Canon PowerShot A1100 IS Review
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.
|
Example 1 (100% Crop) |
|
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.
|
Shutter Speed / Focal Length |
Anti Shake Off (100% Crop) |
Anti Shake On (100% Crop) |
| 1/20th / 35mm | |
|
| 1/5th / 140mm | |
|
Sample Images
This is a selection of sample images from the Canon PowerShot A1100 IS camera, which were all taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.
Sample Movie & Video
This is a sample movie at the quality setting of 640x480 at 30 frames per second. Please note that this 20 second movie is 36.9Mb in size.
Product Images
|
|
Front of the Camera |
|
|
Front of the Camera / Lens Extended |
|
|
Isometric View |
|
|
Isometric View |
|
|
Rear of the Camera |
|
|
Rear of the Camera / Turned On |
|
|
Rear of the Camera / Function Menu |
|
|
Rear of the Camera / Main Menu |
|
|
Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed |
|
|
|
|
Top of the Camera |
|
|
Bottom of the Camera |
|
|
Side of the Camera |
|
|
Side of the Camera |
|
|
Front of the Camera |
|
|
Front of the Camera |
|
|
Memory Card Slot |
|
|
Battery Compartment |
Conclusion
At first glance the new Canon Powershot A1100 IS looks very similar to its bigger brother, the A2100. I reviewed both cameras at the same time and actually preferred the slightly cheaper A1100 model in many ways. Although offering a smaller, lower-resolution 2.5 inch LCD screen and shorter 4x zoom lens, the A1100 is noticeably smaller and lighter, offers a faster maximum aperture of f/2.8 at the wide-angle 35mm focal length, has a true optical viewfinder, and benefits from having a curved hand-grip area. Whilst the A2100 will fit into a trouser pocket or handbag, the A1100 easily fits, which means that you're more likely to carry it around with you.
The Canon Powershot A1100 IS builds on the key strengths of the previous A1000 model by adding even more beginner-friendly features. The A1100 is a compact camera that produces excellent images in good light and which covers a versatile focal range for such a small camera thanks to the 4x zoom lens. The wealth of different scene modes on offer are now accompanied by the ultimate point-and-shoot Smart Auto and Easy modes, which really do take the guesswork out of using the A1100 and make it suitable for all the family. Other beginner-friendly features include Face Select & Track, which is a great way of focusing on who really matters in your photos, and FaceSelf-Timer which easily allows you to take part in those all-important family group shots.
The move to more megapixels - up to 12.1 from the A1000's 10 - thankfully hasn't come at the cost of image quality, although the A1100 still suffers from less than stellar images in low-light due to obvious noise appearing at ISO 400 and faster. Other key disappointments include that low-resolution LCD screen and an even slower continuous shooting speed of 1.1fps. Disappointingly for UK buyers, the launch price has shot up from £169 to £219, although to be fair to Canon comparable price rises are happening across the industry as Sterling struggles against the Yen.
Overall the Canon Powershot A1100 IS adds a number of improvements to an already attractively designed camera, making it even more ideally suited to its family target audience.
| Ratings (out of 5) | |
|---|---|
| Design | 4.5 |
| Features | 4 |
| Ease-of-use | 4.5 |
| Image quality | 4 |
| Value for money | 3.5 |
Review Roundup
Reviews of the Canon PowerShot A1100 IS from around the web.
steves-digicams.com »
To start out 2009, Canon has released the A1100 IS, upgrading the A1000 IS from last year. Two of the major upgrades to the A1100 IS are a 12.1-Megapixel sensor and the new DIGIC 4 processor. This new processor allows the camera to access information taken from thousands of images to correctly choose the proper shooting mode for the current scene or subject you are framing. It also helps improve focus speed, accuracy, exposure and white balance. Other new additions include Canon's i-Contrast technology as well as Face Self-Timer, which waits for an additional face to enter the frame before capturing the image. This allows the photographer to take his or her time getting into the frame after setting up the camera for a group photo including him or herself. Carrying over from the previous model are the major features like Optical image stabilization and 4x optical zoom.
Read the full review »
Specifications
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
| Zoom | ¹ Depending on the image size selected. ² Digital zoom available for still image and standard movie modes only. Optical zoom may not be available during movie recording. |
|||
| AF Modes | ¹ Some settings limit availability | |||
| Modes | ¹ Recording pixels fixed at 1600 x 1200. | |||
| Continuous Shooting | ¹ Under conditions where the flash does not fire. ² Depending on memory card speed / capacity / compression setting. |
|||
| Movie Length | ¹ Depending on memory card speed / capacity / compression setting. | |||
| Battery life | ¹ Using the batteries and memory card format supplied with the camera (where included), except where indicated. | |||
| Operating Environment | ¹ 0 – 35 °C when NB-3AH is used | |||
| * Standard Output Sensitivity / Recommended Exposure Index. | ||||
| According to ISO 12232:2006 (20th April 2006) which specifies the method for assigning and reporting ISO speed ratings for digital still cameras. | ||||
| All data is based on Canon standard testing methods (according to CIPA Standards) except where indicated. | ||||
Loading comments…