Canon PowerShot A1100 IS Review

4.0

March 17, 2009 | Mark Goldstein |

Buy a PowerShot A1100 IS 12.1 Megapixel Compact Camera - Silver (6.4 cm 2.5" LCD - 4x Optical Zoom - 4000 x 3000 Image - 640 x 480 Video - PictBridge)

Lowest Price: N/A

Buy a PowerShot A1100 IS 12.1 Megapixel Compact Camera - Blue (2.5" LCD - 4x Optical Zoom - 128 MB Secure Digital SD Card Included - 4000 x 3000 Image - 640 x 480 Video - PictBridge)

Lowest Price: N/A

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 3Mb.

The Canon PowerShot A1100 IS produced images of good quality during the review period. The A1100 IS dealt extremely well with chromatic aberrations, with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The pop-up flash worked well indoors, with just the slightest hint of red-eye and adequate exposure. The night photograph was good, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds allowing you to capture enough light in most situations. Anti-shake is a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. Macro performance is very good, allowing you to focus as close as 3cms away from the subject. The images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening setting and ideally require further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you can change the in-camera setting if you don't like the default results. Noise is the biggest problem for the Canon PowerShot A1100 IS. The 12 megapixel sensor produces noise-free images at ISO 80 and 100, but some limited noise is already starting to appear at ISO 200. ISO 400 exhibits quite visible noise and loss of fine detail, and ISO 800 and 1600 are even noisier.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Canon Powershot A1100 IS. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:

ISO 80 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)


ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)


ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are just a little soft at the default setting ideally and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes via the My Colors menu option.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Canon Powershot A1100 IS handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review, with very limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations, as shown in the example below.

Macro

The Canon Powershot A1100 IS offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 3cms away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Canon Powershot A1100 IS are Auto, Flash On, Slow Synchro, and Flash Off, with Red-eye Correction and Red-Eye Lamp settings available via the Flash Settings main menu option. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (35mm)	Auto Flash - Wide Angle (35mm)


Flash Off - Telephoto (140mm)	Auto Flash - Telephoto (140mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, both the Flash On setting and the Red-Eye Correction option caused a tiny amount of red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)


Red-eye Correction	Red-eye Correction (100% Crop)

Night Shot

The Canon Powershot A1100 IS's maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds in the Long Shutter mode, which is good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 10 seconds at ISO 80. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like. The camera takes the same amount of time again to apply noise reduction, so for example at the 10 second setting the actual exposure takes 20 seconds.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

The Canon Powershot A1100 IS has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.