a few times they took equally good pics. All in all, the SD1200 won out, but just barely. It is interesting that the two cameras on Auto mode didn’t use identical settings — for example, sometimes the 1100 would use a flash, but not the 1200, and sometimes the opposite.
The 1200 is a bit smaller and lighter, but the 1100 feels a little sturdier (metal). The features are basically identical, with one major difference: the 1100 has the Accent Color feature, which allows you to isolate one color. The 1200 – for some mysterious reason – lacks this feature. But otherwise they are basically the same, though the features are arranged differently. The 1100 has “Manual” mode, while this is called “Program” mode in the 1200.
The 1200 is over $50 cheaper on amazon, so probably not worth spending more for the 1100. I still really like the 1100 a lot, and haven’t yet been convinced on the 1200, but the test proved to me that it takes just as good pics, if not better.
Llloyd review
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I like the camera. It was what I was looking for. I miss a small instruction book. An 8 1/2 x 11 printout is not convenient to carry around.
Canon Powershot 10MP Digital Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased this camera for my husband to take on deployment.
It was super simple to use & takes great pics! The battery life
is really good & the compact size will be perfect for him to store
on the limited ship space. I love that it comes with a charger so
he doesn’t have to worry about buying batteries.
Loved it so much I went ahead & bought one for myself! Will be more
than happy to give up my older junky Kodak for this one!
great little cam, some improvements from earlier powershots, some quirks
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The SD1200 has some big changes over its predecessor SD1100, and is the smallest, best designed Elph I’ve used thus far.
I’ve owned many models of Elph, this is my 6th or 7th, so my review is aimed especially at other serial Canon owners. I mostly compare the SD1200 to the SD1100.
* The big changes: Digic4 and a larger CCD sensor. The slight increase in CCD size (1/2.3″ vs 1/2.5″) should make for “cleaner” photos. And Digic4 promises faster/cleaner shots also.
* You get 10MP vs 8MP on the SD1100, and “medium” (M1) size is now 6MP. JPG quality is down to 2 setting: Fine or Normal.
* SD1200 is only slightly smaller than the SD1100, but feels notably smaller by virtue of curved edges and the LCD being flush with the body (no bump-out).
* The 1200 now feels as small as this design can shrink. Good news: my average-sized male hands can still comfortably hold it, barely not covering lens, flash, or resting on the LCD. But the round power-button is now almost too small to press if you had big fingers and no fingernails.
* 1200’s new battery is a higher capacity 1000mAh (vs ~760mAh for SD1100). There’s also a new charger (not compatible with the old batteries), a glossy white-colored model to blend into your wall.
* The buttons and menus are streamlined. There’s now a button for review mode, pressing it a 2nd time takes you back to the previous state. Handy. The slider has dedicated AUTO and Manual settings, no longer need to use menus for that switch.
* Continuous mode and ISO now are in the Function Menu (on the SD1100, they had dedicated buttons).
* A SD card is no longer included. This makes sense to me, a 32MB card is barely useful, and with the downward pressure on electronics prices, I can’t imagine Canon wanting to bundle a more expensive/bigger card. Some people will find this lack annoying.
* The A/V output is gone, and the USB connector now serves both purposes (both kinds of included cables now have a USB-end)
* A new version of Canon software is required for this model, Zoombrowser 6.3. Canon typically requires a new release for each new family/season of cameras. Unfortunately, the CameraWindow software has been intentionally dumbed-down in the 6.x software and no longer offers the options to delete your photos (have to go through the OS), nor to chose custom naming for the downloads. I say intentionally, since I asked Canon customer-support about it and they stated the changes were not bugs. The last Canon software to still have that functionality was 5.x, corresponding to the SD1000 and other cameras released that season.
* In casual indoor tests, the 1200 seemed more ready to go to ISO400 (often too “noisy” to be useful) when the SD1100 would have chosen ISO200.
* The SD1200 and SD1100 have identical specs on their optics. However, I noticed a more pronounced barrel-distortion on the 1200 at extreme wide-angle. (still only noticable in close-up shots of straight-edged items at wide-angle)
* In a casual speed test, the SD1200 took/stored photos notably faster the SD1100 (same scene, continuous-mode, same brand SD card), despite the 1200’s image size being larger.
* Canon’s paper manuals have been shrinking steadily. With this model, the only manual included is a quick-start guide, the rest is on CD-ROM.
* The packaging is even more efficient than before, about half the size of the SD1100’s box.
* Sadly, there is no HD video mode, although all of the other Elphs released this spring had HD. SD1200 owners are stuck with 640×480 video.
Canon has several sub-series within the compact Elph line, varying mostly by asthetics and optics. The SD1200 is successor to the series that included the SD1100, SD1000, and SD600. These all favor a classic, slim design. If you’re unfamiliar with Canon’s Powershot cameras, there’s lots of good material out there on camera sites such as dpreview.
In general, the small sensors and optics in all ultra-compact digital cameras lead to some optical quirks (such as barrelling), chromatic aberrations, over/under-exposure in bright sunlight/shade, and underpowered flashes. That’s intrinsic to the size of camera, and vendors try to correct these effects in their on-board processing. My opinion is that Canon does a good job of correcting for these issues and the Elphs including the SD1200 take very good photos for their size.
It’s questionable that a SD1100 owner would specifically find this a compelling upgrade other than the Digic4, but this is an excellent compact camera in all ways. Apart from the noteworthy quirks: the lack of HD and the limited features in the download software, this camera is Highly Recommended.
For most people
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camera is not your average camera. I must confess I had Canon cameras ever since I started purchasing digital cameras. Therefore I might be bias by giving an opinion without testing the others out there. Although, I did at one point own a Casio Slim camera and was satisfied. However, the picture quality and the features that a Canon offers I must say beats the rest by far.
Good luck and happy snapping.
Excellent camera.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I liked this camera as it takes very good quality of pictures.Its design is very attractive and the size is another good feature.The camera was delivered in time.
Canon PowerShot
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Very happy with this product. Only two minor complaints: the battery dies fast and I wish it came with a case.
Great Camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I love it. Great camera to capture all the little awesome moments of life.
Great Little Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This ia a great little camera that you can carry in your pocket. I was looking for a small camera without a wide angle lens to take pictures of family and friends at indoor and outdoor events. My wide angle camera incuded more scenery than I wanted and picture qualty suffered. This SD1200SI solved that problem. The SI feature is just what I needed to get better shots in all settings.
I have been using it for about a month. I used it to take about 60 flash photos of a large indoor gathering. The flash refreshes very quickly and seemed to always be ready for the next picture. None of the pictures were blurred. Only complaint is that the flash coverage begins to weaken beyond about 10 feet, but I knew that when I bought it. I take all my pictures with the flash on, even outdoors so I never use Auto as the setting because I find that I get better results for indoor shots. The auto focus is very good and quick.
I also like the fact that the LCD can be set to stay on longer for multiple shots of indoor activities. I also very much like the view finder. I have a wide angle camera that does not have a view finder and even when the LCD is set to its brightest level, it is difficult to frame a shot in outdoor sunlight. The view finder does rob some of the LCD area but the tradeoff is worth it to me.
I also like the simplicity of its features. Picture review has its own button, which works great. All in all, this is a great little general purpose camera. I have no problem with the size of buttons. Everything about it seems to be designed correctly for the non-professional who just wants to take basic snapshots, indoors and outdoors. I have not used the video so I cannot comment on it. I considered the SD780 but was not interested in HD video or the higher resolution for a much higher price. The price offered by Amazon for the SD1200 was the best deal on the Internet.
Love Canon cameras
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The camera is great! I do prefer larger LCD screens than the one on this camera, but other than that I have no complaints!
Former SLR man is converted
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Smaller than a pack of “cancer sticks,” I carry this little gem in my front pants pocket so I am always ready to capture the moment. Transferring the images to my computer is snap. I love it!
Much better than my previous Nikon Coolpix!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I needed a replacement for my Nikon Coolpix point and shoot because I was getting annoyed with the blurry pictures. I bought the Nikon about 2 years ago because of its smaller footprint than the Canon point and shoots. However over the last 2 years, I have been fairly disappointed with the picture quality. Therefore I was looking around and after reading the reviews, I bought the 1200IS. I have been using it for about 3 weeks now and am very impressed as are other reviewers with the quality of the pictures for the price point. This is a very basic camera but it is perfect for a compact point and shoot. I would say that 5 out of 10 pictures on my old Nikon came out well. So far, I would say 8 out of 10 pictures on this Canon come out well! I would highly recommend this camera for anyone looking for a basic point and shoot that does not need some more of the advanced manual settings.
Piece of junk basically
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I have a 10 year old 0.3 megapixel camera that takes better macros that this piece of junk. It is very hard to *not* get a blurry image with this camera, regardless of settings.
so cute!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
this camera is the absolute cutest! this is technically my first digital camera i’ve had and i immediately fell in love with it. great quality photos and easy to use. get a case though.
Best camera for the price for a consumer not looking for DSLR
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Out of the box and on auto this thing takes great pictures, more then good enough for non-professional family type stuff. It’s also incredibly fast at auto focusing and getting to the right settings on its own, that’s probably because of the digic 4 processor but either way you can shake it up and it’ll refocus and acclimate itself in less then a second. It’s awesome. There are marginally better point and shoots available but for the price/quality this is your best bet by a long shot. Someone else mentioned it but the lens and auto focus do make a faint buzzing sound frequently, no big deal.
Great Little Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’m not much of a photographer but I read the reviews and decided to purchase this camera. My last camera was a vivitar which did not last very long. I received my camera recently and I simply love it. I’ve not gotten a chance to check out all the features but for someone like me who knows little about photography this camera is easy to use, small and handy and I love the great green colour. I would recommend it to everyone.
This camera was rated #1 in it’s category, now I know why.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camera takes professional quality pictures in auto mode! Just hold down the shutter button half way, it automatically focuses, stabilizes, chooses the best seen type, then you press the shutter button all the way down and boom, you have yourself a knock out picture. The LCD screen is so bright and looks like a HDTV Plasma quality image! It takes awesome night time pics as well! I recently went to an Aquarium. I got National Geographic quality photos through the glass by keeping it in auto and pressing the flash button twice to turn off the flash and was amazed! I’ve had so many people on Facebook ask me what kind of camera I have, they can’t believe the quality of the photos I post. I got the camera for $169.99 on Amazon and free shipping! I got the dark gray with the matching gray canon leather case and love it! Buy this camera, you won’t regret it! And remember to get an SDHC memory card. I got the Sandisk 8 GB on Amazon for $11.99, reg. $59.99! Steal it while you can!
Great and easy to use!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is the best digital camera for your money. It’s portable, really easy to use and creates high quality pictures. I just came back from a trip and all my friends were amazed at how good the pictures looked. The camera easily fit in my pocket so I was able to easily grab it to snag all the pics I wanted!
I’ve had other, similar digital cameras which took longer to focus and pictures did not come out as well.
Great Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a great camera considering the size and the price. Pictures are awesome with great quality and menu options are very much user friendly.I would definitely recommend others to buy this camera.
good choice for me
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
so far this little camera has been easy to use & produced some fine pictures – I am not that skilled, but for my purpose, it fills the bill & the price seems fair
Good camera, but some things you need to know
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Found this to be an attractive, compact camera with lots of great features as listed in other reviews. I’m not a camera expert, so I won’t comment on how it compares to other models.
Just two important, practical things to know:
1) this camera does NOT come with a memory card, really important info to know if you plan to use it immediately on the day you get it. No memory card….no pictures. Might as well go ahead and get one while ordering the camera. This adds another $20-$25 to the price of the camera, so you may want to consider this when cost comparing.
2) The camera is compact enough to fit in a pocket which is great, BUT it is almost too small for someone with large hands to operate comfortably. Also the finish is pretty, but so smooth that it is very easy to slip out of your hands. Using the wrist strap everytime is crucial if you hope to do so without dropping it.
Sweet camera, great pics
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
After comparing this camera against the Nikon Coolpix L20 10MP Digital Camera with 3.6 Optical Zoom and 3 inch LCD (Deep Red) and the Kodak EasyShare M1063 10.3 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Red) lines, for the price and size, this point-and-shoot wins.
Past experience with the EasyShare cameras has shown poor battery performance and clunky controls. While Nikon makes some of the best SLR cameras in the world, they fall behind Canon in the 10 MP arena. There is a good reason that Canon holds most of the spots above Nikon’s #7 place on the best sellers list and why this Canon is Consumer Report’s top Recommended digital point-and-shoot.
The only thing that knocked this camera from a five-star rating is it’s somewhat convoluted menu system. Although it requires some reading and practice, once you’ve figured it out, the experience is well worth the effort.
Loved It!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I just love my camera. It’s small fits in my purse and I take it everywhere. I bought a sd card for it and it was like $20 and holds 1400 pictures. I really like this camera.
GREAT Camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I carry this camera in my purse. It makes perfect pictures. A great value and a great buy! Love it!
Great little camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is our second (or third?) small digital camera. The first couple were first generation models with minimum features and resolution. Then we started using big DSLRs. I expected this ‘little camera’ to have minimal quality, but I was wrong. This camera approaches the DSLRs in both features and image quality. I was especially impressed with the video it took. The only negative I’ve seen is that when you zoom in at some point it switches over to ‘digital zoom’ and the quality drops dramatically. This can be turned off, so it’s really not a problem, just something to be aware of. My wife was looking for a small camera she could have with us when the DSLR was too big and this little guy more than fills the bill.
Without a memory card
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Bought it for my daugther and she seems to be enjoying it. It was on sale at Staples for about 10 dollars more. I decided to buy at Amazon and was surpised when the camera showed up minus the memory card.
I guess i should have called and asked, but it is my sixth digital camera and the first one to arrive without a card. I bought the card from Amazon for another 10 dollars.
Next time I need to be more careful.
The camera is beautiful and works well.
SD 1200 IS compared to SD 750 and SD 550
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I recently purchased this as a very small portable camera to have available easily and to serve as a backup camera. I can compare it directly to the SD 550 and SD 750 Canons which I also own (though the 550 now has been handed down to my 7 year old daughter), as well as the Rebel XSI. The SD 750 is an excellent camera which has served our family well, so why you ask did I buy the 1200? I purchased this primarily for two reasons which may also apply to you. Firstly, the IS feature allows much-more-watchable video and secondly, the battery is the same type that is used by my Canon D10 (waterproof camera) – this is very helpful in terms of carrying around fewer bulky chargers. The relatively-low price for a camera of this quality was also a factor.
I was concerned a bit about buying this camera as some reviews here noted blurry shots, with some later reviews noting that camera came set to low resolution. As for my unit, it came set to highest resolution (as did the SD 550 and SD 750 to my recollection). I wonder if some of the reviewers somehow got a refurbished model since as far as I can tell the camera firmware comes automatically set to highest resolution for Canon cameras in general.
To check photo quality, I have made a direct comparison between the SD 750 and SD 1200 by taking identical shots of what passes for me as a ’still life’ – some toys on a couch with detailed pattern in semi-dark conditions requiring flash. Zooming in closely on those shots, it appears that the flash is a little brighter on the 1200 but otherwise detail is identical. As the SD 750 is a 7.1 MP camera and this one is 10 MP, one might expect (understandably) higher resolution from this camera but this ends up being an excellent illustration of the “megapixel myth.” Though companies have latched onto increasing megapixels as a marketing thing there is really diminishing returns as one goes up due to other limitations, notably sensor noise and especially limits imposed by the optics. You can’t get blood from a stone and you also can’t get increasingly higher-resolution images from the small lenses on cameras like this one. That is not to say the images are bad, just that they don’t compare to DSLR images from say a Canon Rebel XSI or a Nikon D300 – but this is certainly not a criticism as this camera is not intended as a substitute for a DSLR.
Video quality is similar to that on my SD 750 though the IS does definitely improve the stability of the shots and should allow them to be better mixed into footage from a dedicated video camera. It is interesting that though one may never intend to use this type of camera for video inevitably the time will come when this is all that is available, and in fact with kids that happens pretty frequently! The best camera for the shot or video is, of course, the one you actually have with you at the time!
The camera controls will seem second-nature if you have used Canons in the past. The door to the battery/SD compartment does seem a bit more flimsy than my prior models but is working well so far.
In summary, this is a very portable compact camera that does the job of serving as an always-available camera and also can serve as backup to a DLSR or other higher-quality camera. I am very pleased with the purchase and would highly recommend this camera. (Please be aware that in late February 2010 it is very likely that new models will be announced at a large trade show)
As compared to the SD110
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I bought the SD110 (3.2MP) back in 2004 and decided it was time to upgrade this year as it was showing some age. The latest version of that same line is the SD1200. I have had it for a few weeks now and have a few observations. The SD1200 is much faster from the time you turn it on until it is ready to shoot as compared to the SD110. Next, the screen is far better than the one on the SD110. Very bright and readable even in sunlight. The camera itself is smaller than the SD110 as you might expect but does feel a little cheaper. So far I have taken the SD1200 to three main events. A birthday party, K-4 graduation, backyard play time. The birthday part pictures did not turn out well in automatic mode. We were indoors (Pump-it-up) and the lighting was probably not the best. The images were blurry for the most part. I had the same issue at the second event (K-4 graduation) but this time I switched to manual mode and used the “indoor” setting. This greatly improved the picture. Finally, the outdoor shots turned out looking wonderful in automatic mode. With the SD110 the automatic mode was always better than any of the manual settings. It seems with the SD1200 that is not the case. I will continue to explore the settings/features of the camera. I was expecting the SD1200 to be far superior to my 5 year old SD110 but so far the pictures themselves have not turned out markedly better.
The Good, the Bad and the Tiny
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
THE GOOD: The real surprise occurred with my outdoor pictures. I had suspected to achieve only “adequate” pictures with a camera this small. I had thought that was the compromise I would have to endure for choosing such a small camera. But, in fact, my outdoor photos were outstanding! I was able to magnify the photos many times with my photo editor before quality digression started to become evident. I’m not sure even my hefty Canon DSLR can surpass that effort. I intend to make comparison tests under similar circumstances with both cameras to satisfy my curiosity.
THE BAD: The pictures taken indoors were not as impressive. In fact, they were downright disappointing. It was difficult to believe I was using the same camera for both indoor and outdoor environments. I took comparison photos inside my house. I turned the flash On and Off, adjusted the ISO and varied the Theme settings, jumping from the “A” to “P” settings mostly. The results were consistent. They were all blurry. Perhaps the subject was beyond the range of the flash. But then I would expect the picture to be underexposed, not blurred. And I would have expected the pictures to be rock-steady with the image stabilizer, especially when you consider the fact that some ambient daylight was entering the room. I intend to address the ISO, flash and theme capabilities further in an attempt to improve the quality of indoor photos. But I shouldn’t have to endure this aggravation. Until or unless I resolve the situation I intend to restrict the camera’s usage mostly to outdoor use.
THE TINY: As frequently mentioned by other reviewers the camera is indeed small. But what did they expect? The camera dimensions and other specs were provided by Amazon and other vendors. The inconvenience of operating its diminutive controls are, in my opinion, more than offset by the portability of the camera. I do find the On/Off button to be particularly small, though. I am considering sharpening my fingers with an electric pencil sharpener in order to access this button and others more easily. (Yes, I’m kidding).
As for that “flimsy” battery door, what did they expect for a camera this small? How would they suggest they make the door sturdier within that frame without making unacceptable compromises? I could think of no practical alternatives. Also, In spite of the many complaints of the “flimsy” door, I have yet to hear of any door failing. Just don’t abuse it.
In conclusion, a fine camera for the money if you don’t intend to use it for indoor use. I found the controls to be more intuitive and comprehensive than many other cameras in its class. And Canon is one of the last manufactures of Point and Shoot cameras to offer optical viewfinders. At first I had intended to keep this camera stored in my car should unexpected photo opportunities arise. But now, considering the quality of the pictures under certain circumstances, I intend to carry it more often for planned photogenic opportunities as a realistic alternative to my hefty DLSR. I don’t regret the purchase at all.
Great camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We received this camera just before Christmas. It takes high quality pictures and is easy to transfer the pictures to my computer. I like that you can just press one button to go back and forth between viewing the pictures and taking pictures. It was nice that we received a free memory card from Amazon since one does not come with the camera. The size is perfect, I can slip it into my pocket. We have only had it 3 weeks but I would recommend this camera.
Canon 1200IS
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Photos are not as clear or crisp as from the cheaper and older Pentax IQZ140 (8.1 MP) that this camera replaced and the wide angle is marginal (could definately use a wider angle for interiors, etc.) but overall the quality seems good. I purchased this primarily since it has an optical viewfinder (which most cameras in this price range seem to have discontinued) which makes taking action photographs and night photographs much easier to frame and capture.
Easy to carry for everyday shooting!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camera is a supplemental to my SRL. Great to put in the pocket anywhere, any time. Never miss a shot. Very easy to operate.
Outstanding Product
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We were able to start taking pictures (after charging the battery) with ease. Pictures are sharp and focused. There is so much more to this camera that we’re looking forward to learning about and using.
Power shot 1200
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We previously had a Cannon G3 and loved the quality of pics and the color rendition, but it is a larger camera and cant put it in shirt pocket and heavy for purse. This one is a lot smaller, quality pics, larger lcd, easy to use, and has image stabilization. So far, we love it. Does not come with memory card so get one and an extra battery.
Nice Cam
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
It is a pretty good point n shoot cam for the price. I wanted a cam which would fit in my pocket and do a good job. Perfect for that.
Great camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Great camera! The size is perfect for slipping into your pocket but not small enough to crush. It takes great photos, very impressive all around!
Canon Powershot SD1200IS
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I love this camera! Exactly the color and quality I want. Functions are pretty straightforward like all the other canon cybershots.
Great buy for college students
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is really popular among my friends in college right now. We’re all about 21, trying to capture our end of 4-5 years of fun, and this camera is convenient and fun. I bought one online just like my friend did and am totally happy with the quality and ease of use. I am not technologically savvy by a long shot.
Great little camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
After looking at a lot of different makes and models, this one stood out. It also was highly recommended by family members who loved theirs. My daughter loves the picture quality,the size, and ease of use!
Canon PowerShot SD1200IS
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My wife and I were strolling through the store when she spotted this camera and said that she wanted her own camera, since I hogged the family camera, and that this one was cute. She was ready to purchase immediately, which I talked her out of doing. As a photographer I knew that these decisions took research, reading reviews on the internet and getting potential candidates in your hands to be scrutinized. After two weeks of consideration my research led me to the same camera that she had liked because of its’ size and color.
Canon makes a great camera. Every digital still camera I’ve owned has been a Canon. This camera offers image stabilization, which is a must, and delivers a 10mp image. The mega pixal race has gotten out of hand, being an easy selling point of more pixals must mean better imaging. This is not the case. Often more pixals means more image noise, takes up more space on your computer and requires bigger memory cards.
At any rate, this camera is compact, offers enough shooting variations to please someone with a background in photography and, as my wife says, is cute.
great price on a great camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My camera is great. I love it and it was in perfect condition and in a reasonable time.
Nice Compact Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’m very satisfied with the Camera. It takes great well exposed, sharp images and is very compact, It’s roughly the size of a 7/8″ thick Credit Card and it has a nice solid metal body feel to it. I use it as a second camera when I don’t want to haul around my bulkier Digital SLR. The optical viewfinder is a nice feature. Canon seems to be one of the only brands to still make subcompact/compact cameras with an optical viewfinder. It saves battery life and if you take shots with the LCD function turned off Canon claims you can get around 700 shots, more than double if you use the LCD display.The optical viewfinder is a nice option in bright sunlight when the LCD display is hard to see or if you run low on juice without a spare. You can always review your shots on the LCD with the press of a button if you have the auto review set to off.
To load your images, You can simply plug and play with Windows XP. Using Windows XP there is no need to download any of the Canon software (Including ZoomBrowser EX) if you have any basic Photo Editing programs. The supplied Canon package gives you just the basic photo editing functions and the Canon Movie Maker is pretty much the same as XP’s Movie Maker 2. After seeing what the Canon software did, I quickly uninstalled it and just went with what XP and my Photo Editing program had. You plug in the Camera turn it on and follow XP’s Camera wizard. Same with the Movie files. The Video function is very nice and takes nice images. On best quality (640×380) 30 frames per sec, You can get up to 32 minutes on a 4 GB card. Only the digital zoom, not the optical works while in movie mode so whatever focal length you start out with it’s pretty much set. The digital zoom just digitally magnifies the image so zoom quality will drop off. Not too bad considering the small size and convienience of the camera. With the RCA cable ends on the supplied adapter you can hook the camera up to your TV and view photos or Movies. If you have a DVD recorder you can record your movies direct to DVD, just remember to press the Display button to turn off the Time Display info overlay on your camera or it will record that too!
Another note, I had a tough time to get the Auto Focus Assist Beam to turn off. I wanted the little light that assists focus to stay off at all times. I turned the function off in the menu but it kept firing up. I discovered that in the Flash menu you have to turn off the Red-Eye Lamp option too. That keeps the light off permanantly.
Good camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Good camera.
Got it for an excellent price when Cannon was introducing there next new line of cameras.
Bought it to replace a cannon SD 770IS that was stolen & I liked it.
This model is just as good but I don’t see any major improvements.
I’m not big camera person so this model does fine & should be fine for the average user.
What a snap!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Point and shoot! It’s that simple. If you want to play with the settings, you can… but why?
Great little camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’m strictly a point & click person with a tendency to get blurry pictures because I don’t hold the camera as steady as I should. I bought this camera just before a big trip to China. I’m not sure what other types of cameras that people in our tour group had however when we came back and exchanged photos, I have to say that mine were the clearest and sharpest. This was especially noticeable in the pictures that I took in dim light.
This camera has a manual mode with all sorts of features but I can’t review that because I’d use them.
GREAT CAMERA
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased this camera at Wal-Mart (the screen seemed fuzzy.) So I went to Best Buy and purchased one there (the screen was still a liitle fuzzy.) I compared the screen to my old canon (about 3 years old.) That screen was a little fuzzy too, but the pictures are great. This is a great camera, light weight, easy to use. I love it. I got the blue color and it looks so sharp. I highly recommend it. I went to a concert recently and It look OUTSTANDING pictures.
Great Camera for the size and price.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a great camera for its size and price. Very compact and easy to pull out for a quick shot. Very easy to use with logical buttons and menu function. Picture quality is very good for what we use the camera for.
Potable & easy to use & shiny color
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The camera is very fashionable,easy to use and with high quality. Also, the price is quite reasonable, I think. It would be even better if the product can include a sleeve and a memory card.
Great Point-and-Shoot Camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I got this camera because my son is nearly 2 and I’d noticed that my photo taking had dramatically dropped off. He’d be doing something adorable and I’d run to get the camera and by the time I got back he’d be five activities past whatever he’d been doing.
I needed a Dad camera – one that was small enough to carry with me all the time, started up fast, had good image stabilization and face detection, decent zoom and flash, was 100% automatic (no tweaking with portrait mode vs. sunny day mode vs. contrast settings while my son was peddling his tricycle for the first time), and was cheap enough that I wouldn’t mind dropping it occasionally.
The Cannon SD1200IS is that camera. It’s been a joy to use. I got the grey leather Cannon case to go with it and I now carry it everywhere. Looks a bit geeky (with the case it’s about the size of a blackberry) but I’ve caught tons spontaneous shots that would have vanished in the time it would take to get a larger camera. I agree with other posters – the battery and USB covers are a bit flakey – but the rest of the camera is solid. I’ve dropped it from waist height twice now with no issues.
A couple unexpected benefits:
1) My son now loves taking pictures himself (I hold the camera – he aims and pushes the button) – and the auto focus works well enough that some of his shots come out pretty well. It’s neat to see what’s important enough in his world to take a photo of (mostly toy trains and cars these days) and he’s very proud of his own pictures.
2) I didn’t know it when I purchased but the SD1200IS has a built in accelerometer so Picasa now auto-rotates all my imported photos – 15 minutes of time magically recovered from each week!
Highly, highly recommended ;-D
Nice Camera for the price!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
– Nice Compact size, easy to carry
– Fast Turn ON time
– Excellent picture quality
– Excellent reproduction of color
– 2.5″ bright LCD
– Easy to use – simple use interface
– Fast auto focus
– Excellent low light picture quality
– Good value for the money… worth more then its price tag!!!
I love it
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We had been looking to replace our old camera which had bad recovery time to take the next picture. This Canon takes care of that job and much more. It is easy to use and takes great pictures. We recommend it highly!
great camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Just bought this camera for my mom, and she enjoyed it the entire weekend she was at my house. We are all only casual photographers, so not much to add about quality of photos, but loved the size and weight of this camera!
I absolutely love my new camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Just received my camera 1 week ago and have not had much time to take photos but what I can say now it is a great camera for its price, first of all I like its small size, amazing picture’s quality and it has so many features I haven’t used them and I can’t wait to experiment.
No printed manual is a real negative to buying the SD1200
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I have the SD1100 and love it. My daughter needed a new camera and I bought one for her … but it was the SD1200 model. She hates having to constantly refer to the CD manual instead of a printed paper manual like I have on the SD1100 especially when away without the damn CD. Perhaps once she’s experienced all the problems you have learning a new camera she’ll be OK but right now without a paper manual she could flip through to find what she needs to know, it’s a real negative to buying this model in my opinion. She was just over the other night and asked to borrow my printed manual even though the camera is somewhat different (hope I get it back).
Canon PowerShot SD1200
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Already own a Canon G6 from several years ago which is a super camera. However, we wanted something more portable to bring on vacation trips, one which would easily fit into a pocket and not be as cumbersome as my G6. We’ve only had it a few weeks but it seems to take great pictures although our experience has not been a lot as yet.
I do enjoy the lightness and compact size. I do miss the extra zoom my G6 gives me, but I am sure we will enjoy this as much as my other camera. I am lucky since I get to use both cameras if I so choose to! I highly recommend Canon for digital camera purchase and quality. I remember taking a class on digital photography several years ago in which the instructor stated that ‘if you want a quality camera, choose one with a brand name which is synonomous with picture quality not necessarily a brand name which is noted for making computers’. That line always stuck with me and I have never been disappointed with a Canon.
Great Camera at Great Price
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Pros
1. very light weight, small but easy to handle, menu easy to manage/navigate
2. improved quality pic taking. auto adjust to different environment/lighting, auto adjust to shaky hand. wide screen option is provided.
3. good looking design, multicolor, i got a green color cam to join Obama’s “Green xyz” rah rah.
4. good pricing. $149. cheaper than my AS Powershot
Cons
1. battery. need to walk around with a battery charger. inconvenient. nice if rechargeable from PC’s USB port.
2. memory. camera comes without memory card, fortunately, i can swap the card from my other PowerShot cam.
3. cam pouch. nice if a small cloth pouch is provided.
overall, great price for a great camera.
Great Camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have purchased Canon cameras in the past and once again I am very satisfied with my purchase. The camera is easy to use and takes excellence pictures.
Canon Powershot SD1200IS
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This camera is extremely light and portable, perfect for throwing in the purse or pocket. Great megapixel size, good quality pictures. Only thing I’ve found so far that I miss is a zoom function. I had chosen to forgo this feature for the smallness of the camera, but think I made a mistake. I’m very used to my Canon Rebel and having many zoom lenses, but thought it wouldnt bother me to not have zoom. Wrong! However, having said that, overall I love this little camera.
Poor packaging
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The packaging box is too big and there is no sufficient air bag or sponge related protection material to protect the digital camera. Seller should consider to provide a better anti-shock packaging for digital devices.
So easy to use!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Since most of my pictures are quick snapshots of family members, I need an easy-to-use camera. Not only is this an easy-to-use camera, the pictures are great too. I especially appreciate the automatic focus – very clear images. Even though the zoom is only 3x, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the quality of closeups. I did not want to spend more than $150 for my camera so I researched many different ones. For the money, I don’t think I could get a better bargain.
At this time, the only downside has been the need to recharge the battery sooner than I expected. I’m hoping this will improve as I get to know the camera better.
This camera is amazing. Period. Get it. Quickly.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Okay, first off- don’t listen to the idiot who thinks this camera doesn’t totally kick ass. They don’t know how to take full advantage of this canon masterpiece.
It comes in several colors, it’s small, sleek, sexy, lightweight, 10MP! (which is plenty enough. trust me. any higher and you’re just throwing your money away), long battery life (I went to italy for a month and snapped over 200 pictures before it showed low battery), takes awesome pictures (so sharp-even with motion, and looks even better on your computer), and it’s easy to use. Comon, WHY ARE YOU STILL READING THIS?! BUY ONE ALREADY!
For people who aren’t intersted in switching modes for everything, It’s as simple as this… Use the Auto mode (The small button, pushed to the top) when its very dark and you need a flash, like in a bar/club or outside patio Yatzee! tournament(hey whatever floats your boat). Use the Manual mode (The small button, centered) when it’s in the afternoon, like at a soccer game or something, and you don’t want a flash. That’s it. Now if you want to take advantage of all the modes this camera has to offer…. READ THE BLOODY MANUAL.
Don’t complain that this canon1200 hasn’t impressed you over your outdated canon110 when the truth is- YOU DONT KNOW HOW TO USE ONE!
FINAL THOUGHT: Buy this camera for your daughter, sister, mother, friend, wife- WHOEVER. Just get it while the price is nice and low. As soon as an undisclosed number of these are sold- The price will jump high. Most likely into the 250s or low 300s. Think I’m lying? Look at the prior models. They cost almost a third more than this one. It will surely jump in price, and you don’t want to be the one guy that was like, man, i should have listened to that kid and bought one while it was so low. SO BUY IT NOW.
This review WAS NOT made to entertain you at all.
FREAKING AWSOME DAWGG!!!!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I WAUB DIS CAMERA (= DUDE! I BOUGHT A CAMERA FOR A CAMPING TRIP AND I BOUGHT THIS CAMERA FOR IT! ITT’S AWSOME! I DOWNLOADED THE PICTURES SO EASILY AND THEY CAME OUT PERFECTLY! AND I TOOK A BUNCH OF PICS (64)! I DEEPLY RECOMMEND THIS CAMERA BESAUSE ITT’S A FORDABLE (KINDA ) AND IS AWSOME !THE ONLY THING THAT IS NOT GOOD ABOUT THIS CAMERA IS THAT ITT’S NOT BETTER THAN MEE! THAT’S IT!
-I LIKKE BAMBI (=
P.S. THE TRIP WAS GOOD TOO (= TEHEE (=
Loooooove It!!!!!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Love this camera! Super cute and fits perfectly in a pocket. The only thing I’ve had trouble with it in the dark pictures. Which I’ve found is hard for any camera. But all in all…..yes so worth the money!!!!
Very disappointed – not as good as the SD1100
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
After seeing many surprisingly crisp clean results taken by my friend’s Canon SD1100, I decided to add a compact Canon to my collection. I have owned a Canon S2IS for several years and continue to be thrilled with the photo quality, but there are times when that camera is too bulky to bring to events where a ‘pocket sized’ camera is more convenient.
I just wish I’d read more of the reviews on Amazon before making my purchase of the SD1200. I assumed it was an upgrade from the SD1100, how could it be any worse? I’m so unhappy with the photos it took on my recent vacation, I’m seriously considering buying the SD1100 to replace the SD1200.
As one earlier reviewer wrote, “This model replaces the 1100 IS camera, an excellent camera… In my opinion the pictures are not as sharp as the 1100 IS.”
I agree with this assessment. Nearly all photos were slightly less than crisp (despite making sure that the green focus lamp was on for all photos, and I know how to hold a camera pretty steadily). My biggest complaint is that in Auto Mode, the camera seems to want to revert to taking all indoor pictures at 400 ISO which resulted in very noisy overexposed/washed out pictures. There was no need for it to revert to this setting in Auto Mode. When I had time to set the camera to manual mode, it took acceptable pictures at 200 ISO when I had time to make sure the exposure/flash was at the correct intensity. But in spontaneous situations, there is no time to fuss with the manual mode and your shot is lost. I’m OK with reverting to Manual Mode when I really need to, but the photos in Auto Mode on average should not be so unacceptable.
Another complaint I have about newer digital cameras is the upping of megapixels. Why are camera manufacturers pushing more megapixels down the throats of consumers? When you have such a tiny camera, with a small sensor and a tiny lens – extra megapixels do not result in better photo quality. If anything, it only results in emphasizing the weaknesses of the photo/camera by giving you a noisy, less than sharp image. In this race to pack in more megapixels because the consumers think this is what makes a great photo, it is the consumer who loses and we are getting a new generation of cameras with poorer image results than the previous generation of pocket sized digital cameras. Leave the 10+ megapixels for the high end SLR cameras where you may see a benefit.
In all fairness, if image quality doesn’t matter to you the camera rates well in other areas. It is very compact, it’s easy to use, and the battery life was great. However, I’d sacrifice the ultra compact size for something, 1/4″ larger that takes better pictures any day.
Canon PowerShot SD1200IS
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The screen is large, which is great. Older folks appreciate that. It is easy to use and has so many unbelievable features! It can be either movie camera or still camera. The features are too many to enumerate but I would strongly recommend this camera to anyone. It was rated as top pick on Consumer Reports and that is why I bought it. A 4 gigabyte card (which is cheap) gets you over 6000 pictures.
Great camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
It’s a very basic camera that takes pictures that are anything but basic. Very easy to use. Small and light-weight. Excellent picture quality. No complaints.
Very good camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
We’ve only used it a couple of times but so far it’s good and simple to use if going auto. The manual setting seems to be a little tricky because the image stabilization doesn’t come up but we’re trying to figure it out. Shouldn’t be too hard, I hope. Better than the Sony we had.
Great Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Took this camera on a cruise. It worked great. Picture quality is superb. So easy to use. Just point and click.
Amazed by the picture quality!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have owned/purchased the Canon digital cameras in many series but still I was able to immediately notice the significant improvement in picture quality as well as the flash support when doing shots at night/in dark room. This camera does surprise me. Highly recommended!
Great camera but WHY is the charger gray?
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This camera is really cool, takes great pictures, but mine came with a gray-colored battery and a gray-colored charger. Previously I had ordered the same one, and the charger was white, and the battery was white. White looks SO much sharper than gray. That’s my only complaint!
Other than the cheap-looking battery charger, this camera is worth it.
Exactly what I wanted
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’m very happy with this camera. I bought it here two weeks ago and haven’t had a problem. It’s easy to use, takes good pictures, is small and portable, and I like the big screen. Also, it took two weeks for the battery to drain. This camera is exactly what I was looking for!
Canon SD1200IS Review
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
As usual another great camera from Canon. Good size, great photo’s. For the price and quality it can’t be beat.
Nice camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This camera replaced an SD1100 that will surely turn up; I tired of waiting.
I like the camera a lot. However, all the potency of the camera is not yet available to one who has not read the DVD details. Much is intuitive or obvious; but not all.
Am using with enthusiasm a lot of the features about which I have learned so far.
Great Pictures
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this camera to replace my older digital camera prior to a trip to Italy. This camera took outstanding pictures with and without flash in low light situations. My pictures came out perfect and helped me retain the wonderful memories of my trip. I bought this camera on a recommendation by a friend who has done a lot of research on digital cameras. He was certainly right about how good this camera was. I would recommend this camera to anyone who wants a great point and shoot camera.
No memory card?!
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I am thrilled with technology and consider myself a bit of a technonerd. Which is to say that I’m fairly savvy about reading specs and reviews and product info. I guess I missed the part about this camera not being able to take one single picture without a memory card that had to be purchased separately. I put this lovely camera on my birthday wishlist and received it as a gift. I excitedly unpacked it and was eager to play with it until I discovered there was no memory card included. I can’t do jack with this camera until I go out and purchase a card. Really? How much does a small memory card cost, Canon? $2? $5? Would it have bankrupted you to install a measely, token 2 gb card? At the very least, I would really have appreciated having it clearly stated that I needed to purchase one to take a picture. I would have bought one had I known. I will buy one, I’m just disappointed. I’m sure the camera will be a fine product once I get the thing I need to make it work.
Review of Cannon SD1200IS
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Wow! This is the 3rd Cannon Elph camera that I have owned. Cannon hit a home run with this one. I can’t seem to take a bad picture with this camera. I use it for work and take pictures all day long under different situations. Everything operates on automatic, the camera even switches automatically between long distance and macro modes. It is able to produce great pictures in different lighting situations, where my others cameras have failed in the past.
This is about my 25th digital camera that I have purchased, we actually wear them out through use, and I will purchase this same camera again, and highly recommend it to you. You will be satisfied. The only negative that I can say is that the camera is almost too small for my large hands and the camera disappears in your pockets and you will forget that you are carrying it! Really, that is not a problem, and actually probably a plus if you are on vacation and don’t want to be lugging around some big war club old camera to take some pics.
I can’t recommend this camera more. I just plain love it.
Very happy so far
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The camera is easy to use and takes great pictures and by now I would have put batteries in twice in my old camera.
This camera will stop working in about 2 years
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I have owned two Canon Sureshot cameras. The only thing to be sure of is, it will stop working in about 2 or 3 years…and you won’t be able to fix it for a price less than a new camera. Other than that, I like the camera. I won’t buy another small Canon camera again. Even though I’m a pretty forgiving person.
Cheers.
Excellent
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
A very good camera for beginners, I gifted this to my wife and she loved it very much. Excellent features, good picture quality.
Canon PowerShot SD1200IS
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Very compact, takes great pictures. The only drawback is that the battery needs to be charged before use and that limits spontaneity. I bought a second battery to keep in the charger.
The Perfect Little Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is my second Elf camera and I just love it! It is very compact, lightweight, easy to use and can fit in a purse or pocket. I love to take pictures but do not enjoy carrying a large camera around my neck. That is why this is the perfect camera.
I recently visited the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center and the beautiful decorated windows on 5th Avenue. All my pictures came out perfect and some of them look just like a picture postcard. All I had to do was to point and shoot and everything else was automatic. Wow! Thanks, Amazon for your quick delivery service. I highly recommend this camera–You will not be disappointed!!
Always Shoot a Canon!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve owned a Canon PowerShot S110 since 2001 and have loved it the entire time I’ve owned it, despite it only being a 2.1 mega pixel camera. As long as you weren’t going to print 8″x10″ prints, it is a great snapshot camera. However, I decided that it was about time to upgrade to a 10 or more mega pixel camera. I’ve always owned Canon’s (even in the old 35mm film days) and would never think of owning anything but a Canon…they are simply the best cameras out there. This SD1200IS is no exception. My old SD110 was built like a tank and has withstood a ton of use. The SD1200IS is about half the thickness of the SD110 but still has that solid, well built feel. The 2 1/2″ LCD screen is such a vast improvement over the old 1 1/2″ screen. I agree with some reviewers that the viewfinder is pretty much worthless….no one is going to look through the viewfinder…why even bother. The controls are fairly intuitive although I miss having a printed manual to have as quick reference for the many options offered…it’s certainly not convenient to have to refer to the manual on your computer. The number of manual functions is extremely impressive and I have yet to experiment the all of them. The results in Auto mode are excellent for casual use but the manual settings do give you a tremendous amount of control over your final results. I have yet to print any 8″x10″ or bigger prints but can see that the amount of detail in the photos will certainly hold up to enlargements. Canon’s photo software is garbage….just download Picasa..you can’t beat it for free!!! I’ve shot some videos with the SD1200IS and they aren’t too bad…not HD but quite passable with decent sound. To think I paid $400 for my S110 8 1/2 years ago and only $149 for the SD1200IS. Wow!!!!
Nice little camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a nice little camera, easily fits in your pocket. Takes quick and great pictures. Only it has limited zoom (3x). But the quality of images is really good and its worth the price.
This camera is great!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is the best compact digital camera that I have ever purchased. The picture quality is awesome!
Canon Powershot SD1200
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased the Canon Powershot SD1200 and I have been pleased with the size because it is easy to take on trips. Sometimes the pictures will blur or lights will look blurry but it may be just me. For the majority of time, it seems to take pretty decent pictures. I am glad I purchased it.
A Camera for Dummies
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I was origially interested in a different Canon Powershot, but got side-tracked by this one because of its color (I’m a girl, afterall). I couldn’t be happier. The camera is so user-friendly that I have yet to flip through the instruction manual. It takes great photos, practically does all the work for you, and is small enough to fit in the smallest purse. A great buy!
Nice Image stabilization
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is my first canon camera and i am really impressed with the quality of picture. Image stabilization feature is really nice. I would rather say it’s not image stabilization it’s image quality enhancement.
The only down point of this camera it takes time to stabilize the image. So you are not able to capture those moments that which is only for fractions of second.
Overall Nice camera
The PERFECT camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The Canon Powershot takes pictures superfast and ultra-clear. It even takes photos with a subtle depth of field, in other words you can focus on something in the foreground and the background will be slightly blurred. Its a lot like using a 35mm, or the Digital Rebel. The photos are amazing! I used to have a Sony and everything looked so flat. You can get some real artistic shots with this little beauty….and the best part is that its shocking hot pink and I got mine for under $200!!! I love it:)
Canon Elph Digital Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
A very nice camera for a good price.It was a gift for my Son and he loves it.Thanks.
Excellent Quality and Value
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
For the price, this is an excellent choice for a digital camera. We wanted something smaller and lighter to replace our older Canon digital. Features are great, and picture quality thus far seems excellent. A nice feature is the pre-programed settings for various situations (e.g. beach, kids with all their motion, night scenes, etc.). Our only complaint is that the rechargable battery life is not a good as our old Canon which took either rechargable or regular AA’s. The solution is probably to get another battery, so we’ve always got a fully charged one on hand. Other than this one issue, I’d recommend this model highly.
Great Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camera is fabulous and takes great pictures. I owned an older Canon, one of the 3.2 MP. I received a Casio Exilim 7.2 MP for Christmas from my dad last year, I didn’t like it much, the quality of the pictures just weren’t as good as my Canon. I decided to buy this Canon because to me if you want a great picture forget the Kodaks, Nikons, Sonys, and every other camera out there. Canon has the best cameras there are.
Professional photographers review
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I’m a professional photographer. I got tired of dragging my D3,D200 or other large cameras around, and worrying about it getting damaged. I decided to buy a camera just for fun that could fit in my purse and I wouldn’t have a heart attack if it broke. Well I didn’t hold that high of expectations of the camera, but after getting it, I’ve had a lot of fun with it. Not the most amazing pictures come from it (I am used to very high quality pictures), but they are good enough shots of my family. It’s easy to use, really easy to set, FAST, and good low light. You don’t always need the flash. It’s very small, and can fit easily in my purse (that are all quiet small purses actually). This is a perfect camera if you just want some fun shots that are clear, and you want an easy to use fast camera. This is NOT good for “professional” type shots (why do people write reviews of these cameras and get all down on them for not being professional grade cameras? They never claim to be!).
Good Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Very good camera, easy to use and take very good pictures, it’s not a pro camera but to use in vacations and things like this you not need anything more
Fun little camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have this camera and I love it so far! It’s fun, portable and relatively easy to use!
Advantages:
*Easy to use- The camera was very easy to set up. All I had to do was put the battery in and the memory card (sold separately) and it worked. It was also relatively easy to figure out, once I realized that tapping the camera focused it, instead of taking pictures. Automatic mode is very easy to figure out, and I’ve only gotten great pictures out of it!
*Size- The camera is very portable and will fit in most cases. It is about the size of a credit card. It is pretty light, which makes it feel fragile, but I haven’t had any problems with it breaking so far.
*Sharp, clear photos- The photos have been very clear in my opinion. When uploaded to the computer, they are large (3648 by 2736 pixels or 20.267 by 15.2 inches at 100%) and when at their largest, can show things that are barely visible to the eye. I have found that compared to other cameras I have seen, this shows better detail.
*Good videos- The videos were surprisingly good. They showed a nice image, and the volume was pretty clear, which surprised me. I was very impressed with the video quality. The only problem was they did detect some shaking of the hand, but I think a tripod would easily fix this problem.
*ZoomBrowser Ex- This is the software that comes with the camera. It is simple and easy to use. It is not for editing photos, just uploading them, but it was easy to download, and it always does its job quickly and effectively. It also makes it easier to organize them.
*Rechargeable battery- I really like the fact that the battery is rechargeable. It’s nice to be able to know how long your battery will last, and it saves money on not having to buy replacement batteries. The battery needed to be charged within a few hours of getting the camera, but other than than, it’s lasted about 5 days, with me having the camera on a few times a day. It charges in a little less than 2 hours.
*Fast- The camera turns on quickly and takes pictures pretty quickly as well. It’s good when you need to capture something happening right at that moment.
Disadvantages
*No memory card included- This wasn’t a problem for me, as they told me there was nothing when I bought the camera, and I was planning on getting one anyway, but definately don’t buy one without a card- you won’t be able to take pictures.
*Manual is vague- The manual is good about telling you how to set up and use the camera but nothing else really. It doesn’t explain any features of the camera.
For cases, I would recommend:
Sleeve Case (Magenta) and Tripod for Canon PowerShot SD1200IS Digital Camera Light Gray
It also comes with a tripod, and room for the cord. I think it’s pretty good.
Overall, I really like this camera. It is not for a professional photographer, but someone who enjoys taking photos as a hobby, or just wants photos of their family. It’s a nice little camera, and I am very happy with it so far.
Not as good as expected
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I bought this camera less than a week ago after doing a lot of research and being satisfied with prior Canon products. I love the small, lightweight design and the fact that it has a program mode which you can change the ISO setting and White Balance to get a better shot. One feature that I miss from my old Canon A80 is the ability to manually change the shutter speed (great for night photos). There is a “night snapshot” setting, but it didn’t perform quite as well. Although the video is not HD quality, it seems to perform well. Contrary to some other models, you can use the zoom while recording video.
My biggest qualm with this camera is photo quality. Though I like the ability to tweek the settings, I also like the option to turn on the camera, point, shoot, and get a great picture. I am very unimpressed with the color quality in auto mode. I’ve tried pictures indoors and outdoors, but the pictures look very washed out. Compared to my old camera and photos taken in program mode. As it has been cloudy since I’ve purchased the camera, it’s possible that auto mode would perform better in bright light… maybe.
Another concern is the flash. Some of the photos have dark areas, as if the flash didn’t light up the object evenly.
Bottom line: If you have time to mess with the settings before each shot, you might get a good picture. If you want a great point and shoot camera, you may want to keep searching.
PowerShot 1200IS Review
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Absolutely superb picture quality! This is a great camera, in all regards, except for the following “chinks in the armor:”
– Repeat shots are “okay,” but I’d prefer to have them quicker
– Image downloads require yet another application … not hard to do, but it could be easier.
Overall … this is a great camera, worth every penny … and more!
Tony B
Camera Review
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Camera is easy to use and seems to give good pictures.
Have had no problem with initial use.
Beautiful pictures everytime!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My husband surprised me with this camera so I could have a lightweight ‘take-along’ when I go to quilt shows and demos at quilt shops and guild meetings. I have a Canon Rebel EOS XTi and a Canon EOS 630 which take wonderful pictures, so I thought that this camera would be inferior by comparison. Was I ever surprised! This Canon PowerShot SD1200IS takes perfect pictures.The first time I used it I was at a quilt show and so I tested it by zooming close in to some individual stitches and Wow! what a picture. I went for a walk and zoomed in on some flowers that were a little ways off the sidewalk and got another perfect picture. It takes a little while to find all the features and to remember where they are because there are so many options, but that is a good thing. I am truly amazed at what this small camera can do. And I can slip it into my pocket and not have a heavy camera hanging around my neck. I still love being able to change the lenses in my other 2 cameras, but this one is really great. It is well worth the price.
Mary Z
Canon Power Shot SD1200IS
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is the third one I bought. Gave it away as gifts, kept one for myself, and love it. Such sharp images, and so handy, light and small. Highly recommend.
Easy to Use
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I needed a simple, easy to use camera for my wife. She previously used a Canon PS 50 which she found to be too bulky, heavy, and confusing. The SD 1200 IS fits the bill perfectly. First, its focusing is incredible. If you are taking portraits it focuses on the face or faces of the subject automatically. If you want to take a macro shot it also focuses automatically. I was surprised that the picture quality of macro subjects was better than what I can get on my Rebel XTi. I also like the fact that it has a viewfinder for those sunny days when the LCD display is difficult to use. In brief, this is the perfect point and shoot camera for the individual who wants a simple, easy to use camera, that is light and requires no photography knowledge. The only complaint I have is that it does not come with a memory card and when we bought it there was nothing on the description (or on the Canon site) saying you need to purchase one separately.
Best camera ever!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I got this camera for graduation and I was so upset when I lost it. So over Thanksgiving I found a decent price for it and decided to purchase another camera. I could have gotten a cheaper camera but I knew that this camera would last a long time, it would take great pictures, and look great! I do not regret my decision one bit!
Easy, crisp and colorful photos
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I had a Canon A540 that I liked, except for the AA batteries. They never seemed to last more than about 60 shots, regardless if they were rechargeable or not. For that reason, when my camera broke, I looked at other brands and bought a Sony W290. After a week, I returned it because the photos were fuzzy under lowlight conditions or when pets moved. I was really disappointed and so I exchanged it for this Canon, with a rechargeable battery (which I hope works much better than the AA batteries!) Right away, I saw that the photos I took with the Canon were crisp, colorful, even with movement. I was very pleased with the quality compared to the Sony.
My only gripe and it’s not that much of one – I wish that the camera was just a little larger. I feel like I’m holding a small deck of cards by the edges and I wish I had a better hold on the camera when taking photos. It has a wrist strap, but I feel like if someone bumped me in a crowd, that I would drop it. The old Canon I had wouldn’t fit in a pocket, though, so I guess that is the good point about being so small.
For the price, this is a great point and shoot camera!
Great Little Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I recently purchased this camera for my Dad for Father’s Day. I have an older model that I really like so I thought I would get him the updated version. He wanted a small digital camera so that he would take more pictures and not have to carry around his old camera (the kind with the huge zoom lens attached). He is a really good photographer but hes older and used to film so the whole digital thing was like a scary mystery. Now he loves his digital camera and takes it with him all the time and has gotten back into taking great pictures wherever he goes. The color and quality that the camera produces are amazing and it is easy to use with a simple auto mode or you can change various settings, which takes a little more time to sit down and learn but it’s not too complicated. This is a great camera and i suggest cannon over other brands with similar compact cameras.
LOVE THIS CAMERA!! BUY IT!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I love Canon Elph cameras. They take amazing pictures, are easy to use and are the perfect size to take anywhere. I bought this one after my Canon Elph 700 model fell into the water at Busch Gardens. I am so happy with it. They finally improved the first shot delay. With an 18 month old, the delay on my old camera was killing me and I was missing some good moments due to the delay. I am sure that there are better cameras out there but for the price this one is a great choice. Check Consumer Reports, this one is rated as the #1 best buy for compact digital cameras.
Great Camera for Point and Shoot
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Perfect for point and shoot, also pretty successful if one wants to go farther. Have used most of the settings for different types of pictures… trying to make a point and shoot work like a manual. Can use long shutter speed, and trick camera into quick shutter speed by using ISO3200 setting. Picture quality excellent for most lighting situations (obviously good at low light, only if using tripod or other stablizing mechanism.) Only drawback seems to be that it does have a hard time balancing a bright sky with a dark foreground, however, focusing on something in the middle while continuing to hold button halfway, and then snapping picture helps to balance shot a little better. Would like more control over fast shutter speed (’kids and pets’ setting doesn’t seem to really work) however, for 2 bills, can’t complain at all! Great buy! Great battery life!
Great camera!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I have always had a Cannon camera and this one is far superior to the ones I have had. It is easy to use and the pictures are amazing. It captures easily my daughter who is constantly on the move and the pictures are of high quality. I have recommended this camera to all my family and friends.
Great price for such an amazing camera!
Progress isn’t perfect but it’s good.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I converted some time back from the coolpix to the powershot SD900 then to the SD870IS and finally now to the SD1100 with all the advancements that two years of evolution should bring. The higher density brings some terrific pictures! Though at night with any back ground lighting you will have to do battle with the noise. The movies are much improved over the 870IS especially when zoomed but the quick draw point & shoot is a bit degraded as about 20% of pictures will be out of focus. This was not an issue with the two Cannon predecessors I owned? The power button is smaller which is a great safety improvement as my last camera was totaled when the power button was accidentally pushed on while in my pocket, the lens tried to extend in my pocket but could not thereby jamming -boom totaled camera. So by upgrading I get higher density shots with great quality especially zoom, better movies, even a more compact camera, but take double shots for the 20% that I plan may be out of focus. I don’t know if it’s dynamic stabilization or electronic focus which is giving me trouble? Then again could be user error as I haven’t taken time to read the instruction book as I was already familiar with the earlier powershot models I owned. Would I recommend it? Sure, for the price it’s an impressive value.
CANON does it again!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
DISCLAIMER:
- I am a Canon brand loyalist so my review may be perceived as a touch biased by some
PROS:
- Can’t get a better ultra-small digital camera for this price
- Very sturdy (I dropped in on paved surfaces a number of times, it’s dented from both sides now but still works beautifully)
- Point-and-shoot mode for the novice and quite a bit of room to improvise in terms of functions for a semi-pro or enthusiast
- Takes in an SD card which is WAY WAY more convenient than the older Canon’s which require a CF card
- Battery life is extremely long – no need to buy a spare
- Start-up is lightening fast so chances are, you will capture THE moment when you need to (just keep it handy)
- Image stabilizer
CONS:
- Can’t really think of any
- If I force myself to make one up, it would be the fact that it’s now $30 cheaper than when I bought it.
BOTTOMLINE:
- If you’re looking for a highly portable, reliable and sturdy digital camera – and you only trust Canon – you just found it!
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS CAMERA – Easy, Attractive, Small, & Fantastic Image Quality!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The image quality is superb for a small camera and the auto function is a gem. Canon is gold and top quality. If you want fast and simple set it on auto and just point and shoot. No matter the setting, lighting, etc, it figures everything out, iso, stabilization, vs flash or no flash, etc, and even on full digital zoom when it looks all choppy on the screen, the pics come out AMAZING. I love this camera and I love the AQUA BLUE COLOR it’s the most aesthetically pleasing.
TRIPLE A+++++ for top quality product and superior & quick service buying from Amazon. Thank you
Nice camera with bad nigh shooting
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I like the camera. In the day light you can take nice photos. But I didnt like night shooting without flash. May be i couldnt manage but if its so it should be easier to configure. It has good battery. So small and 10 mps is satisfiying.
Great product
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Excellent product. Liked it a lot. This is my 4th Canon camera, I liked the features a lot in this camera. Overall nice product for less price.
Great little Point and Shoot
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My wife and I were looking for a smaller camera to take with us on vacation. We purchased this camera and couldn’t be happier. It is small emough to fit into a pocket so carrying it around was never a burden. The point and shoot capabilities are really great. We were in Cabo and this camera took great pictures no matter what the lighting was. The video record feature is excellent and we got some great footage of the waves crashing in. I had previously never had a camera with face detection and have found this feature invaluable. Still playing around with everything this camera has to offer. Stick with Cannon they make a great product.
Great Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased the Canon Power Shot SD1200IS camera during Thanksgiving time. Based on so many good reviews and right price ($149). I decide to order it. Wait for a little bit longer to get it because the color I picked was in back order.
I specially like the continuous shot function. It take me sometime to figure it out (need to push the shot bottom all the time during shots). I ususlly don’t read manual and like to figure it out myself. Anyway, it is an excellent buy.
very sharp
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Bought this camera after reading extensive reviews over the internet. My son kept borrowing my last camera, so I finally gave it to him and bought the Canon. It takes very sharp pictures and is relatively easy to operate. The main issue I have is that there was no instruction manual included and some functions are not intuitive. Other than that…it’s great.
The Best Camera We’ve Ever Had
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We’ve previously owned a Canon SD630 and some other named cameras in the past. The SD630 is an awesome camera which never gave us any trouble. It would occasionally flash when it shouldn’t causing the picture to be washed out, but it is a great camera.
We purchased the SD1200IS because the initial plan was to give the SD630 to an older family member who isn’t always keen on trying something new. But, when this idea was run across my wife, she made it clear to me that she didn’t want to get rid of the SD630 because it was sentimental to her.
After using the new SD1200IS, my wife quickly fell in love with it. The camera takes phenomenal pictures every time. Neither of us are photo experts. The camera is set to auto and away we go. The camera makes little noises inside adjusting to the scene and picture you are taking at the time. There is a date stamp you can use which is visible when you take your photo.
Our older Canon had a setting where you could leave it on the review mode and if the power button was accidentally pressed, the lens would not open out. This one does not have that feature. So, if you ever accidentally press the power button, the lens will open out.
Overall we are very happy with our new camera. We have a small child and we love taking pictures with our new camera.
I would recommend this camera to everyone. It is easy to operate and takes great pictures.
Couldn’t be happier!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camera was wonderful! All I could hope! My worries are gone!
I had a kodak easyshare for late 2008. Loved it at first but the camera had so many problems! The battery went out so much, and sometimes the camera would get glitchy and won’t turn on.
Then I got Nikon camera, this camera had HORRIBLE picture quality and video quality.
Later I got a this cannon camera and couldn’t be anymore pleased with it!
I got it from amazon as a gift, the people who got it from me knew that I needed a camera and all my other cameras weren’t going so good. I had it in blue, which this kind of blue is my favorite color. When I got it I tested it our. Charging the battery was a snap, I then started taking pictures.
Buyer tip: This camera does not come with a memory card. If you want to actually use the camera and save pictures you need a memory card. I was lucky enough to use my old kodak memory card. (2 gb)
For a lot of buyers I would reommend a 4 gb memory card, that should be more than enough memory if you don’t plan on taking too many movies.
I ran the software and all the stuff and got the pictures to the computer in a snap. The software the camera comes with is nice. You can do photostich, sort photos, make movies with clips and pictures and more!
The camera has a nice design and is easy to use and haven’t had any major problems. My biggest problem basically was it had no memory card. Which that shouldn’t be a huge problem. you can get a memory card for a few bucks. The pictures are great and the movies were surprisingly good. The 10 megapixels certainly do help.
Canon continues to dominate the small camera market
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I own a DSLR myself, but my wife wanted a little camera she could put in her purse or pocket when going to parties or motorcycle rides. I love Nikon’s products for the bigger cameras, but they have really dropped the ball when moving into this market. Canon has yet again produces a great camera which is easy to use and produces outstanding photos. Turn it on, point, and shoot. My wife shouldn’t have to mess with shutter speed or aperture settings to get a great photo, and with this camera she doesn’t have to.
My only complaint is with how cheap SD cards are these days, Canon should have included a small one with this camera. If you are buying one, don’t forget to pick up a SD card at the same time.
Christmas
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Bought this for my 18 year old daughter. She wanted this more than anything on her list. She loves it. She uses it for all of her Facebook pictures for her and friends. Probably better cameras out there but it does the job for her.
Good Buy
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I’ve always used Canon product. Although this specific camera does not have some of the functions compared with the previous camera I purchased, it’s still decent. I LOVE the COLOR. I just wish they had encorporated the feature from previous model into this new model and enhance it.
My Favorite Digi Cam
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Great picture quality and the video mode picture is fantastic! BUT, I purchased this one to replace my other. The lens went out on my other one and everything looked blurry. I had that one for about a year. My one prior to that had the same problems…I used my camera daily for work purposes, but I really got my moneys worth out of it! I recommend it!
Fantastic little camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a great little camera! You certainly can’t beat the quality for the price. I highly recommend this.
great camera!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is my first digital camera I’ve bought and so far I’m loving it. Its a great size. I carry mine everywhere.The pictures look amazing. Very easy to control. Love the color too! It takes great quality pictures for such a great price.
Great Little Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
It was just what I wanted. It was an perfect size and took great pictures!
Why I bought Canon
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was looking for a small, 200 dollar price range, camera with as large an optical zoom range as possible. Of course I wanted all the other performance aspects that are expected of a 10 Megapixel camera. Previously owned Kodak cameras had performed very well, so I purchase a Kodak M380 from another online vendor. It didn’t work. The auto focus function didn’t.
I renewed my search. Several friends have Canon cameras and looking at their photo results convincesd me to forget about higher zoom capability and accept a 3 to 1 zoom range in a camera that really works. I selected the Canon SD 1200 IS. I’m very happy with my decision. The camera continues to amaze me. The performance is more than I expected.
“The best camera is the one you have with you”
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is, overall, a remarkable camera for the size and price. Wide aperture photography in reasonable lighting is where this excels, such as shooting portraits indoors or in shade. Unfortunately, the size of the camera means some very strict limitations in the conditions under which you can get good photos. The aperture at high f/# (i.e. when the aperture is stopped down to let less light in) is so small that you get noticeable diffractive blurring. Take a picture in landscape scene mode outside on a sunny day (which stops down the lens to increase depth of field), for example, and you’ll notice a certain fuzziness to the picture due to the small aperture.
Another problem area in the camera is in the auto mode. For reasons I still haven’t figured out, while the camera seems to do a great job picking out the correct mode (i.e. portrait versus outdoor), the results in auto are almost never as good as if you just leave it in P (program) mode. For some reason auto mode usually results in overexposure and too high an ISO setting. This is especially true when using the flash. I’m guessing that the camera errs on the side of having too much light to work with, rather than underexposing, but the results are frustratingly poor compared to what you get with P most of the time.
Despite the photo quality limitations, many of which are unavoidable on a camera of this size, this is a very nice camera. As they say, the best camera is the one you have with you, and the compact stature of this camera means that more often than not, this will be the best camera. You’ll almost always get good shots, and sometimes you’ll get great ones, just using the auto mode. If you know what you’re doing, you can get surprisingly good results from this camera. In summary, while one should be aware that sacrifices have to made in the optics with a camera this small, this is about as good a camera as you can get at this size. I recommend it.
I love Canon
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is our second Canon–our first was pretty good but they have definitely kicked out our disappointments with the first in this newer model(e.g. they include a battery meter and improved battery life). The picture quality is great for a point and shoot and I appreciate the versatility of the functions. Overall the value to cost ratio is very satisfying–for example we found a nikon coolpix on sale for $88 but quickly sold it after finding the camera to be cheap in construction and poor in picture quality. So we bought the slightly more expensive powershot and got a little better than what we expected. Additionally, consumer reports has consistently scored Canon at the top of its point and shoots and this model is the top scorer from CR’s most recent report.
Great camera if you want good shots with little thought!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this camera for a trip to England. I took about 270 shots and can think of only two that came out poorly that I could blame on the camera itself. I was going to read the manual on the plane but that never happened, so I was taking shots based on figuring out the camera as I went, and it was really quite simple to operate. It took excellent shots indoors and outdoors in all kinds of conditions. If you are interested in a camera that takes great shots without a lot of thought from you for vacations, family events, etc., this is a solid choice.
Good camera, but
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Did not come with a memory card! Was a little surprised, since other Canon purchases in the past included the card. Sandisk 4GB Secure Digital SD HC Memory Card (SDSDB-4096, BULK, No Reader)
Fits My Needs
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The camera does everything I need it to do. The picture quality is excellent, camera is easy to use. The only thing that annoyed me was that is didn’t come with the memory card. It’s only an extra $11.00 at the local electronics store but still..
Otherwise, I’m enjoying it.
Disappointed
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
It was the top of the list in my price range in Consumer Reports. They didn’t have one at Best Buy or Costco, so I ordered from Amazon.Com. Excellent quick service. We have owned at least 7 of these very small camers over the years and I take a lot of pix. Have over 22,000 on my computer, but I was disappointed with this one. Screen is smaller than last camera (OK, I should have checked); I’ve gotten more fuzzy pix so stabalization doesn’t seem as good. It’s easy to operate and the battery seems to last, but I wouldn’t buy another one.
I would love to like it, but for indoor family snapshots the picture quality is poor
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I have been a loyal Canon customer for years but it has ended with the SD1200is. The camera has great features. Unfortunately, the indoor picture quality is poor.
I purchased this camera to replace an aging Canon S50 which is a 5 or 6 years old 5 megapixel camera. After using the SD1200 on Christmas day and experimenting with a variety of shooting modes, I have concluded that the SD1200 not incapable of taking good indoor photos. Almost all of my photos were grainy and washed out; grossly inferior to my old Canon S50 or my wife’s Canon SD870.
While this camera may well take great pictures outside (I don’t know since I did not take any pictures outdoors with it), it does not take good pictures inside with limited light. Since I use a camera primarily for snapshots, this is not acceptable and I am certain there are better cameras out there.
I have returned this camera and am shopping for a different camera that will take good photos inside and outdoors.
Canon SD 1200IS – A great bargain
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
A very capable camera for the price, and wonderful for on-the-go pictures. I previously owned the Canon SD 1000 and while I enjoyed the features it had, wished it included the image stabilization “IS” feature. The 1200 has IS, and it has made noticeable improvements on those quick shots. The camera takes wonderful pictures in a variety of light settings, and is incredibly easy to use. All in all, for the price, great camera and highly recommended.
I love this camera but wish it had a better zoom
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This camera is the perfect size. I keep it in my purse so I never miss important events like I used to in the past because I would forget my camera all the time. It is easy to use but I need to learn more about all the features. I LOVE the color!!!!
Great little camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
After dropping my SD1100 in the ocean, I was a bit miffed to find the upgrade (the SD1200) actually cheaper than the model I had wanted. But I purchased the new one anyhow and although it’s taken some getting used to, I love the features and the portability (believe me, I’m much more careful now!). I will say, though, that the color was a bit more teal than steely blue like my old one, but I love that there is no delay when I hit the power button, that the zoom is incredible (perfect for taking pics of the kids at the playground without them knowing), and the shutter speed is fast! No more missed shots due to a delay. Plus, the price is great– how can you get a cheaper camera with all these features?!
Great value camera vs.Canon’s S90 and S790
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I have researched a point and shoot cameras for a couple of years. I needed a small pocket sized camera to complement my SLR pro camera and my “bridge” medium sized camera. It’s not always convenient or practical to haul around a DSLR, camera bag, etc. Having had a professional DSLR camera for several years, I realized I had to be willing to give up some features and quality in a small point and shoot. However, I was not willing to compromise picture quality and color balance. I wanted a camera that is adequate indoors as well as outdoors plus have enough manual controls to manipulate the settings per my preference. After evaluating the S90, S780, S790, S200, and the SD1200IS, I have concluded that for the price vs. picture quality and camera size, I selected the SD1200IS. Although the other cameras all cost more – $200 – $400 they are great cameras but the SD1200IS produces just as good of quality pictures, if not better, than those evaluated in this review.
Considering, I am not interested in video ( I have a small camcorder for that purpose) and I wanted the best quality I could get in the smallest camera, my conclusion was the SD1200IS. I would have paid up to $400 for the other cameras. However, it isn’t necessary for the features and quality I desired.
Pros about the the SD1200IS
- my experience with the camera is consistent with all of the Amazon reviews I read. Thank you all for giving you feedback and helping me make this decision.
- great small size (fits in my pocket)
- good picture quality (pixelation and color balance). At 100% picture size, there is little pixelation and artifacts. My observations were that the SD1200IS shot at 800 ISO compared to my Canon DSLR (15 MP) at lower ISO yield comparable picture quality. Hard to complain about that.
- good photos in low light conditions
- Flash reaches over 15 feet in a dimly lit room and produces great natural pictures.
- Battery holds a good charge
- Love the ease of menus that Canon provides
- Ease of use: my 72 year old father good operate this camera (and he is not a fan of electronics)
A few Cons:
- there is a shutter delay when depressing the button.
- the battery door is a bit flimsy
Overall, I am quite pleased with the camera. I’m very glad my search is over.
Disappointing
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I bought this camera after much research for my older daughter in North Carolina. I send it down so she could take pictures of my grand kids for me on Christmas day. She called and told me that she could only take pictures of them if she did not use the zoom feature. If she tried to zoom in even a little bit the pictures came out horribly fuzzy. It was Christmas day and she could not return it as nothing was open. I have sent down the recipe so she can decide if she wants to get another of the same make/model or go with something else. Maybe we just got a lemon in that particular camera.
Almost Perfect!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Note that I JUST received the camera yesterday, but I have a couple of comments right away: 1. The camera should definitely come with a memory card! 2. The wrist strap is almost impossible to attach; I finally threaded a piece of dental floss through to attach to the strap and pull it through…very slow & frustrating. This is important to me since I was caught in a “sneaker wave” on the Oregon coast, & dropped my camera (no wristband) in the saltwater which completely fried/drowned it. I wasn’t completely submerged so a wrist strap would have helped. However, at thi preiminary stage, I love the camera’s huge LED screen and the ease of use: it almost isn’t necessary to read the short “How to Use” piece. I’ve yet to look at the CD plus I haven’t printed any pictures yet. Will write another review in the future as I rely on Amazon customer reviews!
Was expecting a little more…but good for the money.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
It says that it automatically detects movement, but I have taken pictures that it has not automatically corrected the movement. I like it overall, but a little disappointed in that the picture taking quality is not what I expected it to be. The size is perfect, it fits in your pocket and is really light. It is easy to use, point and shoot, but it is best to pre-focus to get it to shoot quicker.
Canon Powershot SD1200IS Digital Camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
So far I like the camera, however a printed manual would be much appreciated. All that comes with this camera is the small “Getting Started” booklet, and all else must be accessed via the computer disk, which is very inconvenient when in the field with the camera. There are too many features and controls to memorize the functions, and the controls are not all simply intuitive.
canon sd1200is is great
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
this little camera fits my needs exactly. it has an optical viewfinder so the screen can be turned off to extend battery life. the zoom is a nice range. size is perfect to take hiking, skiing or hunting as it can be slipped into a small pouch or pocket under your jacket for quick access.
Canon Quality
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
New shape looks good, has a little heft suggesting a lot is to be expected from it’s small size. This purchase is the second of two SD1200s bought as family gifts. Easy to use and was no challenge for my wife in the upgrade from her old SD1000. A little disappointed that her spare batteries did not fit the redesigned camera.
Great Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I previously owned a Canon Powershot SD450 for 3 years. This summer my lens would no longer retract and I got an E18 error message. Rather than spend a lot of money trying to repair it, I decided to buy a new camera. After debating between a Nikon Coolpix and the Canon Powershot SD1200IS, based on customer reviews I went for the Canon. I’m really glad I did. The camera was inexpensive, it’s easy to use, lightweight, and takes great pictures. I went hiking in the mountains on a day when the sun kept coming in and out of the clouds. The camera would automatically adjust itself depending on how much light the sun was omitting. My pictures look super! I was also to take a nice picture in a dimly lit restaurant. When I want to take a quick picture, I don’t have to worry about fooling with the lighting, the camera automatically does the work for me. If I could ask for any improvements, I would have liked a little more zoom, but overall the camera is great.
Awesome Low Light Photos
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I had purchased this camera as a gift to myself to replace a Canon Powershot S2iS. Not that it wasnt a great camera, but it was just too big for me to be able to conveniently take it with me, so I missed alot of photo ops.
The SD1200is the perfect size to stick in your pocket or in your purse, and I just tend to leave it in my purse so I’ll always have it in case the need arises. Much better photos than those from my camera phone!
The main thing about this camera though..at least for me…is the fantastic pictures that it takes in very low light. It was put to the test recently when we were at the hospital for the birth of a grandchild. The only light that was on was some ambient lighting around the ceiling and my pictures were as clear and perfect as they would have been taken outside on a sunny day. AND…it wasnt even using the flash! I would take one and someone would say ” It didnt flash” thinking no doubt they were catching a “user error” LOL! But the picture was perfect, which I made sure to show them! Im sure I converted several people that day and they will be getting one of these cameras too.
Another low light situation is when I take photos for online selling. Before the SD1200is, I would be going all over the house trying to find just the right light that wouldnt cast shadows, that would show the true colors, etc etc. Now it doesnt matter where I take the shot…the picture is great…even on the macro setting!
The battery life is decent…I charged it the first time the early part of December and the low battery signal didnt appear until the middle of January. That’s after probably over 100 photos were taken.
I highly recommend this camera to everyone!
Great camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I had an earlier model of the Cannon PowerShot Elph which I used and liked very much, but this camera is even better! It is easy to use and takes terrific pictures. One big improvement is the life of the battery, along with a larger screen for viewing. I would highly recommend it.
Poor Build Quality
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I recently purchased this camera to replace my Panasonic FX150 on a 1 month trip to Europe.
The quality of the photos from that camera never compared to my canon SD1100 that I had given to a family member in Ireland last summer.
I have had numerous Canon cameras in the past (SD110, 10D, 20D, Pro1 and the SD1100) and was rarley disapointed.
So I purchased the SD1100 a few weeks before my trip and tested it at a tall ships event in Boston.
As always the quality was perfect for holiday snaps right out of the camera.
So I traveled to Ireland with the SD1100 and brought the Panasonic just in case we had an issue.
We were traveling to Ireland, Venice, Munich and Salzburg so I wanted to make sure I had a back up camera.
The first day in Ireland we went to Spanish Point. It was a very windy day and as I was taking photos the camera shut down.
I attempted to turn it back on, but kept getting a lens alignment error.
After 83 photos the camera was dead because a strong wind knocked the lens out of alignment.
I contacted cannon and they were of no help at all. All I could get were the standard canned responses from support.
No one actually addressed my dissatisfaction or offered a solution. (Canon is in Europe also)
So I went on my trip with the Panasonic FX150. Got my pictures back today and as my wife noted they are not very good. The FX150 randomly takes a nice photo, but most of the time they are overexposed or out of focus. Yes you can blame the photographer, but no matter what you do with the FX150 it has a mind of its own and you don’t buy a point and shoot camera to be messing around with manual settings on vacation photos.
The bottom line is I would not recommend this camera due to its build quality. Get the SD1100 (I think they were built in Japan – at least the early models) but avoid the camera in my opinion. And if you do buy it keep your old one as a backup, bad pictures are better than no pictures.
Nice piece of equiptment
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
For as little as I paid for this camera it takes nice pictures. I have been disappointed with many other digital camera’s in the past and never thought I would find one I like. canon did a wonderful job with this camera for it is easy to use and understand. I have taken pictures with this camera using some of the features in the easy to navigate menu and when I have printed them out and showed friends and collages they were impressed with the quality. Bravo to canon for this product. I use it more then I thought I would.
Great little camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this as a gift for my wife after reading a positive review in Cons. Reports. She loves it. She took it on a trip with her sisiters and they all were impressed with the quality of the pictures and how easy it was to use. Several of them took down the model to buy for themselves.
Great camera, easy to use
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I’m very happy with this camera overall. I received it quickly and it is easy to use compared to the sd1100 canon i had. I felt like it doesn’t focus automatically as well (i am not a very knowledgeable photographer) but overall takes good pictures. I like the “play” feature to be able to look at pictures and switch back to taking photos easily. It’s also nice and small (and cute!). The battery life I have been extremely impressed with. I think I have charged it once and have had it almost a month.
Nice little pocket camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Pros:
Fits in pocket or handbag
Picture quality is excellent
Zoom feature works very good/ great close up pictures
Helpful guides inside view finder
Buttons easy to use and operate
Takes quality non-zoom videos with very good sound
Great stabilizer for videos and pictures
Takes excellent pictures in low light/ flash adjusts
Great all around camera for sporting events and family trips!
Cons:
Poor picture quality while using zoom during video filming. In other words don’t zoom in while taking videos. Videos become very blurred.
Canon PowerShot
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I have purchased two other Canon Digital cameras. Both came with a minimum memory chip. Not SD1200IS.
The Amazon ad did not tell me the camera does not come with a memory chip. When I complained to the seller, they simply replied by listing the featurs of the product and failed to respond to my complaint. Fortunately I had a 2 GB chip to use.
I have seen ads for this camera at lower prices.
Nice product, good delivery service!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Every about this camera just satisfy me very well. Also impressed by your good delivery service!Thank you!
excellent fun camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ll be the first to admit that my knowledge of a digital camera could fit into a thimble, this is my first purchase of a digital camera. I bought it at my brother-in-law recommendation and I am extrememly happy with it. It is small, takes nice clear shots, has an amazing zoom, adapts nicely to my PC. There isn’t a delay when taking the picture, and it tells you where it is focusing on the picture. There is a small view if it is very sunny outside. It takes good shots during the day and at night. I am very happy with this purchase.
Love, love, love this little camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have an old Canon SD600 and decided to finally update. Ordered this because of my good experience with Canon and it did not disappoint. Pictures are clear and in focus. I was skeptical about the face recognition feature, but it’s a real help. The camera is amazingly small and the rounded corners give it a nice feel. It fits into even the tiniest camera cases. Looking forward to taking it on vacation this year.
Canon = great picture quality!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’m returning canon powershot owner who wanted to upgrade from a canon powershot sd600 to a sd1200. I loved the sd600 and still do as it works great and takes amazing pictures but wanted to simply upgrade. Lets just say canon continues to make top quality cameras. The pictures look absolutely amazing. The camera is very user friendly that anyone can pretty much use. The features are great such as the 17 shooting modes so that you can always get that great shot no matter what environment. If I wanted to be real picky, this camera is smaller and lighter than my older sd600 but it doesn’t have the durability feel because of it. I still highly prefer anyone who wants a great camera at a bargain price to get this. You won’t be disappointed.
Great buy for the money!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought this camera to have something very small that I could throw in my pocket, but still get better quality photos than my cell phone. The camera is the perfect size and was a great buy for the money. I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for convenience, good quality, and a reasonable price.
Canon SD1200 Review
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Not long after I bought this camera I traveled to Southern California and ended up taking over 800 pictures! They all turned out great!! Just make sure you get a high speed SD card so the time it takes to save each picture after you take it can be reduced. I love how small it is! I was able to ride a bunch of rides at Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland and didn’t have to worry about the camera at all!
A fun fast camera in a small package
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Small enough to carry every place you go for those spontaneous grandkids pictures, a tad thicker than the canon sd 940. The camera is small but easy to handle and has a good feel to it, I like the flat button arrangement on the back of the camera and have no trouble pushing them even with my big old hands, that just me though. The LCD screen is only 2 12inches but is very very clear and sharp to frame and review your pictures with. It is made in japan. I carry mine in a little phone case that has a belt clip instead of a belt loop for easy on and off when getting in the car. At our state fair this year i took over 450 pictures some with flash in the barns and 8 short movie clips on one battery charge… A great camera for short movies get a 4 gig (higher speed) sd card if taking alot of movies. No sd card comes with camera , make sure you have one, a 2gig sd card would be good for 750 pictures. I like using( program mode ), ( auto mode indoors seems to pick a very high iso and makes for to much noise in pictures),again thats just me though… outdoors auto does better though. I keep the iso at 100 or 200 or use (auto iso) in p mode. The camera boots up in 1 sec, shot to shot is 1.5 secs, with the flash on 3 or 4 secs. In auto mode it is trying to focas all the time and is very noisey doing so… make sure you are holding as still as you can (so it won’t think it should refocas again) or it will blur your picture that is another reason i use program mode but you still have to hold very still. And if your new to this digital camera stuff remember to save your pictures first and then low level format your sd card.
Canon Powershot SD1200 IS
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Camera is light and easy to use. The LCD is big and the settings displayed are easy to see and understand. I would like to have the electronic user manual in print/paper, however, the information is there and relatively easy to find.
Installation: The installation CD did not install on my computer. The reason is that the installation software program’ window did not show the most important button, “install” so the installation could not go forward. This window is lacking sliders so I could not change the window size or reveal the missing button. A call to Canon support did not resolve the problem and they even did not offer to look at their program for possible changes. I can live without their software and am using a card reader to import the pictures to the computer but may be this is not a solution for everyone.
Stitching: So far I could not find if this camera has a stitching assist feature and I believe it’s missing.
Great Camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I LOVE this camera! So far there isn’t one thing I dislike about it! Great picture quality and is a ’smart’ camera! Recommend highly!
Why did they have to change the darned battery?
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I’ve had two SD1000s, an SD1100, and now this one. I liked the first two a lot, mostly for shooting outdoor nature shots in very bright light, but really liked the IS on the 1100 for shooting in dark canyons, etc. I find many more of my pix are good (not blurry at least).
But these cameras have problems with the lens gears – just google “canon lens error”. I’ve had this on all my cameras (have not taken the 1200 in the field yet). I use them outdoors in places with very fine sand, but I keep them clean and in bags, never drop them. Now the 1100 fell onto a rock from 6 feet so I take blame for that, but I’m really disappointed in the lack of robustness – in fact part of the reason I have so many is that I won’t go out into the field without a spare. Note that if they die within the first year, Canon graciously repairs them under warranty, as long as they don’t look too beat up. And you often can get some more life out of them once the error starts by pushing the lens back so it is level – but the gears are plastic, they are wearing out all the while, you can hear grating noises.
Nonetheless, I thought I have so many batteries and chargers why not stay with the family and I got the 1200. Sigh I was so disappointed that it has a different sized battery.
So I’ve just jumped over to the Lumix ZR-1 as my most recent camera. Canon lost me when they did that battery change trick, and I’m hoping that the Lumix will turn out to be more robust in the field.
State of the Art
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a top of the line camera. The only thing wrong with it is me. I’m not a very good photographer, but this camera makes me look a lot better than I am. The controls are pretty intuitive; my only complaint is you have to get used to the arrow keys being labeled as something else. I can’t vote on the battery life because I haven’t had to charge it yet (except for the first time. The detail in the photos is exquisite.
An Amazing Camera! I am sooo impressed!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was very impressed with this camera. I just recently bought it and have already taken hundreds of amazing shots with it.
Before this camera I had had a Nikon Coolpix, but after it took a swim, I needed a replacement. This camera is very small, so it easily slides into my pocket and it’s light, so it doesn’t weigh down my wrist.
The quality of the pictures was very good. I took pictures that turned out so amazingly. The features and options for the pictures also help bring out the colors in certain landscapes.
I recommend this camera to someone who is looking for a good digital camera. It is portable and fits my needs. It can be used as a goof-around camera
(taking pictures with your friends on an outing or at a party) or a digital camera that takes the quality pics you want. (Just the other day I got some astonishing shots on the beach, using the beach and sunset modes.)
It’s awesome and I will NEVER regret buying it!
really great camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
this camera is really nice and easy to use. Its perfect for the person who isnt the most advanced when it comes to technology – yet it still packs a great punch with high tech feautures! Excellent quality prints
Canon PowerShot SD1200Is 10MP-Easy to use digital camera takes very nice quality pictures!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I LOVE my Canon PowerShot SD1200IS 10 MP Digital Camera.
My daughter owns the Canon Powershot SD1100 IS 8MP. It takes fine pictures, but it has limited use for changing lens and isn’t quite a high end camera….and it isn’t quite portable.
This small camera takes 10 MB and I can adjust it to take pictures up close. I found it easy to use, very portable and have been very happy with the quality of the images.
In addition, I got the Transcend 8 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card with card reader TS8GSDHC6-S5W, which makes downloading images a breeze. I pop out the memory card, insert into the card reader and plug into my computer.
Done.
My biggest issue with cameras before is it took me too long to figure out how to use them. This has been simple.
This particular one was a replacement for another Canon Powershot which I lost when I had to evacuate during the Station Fires in Altadena. That brings me to the one problem…they are small and easy to misplace.
I keep hoping to locate that first camera…that would be lovely since my daughter keeps borrowing mine!
Great camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I do love this camera, however I’m not a huge fan of the cropping option since I can’t
find one. My other small complaint is the video, you can’t hear any sound when you
replay a video from the camera. Slightly inconvienent however it sounds great once you
transfer the video onto your computer. I do love the size of the camera and most pictures
turn out great! The camera is also very easy to use and most settings are easy to change/figure
out.
great camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have the older version of this camera and bought this one for my teenage daughter. It received a recommended buy rating in Consumer Reports. Easy to use and great pictures. Small enough to fit in pocket or purse. Still get red-eye sometimes even with the reduction on but can easily remove it. The best part was that it was less expensive to purchase online from Amazon than the store website or even in the store. It arrived by regular shipping in 3 days.
Very good for an amateur
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camera is good for an amateur like me. It has a good balance of cost, features and portability. The main reason for buying this was portability. I own a camera that takes much better pictures thank this one, but is pretty bulky. I was looking for something that took decent pictures and was more portable. So far I am pretty happy with the picture quality. The pictures in bright day light are just great. However, it is challenging to get good pictures outdoors at night. All in all I am happy with my purchase.
Great Product
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this for my 5 year old daughter and she loves it. The ease of use and size make it the perfect gift. The quality of the pictures are excellent for a camera this size as well. Highly recommend.
Novice Digital Camera User
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I really like this camera. I’m pretty loyal to my point and shoot cameras, but after losing some great shots because I ran out of film one vacation, I decided to check out digital cameras. After reading the reviews on the Canon PowerShot, I decided to take the plunge and have not been disappointed. It’s small and easily fits inside my purse. I’m still on a learning curve with all of it’s features, but it’s pretty cool. The on-line manual is very helpful, but I wish it came in a booklet. To find out about the different settings, you need to review the manual. Sometime when I have the inclination, I’ll print it out. So far I have found it easy to use and my pictures have turned out really nice. I do have a tendency to move the camera when I take a picture so the stability control helps. I’ve also used a suggestion from another user to set it to the Kids and Pets setting to help with subject movements. I have not had a problem with the buttons, but I do not have large hands. I am looking forward to taking this camera on my next vacation where I’ll have an opportunity to try out the beach and aquarium settings. Along with the camera size and picture quality, I really like the fact that I can just set it on automatic or use the different settings. It’s just a great little camera for me.
good value for money
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Good value for the price. Best point and shoot in its range. If you want to shed some more monet then 780 is the way to go but thi sdoes all what I need to compliment my Nikon SLR D-90
great camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Puchased the camera just before a vacation and had not had time to test it. The pictures the camera took were awesome. A point and shot camera. We went into some dark caves and the pictures the camera took were fantastic. I never thought they would even come out.
Great Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is the best camera I have ever owned. It’s picture quality is amazingly clear and crisp. The zoom feature is very nice as well. With the features of auto focus, lighting, etc. it makes it impossible to take a bad picture. I’m still learning all the features the camera has to offer, but so far I’m extremely satisfied. It also comes in many other colors which can make it fun and personal.
canon
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This little canon is great. I replaced my Nikon camera because it was not downloading pics.
I went from 5 megapixels to 10 and the difference is noticeable. I love the color too.
Great camera!
My favorite tiny point and shoot
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I lost the previous model of this camera and was heartbroken. I owned the model before that, and adored that one too. This one has some great improvements. It’s slightly better in low light than it used to be, the screen is a bit bigger, I love the tilt feature to review a picture in full screen. I’m a little sad that the old batteries no longer work with this one, but I can see that they’re trying to make the whole thing smaller, and the batteries aren’t terribly expensive.
Remember that you need to buy a storage card, it’s not included! Amazon offered a 2Gb Kingston card for free when I bought mine, a good deal and I haven’t filled it up yet.
With this camera and Adobe Lightroom, I feel like I can take gorgeous photographs without the expense and inconvenience of lugging around an SLR, although I would totally do it if I had the money! I find myself making fewer adjustments in Lightroom with this camera, which I attribute to both the camera and my skills improving over time.
One more thing that’s kept me coming back to this camera over the years is the Canon Hack Development Kit ([...]) which is a third party open source firmware project that allows you to shoot in RAW, and do a lot of other fancy stuff. Installing this will almost certainly void your warranty, so it’s not for everybody, but I’m looking forward to when they’ve updated the firmware for this model.
Love my Canon PowerShot
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Consumer Reports rated the SD1200 IS very highly. I shopped around and this was the best price for a new camera. It arrived in the mail sooner than the ad said. I love the small size – so light and fits easily in my purse. I also like that it has a viewfinder. Haven’t had it long enough to comment on the battery life, but it’s easy to use and takes great pictures and video. I love it!
Canon SD1200IS
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
the size and design is super! for the price it’s great except it only have limited features.
Great portability, great for people shots
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is a really great camera that is simple and easy to use. Menus are logical, LCD is clear and vivid. Best thing: Facial recognition and focusing – This camera knows when you are trying to take photos of people, and adjusts the focus automatically to ensure that the people in the photo are in focus. This makes it perfect for the novice operator to take great shots without those mistake shots where the people in the shot are blurry and the camera accidentally focuses on a tree or car in the background. This camera is super intuitive. Worst Thing: Bummer of a lag time in composing shots. If you’re thinking about using this to take shots of moving objects you should definitely chose a different camera. Still a 4 star camera because of excellent photos and ease of use.
Date/Time Stamp Option
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Great Camera, For long time I was looking for Small handy Canon Camera with Date/time stamp option on the photo itself; to my surprise this camera has it.
Overall picture quality is good, Battery life is better. What else you want?
Worst camera i ever bought
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
this is the worst camera i ever bought,one buys camera for picture quality, and it lacks the same, my earlier 3.1pixel nikon camera is better than this.all the images are blurred for no reason.
great little camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this camera for my daughter as I have one just like it only in pink. They are so user friendly and the pictures turn out so well. It is compact and easy to carry in my purse in a little case I bought so I never miss a “Kodak” moment. Or should I say “Canon” moment! She is enjoying her camera as much as I am. No complaints here.
SD1200IS is a nice camera if you can live with the constant buzz
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Ordered this from amazon.com .It was shipped via USPS by amazon.Packaging was not that great
The camera LCD did not have a protective film.Everything was loosely packed just the strap had a tape.I was kinda scared if i got a refurb lemon .
Battery charged up fine in about an hour and half .Loaded up the battery & memory .
Now comes the irritating part .In the Auto mode this camera makes a irritating buzz .I read this in some other reviews too and was thinking i can live with it but the sound does really gets on your head.
Picture quality is really good .I have only tried it indoors and at night so far .I am going to try it outdoors and see how it fares.
The camera looks very fragile and the components seem they will break easily.I hope it lasts atleast one year .
Great Camera for the price
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This Camera is great for the price. has all the recent features needed. very lightweight and durable.
Blurry images
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I have been buying Canon Powershots for years: SD400, SD600, SD1100 (purchased in 2008) and have greatly enjoyed their portability and excellent, sharp images. I even hiked and *trail ran* with them, and they have held up well considering. However, lately the image quality has degraded to what I would call poor. Powershots used to be sharp from edge to edge (with possibly a *very slight* softness at the corners). However, I have now tried 3 recent Powershots including two SD12000s that have significant areas of image blurriness right out of the box. The SD1200 I just returned had a full *1/3* of the image area on the right that was blurry and/or showed double images. I even sent a recent SD1100 (purchased 2009) for repair and it came back blurry from the factory repair center! It was a brand-new optical assembly. I’m not buying another Powershot until they recognize and fix their quality issues.
BEST CAMERA EVER!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1F39W7MQ4M4EZ This video was taken on my camera phone. : – (
Video Test on Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS at 640×480 at 30 frames per second: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCN_bIzAUJI
Canon PowerShot
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
It was the perfect camera for me. It is small and fits in my purse. The picture quality is significantly better than our older digital camera. Each picture has the date. I am far from a professional photographer, but it is easy to use and easy to upload on to my laptop. Oh, yes, I am 67 and I gave one to my 14 year old granddaughter. We both love the fun colors that are available.
Good 1st Digital Camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is our first digital camera. We bought it on the basis of the strong review of the product in Consumer Reports. Overall we love the portability and convenience of it, it was easy to learn to use. We’re not impressed with the quality of images produced, but we’ve only looked at them on the built in lcd screen, so we don’t know how they’d look on a bigger screen or printed out. It was easy to learn how to use from the directions, easy to download the software onto our family home computer. The only problem: we didn’t know we’d also have to purchase a memory card for the camera, so that was a little bit of an inconvenience. Tip: it would have been easier if we’d just purchased the memory card Amazon said many other buyers purchased along with the camera.
I like it so far. .
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Just getting started using it. This is my first digital camera. Like the size and seems easy to use. Presenting info wasn’t clear this did NOT come with a chip. Seems like that should be included with the “package”.
Amazing low light
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We used this an a trip to D.C. It took amazing no-flash pictures in dimly lit museums. This was many steps ahead of my daughters two year old Canon SD1000IS. Buy it, you won’t regret it.
Canon Powershot SD1200IS
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We really like the camera. It is a compact little camera with a fairly quick shutter speed. I like the rechargeable battery pack.
Great convenient camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I love this camera! I can’t get all techie like some other reviews, but I can tell you that I travel quite a bit and this is an ideal pocket camera. I’m VERY happy with the quality of the pics and the ease of use. It was easy to start out and easy to figure out all of the features. I waited a long time to upgrade from my old Canon (2 megapixils! It’s been that long!) and I’m happy with this choice. My only quibble is that it doesn’t have a panoramic feature (unless it’s hidden in there somewhere and I haven’t found it yet…). The size is very good and fits quite nicely in my hand. It’s made of METAL and not plastic and you can’t go wrong with Canon lense standards. I also like that it runs on a rechargeable battery pac and comes with a charger. All one needs is another backup battery and switch out when the first is charging. No more carrying a bunch of AA batteries on a trip or paying inflated prices on vacation.
Amazing Little Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is an amazing camera for a novice. The colors are vibrant, the zoom for E-Bay sales, signage, etc. is fabulous. We just returned from a trip to British Columbia, I knew nothing about the camera before I left, used it with no knowledge (and on automatic the whole time), and the photos are great.
good cam for the $
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Camera is good. Auto setting is bad. Learn How to get a good manual setting a experiment to take good pictures.
very UNDER impressed
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Just got this cam yesterday and I had high hopes. Unfortunately, I think that I may end up returning this camera.
PROS:
*yes, it is very small and attractive
*seems well constructed
*good price ($150) for supposed “CANON QUALITY”
*charger is compact and nicely designed
CONS:
*terrible low light performance! my pictures are either too dim (if the subject is more than 6′ away), too grainy/noisy, or straight up blurry because the shutter is so slow (to let in enough light) that the subjects are blurry from slight movements
*weak flash (contributes to above point)
*colors seem bad, off, and/or weak…maybe a fault w/ auto WB, I will experiment w/ manual selection of WB
*menus are a bit convoluted; you can’t get to certain settings unless you are in certain modes. you change the mode, and all the sudden the same menu button opens a ton more settings that weren’t there before. I realize it is because these settings probably only apply to the current mode, but how about some “master” settings, so u can have the same preferences already set fro when you go into the associated modes???
*waterproof case. this is a general canon complaint. they make probably 10 current compact models that can use a waterproof case. unfortunately, they use 10 different cases. each costs ~$200…that means if I want to buy a case for more than I paid for the camera, it is worthless in 2-3 years when the camera breaks and I cant find (or wouldn’t want) a replacement. hey Canon, how about a little more interchangeability. couldn’t you use a fairly standard shell and just upgrade the internals? maybe make the case so if one camera had a longer lens, or was bit thicker, you could just change some little rubber spacers in the waterproof case? as it is right now, I want a waterproof case, but I can’t buy it now because I don’t know if I’m going to keep this camera. so make more universal cases or make better cameras so I don’t need to second guess keeping it.
If anyone has any suggestions to improve the quality of this camera (besides plunking down another $200 for a better model, I would greatly appreciate it. I have had compact Sony’s (Cyber Shot DSC-W7), Nikon’s (2100 Coolpix), Kodak?, and various older digital cameras…and I would rate this Canon as the most compact, but probabl