Canon PowerShot SD1200IS 10 MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD (Pink/Red)

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)

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 640x480 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.

I don't typically bother reviewing products because I usually only buy things that already have a lot of reviews. I decided to throw in my 2 cents on this one in hopes someone can benefit from my experience. I primarily use my camera for family shots, mostly of my young children. I loved my old Canon A610 more that I can say and it has served me well for 4 years. Recently one of my children got a hold of it and bent up the little dealies that close over the lens cap to the point where I had to pull them off with tweezers just to use the camera. That's when I decided it was time to see what Canon now has to offer. I am by no means a photography expert. I just want a point and shoot that I can use to snap high quality family photos for prints, digital scrapbooks, etc. The sale price on this camera seemed excellent for the features and a free memory card offer sucked me in so I took the plunge. I assumed it would be a major upgrade from my 5MP A610. Once I had the battery charged up I started taking photos of my kids in auto mode. I was *shocked* at the poor quality of the photos. Every photo I reviewed was terrible. Many were blurry, and the ones that weren't couldn't be cropped to the slightest degree without losing all detail. I couldn't believe it! Auto mode on my old Canon had never failed me before and I could crop all the way to the eyeballs without loss of detail. Determined not to give up, I did some research. Several people recommended "kids and pets" mode. I tried this and the blurry issue was solved. However, the cropping issue still remained. I dug deeper and started messing with ISO settings and a bunch of other stuff I don't really understand. I just couldn't solve the problem. I even got out my old Canon and took identical shots with both cameras and the old one won out every single time. I must point out that these were all indoor shots with relatively low light. I realize these are not ideal conditions, but if a camera can't handle those conditions then it isn't for me. I had pretty much resolved to return this camera and was already shopping on Amazon for another one when I decided to give it one more try. I simply couldn't understand how this camera could perform so poorly. I fired it back up in "kids and pets" mode and started looking around at all the settings it would let me modify. That's when I noticed an "S" in the bottom left corner of the screen. Hmmm...what could this be? The other options for this setting are L M1 M2 M3 S and W. It turns out that this setting determines the number of megapixels that the camera uses. L is the highest resolution setting which uses all 10MP and 3648x2736 resolution. S (which is what the camera was automatically set to) has a resolution of only 640x480 and appears to use .3MP. Soooo, I bumped it from S up to L and now my camera takes awesome photos. Once again I can crop to the eyeballs and now side by side the same photos look even better on the new camera than they did on my old one. Also, with my 4GB memory card it says I can take approximately 1450 photos at this higher resolution. So now all is right with the world, I don't have to deal with the hassle of a return, and I can take awesome family photos this Christmas. Even though the camera is performing admirably now, I had to give it 4 stars because it should not have been such a pain in the rear to straighten this out. Not to mention that the included paper manual does not even address this issue at all. I assume the online manual covers it, but should I really have to go that far to get one croppable indoor shot? This is a point and shoot!! Most of the bad reviews were for the same problem I was having. The majority of purchasers don't want to have to switch a bunch of settings; they just want the camera to take great photos without a lot of effort.

This camera is exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something that is very portable but still takes great quality pictures, has enough but not too many features, and operates quickly and easily. It turns on quickly, it has much less delay between pressing the shutter button and the camera taking the picture than cameras I've used previously, and you can take another picture right away without much of a delay at all. In fact, you can hold the shutter button down as long as you want to (providing the flash is not on) and it will continue taking 1.4 pictures per second, which is much faster than many others I looked at. This is something the newer 1300 and 1400 models don't seem to have. I also like having a viewfinder for those bright sunny days where it is difficult to see the LCD screen, although the screen is great in most conditions. The viewfinder is small, but it's better than not having one. You do have to keep in mind that you need to zoom out more than you think you need to while using the viewfinder, though. The viewfinder and quick burst mode are what made me choose the 1200 model over the newer ones. The 1200 doesn't have HD video (which is fine since I don't have an HD TV), but the quality is still good, and you can zoom while taking video without hearing the shutter move in the video. And there is sound when you play them back on the camera, as is not the case with many other point and shoot cameras that don't have a speaker on them. The only thing I wish this camera had was a little more zoom, but it's not bad. It actually stops zooming in between optical and digital zoom and then you can hit the zoom button again if you want to zoom further, which is nice if you don't like the digital zoom as much. There is only a basic printed manual that comes with the camera, but a more detailed one comes on the provided CD that you have to upload onto your computer to read. I haven't checked out the software that came with the camera for modifying the pictures or printed any pictures yet, but I anticipate both will be fine. Also, other reviewers have commented on how blurry their pictures were, but they probably had the megapixels on the camera set too low. I have gotten lots of nice crisp, sharp pictures so far (both still and action shots) with the camera set at 6 MP so my file size isn't too big. And I am taking a lot more pictures than I have in the past because the camera is more portable than my previous cameras. I love the green color and it feels comfortable to hold, but it is a little slippery so you do have to be careful. The buttons are small as well, so I have to use my fingernail to use them, but I like how the camera is all laid out (both the menus and the location of the buttons). For being a point and shoot, it's a great choice at a reasonable price. Overall, I am very satisfied with this camera and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for the same features I was.

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"

I don't often write reviews on many purchases but this camera deserves the praise! I bought one for my son when we were looking for a small, easy to carry, inexpensive camera for him to take on his college study abroad in Tunisia. When he came home and showed us his over 500 photos I was blown away by the quality of the pictures. For this reason, when my wife and I were going on a Caribbean cruise, instead of schleping my Canon XSi or her S2IS both of which are much larger and clumsier to carry, we decided to order an SD1200IS along with a 4G card, accidental damage warranty and carrying case from Amazon, all for just over $200. Well, we are back from our trip, attached the camera to directly to our TV to look at the pics and the SD1200, once again, did not disappoint. Although I know my way around a digital camera I am far from an experienced or professional photographer. I can not give a detailed, technical review as many other have posted here. Let me just say what I liked: 1. As I stated, the picture quality is wonderful and consistent given the price of this camera. 2. The image stabilization works well and even pictures taken out the window of a moving vehicle are clear and crisp. 3. Having an optical viewfinder is a plus, especially when taking pictures in the bright Caribbean sunlight. 4. The size and weight make it comfortable to stick in a shirt or pant pocket while still being easy for someone with large hands to operate. 5. I was concerned about the modest 3x zoom but found that the pictures are good enough that zooming into a particular area of the picture while in your photo software (or even while viewing on your TV) allows you to see close up clearly. 6. I did not find the need to bother with any special settings, other than the occasional use of fill flash in the program mode. Otherwise I just left it on full auto and let it do its thing. 7. Although the movie mode is not "HD" and I did not use it extensively, it is certainly good enough for the occasional recording of a video. The bottom line is that, for the price, size and ease of use of this camera I don't think it can be beaten. You will not be disappointed!

I bought this when my Sony Cybershot died. After weeks of researching, I decided on this camera. It seemed you can't beat it for the price. I'm an amateur photographer and my main camera is a Canon Rebel Xti DSLR. I wanted a camera to put in my pocket when I don't feel like lugging around my DSLR. Here's the good and the bad of this camera, I've had for a few months now... Pros: -Great, amazing, crisp Macro shots! This camera rivals my DSLR for Macro quality, beads of water on plants, flowers, food, etc. anything close up and this camera shines. -Outdoors this camera takes great landscape photos. Even at night, given you use a tripod this camera has great infinity detail. -Compact and slim enough to fit in jeans pocket. -Battery life, as with all Canons, is amazing. I'll use it for almost a week straight without needing a charge. -LCD is great, very vibrant, too vibrant I think, pics aren't as contrasted as it makes them look, but great nonetheless. Cons: -Flash is really harsh! So bad to where it's almost unusable indoors at night. My last camera had an option to adjust the flast either + or - one setting to adjust it's strenghth and I almost always left in on the minus (-) setting. If this camera had that, I'd give it 4 stars. It's so harsh that I'm considering a Gary Fong diffuser for it and permanently attaching it to it. It just blows out subjects, especially in Macro, forget about it. -Zoom is glitchy. The zoom constantly isn't smooth. It'll catch as I zoom in or out periodically and stall as I hold down the zoom switch. -It's very slippery. This camera has a very smooth finish and makes it easy to slip out of your hands. There's nothing to grip ontom it's all one smooth surface. Conclusion: This is a great camera for outdoors and macro shots, but indoors suffers, as most point and shoot cameras do, with a harsh flash. I'd look for a camera with an adjustable flash level because all digital camera's flashes by default are too bright and harsh for indoors. For $150 though, you can't ask for too much from this little camera...

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 (640x380) 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.