Canon SD1000 digital camera

I have had this for about 3 months now and have taken somewhere around a thousand photos or so and twenty videos or more.

I shopped around for days looking to get a good point-and-shoot at a very good price. The variation in pricing on this camera, or any cameras, is ridiculous. Some shops wanted two or three times more than others. Some shops had cameras priced as much or above the newest models. I guess it depends on the popularity and quality but it's still kind of ridiculous.

I ended up getting the Canon SD1000 from Walmart.com for about $100 off the going price at the time. It took about a week from ordering to arriving with standard shipping.

I'll try to keep some order to the review.

• The small form factor of this camera is a huge plus! I can stick it in my front jean pocket without really feeling much of a difference in weight. Some may find the small form troublesome to operate. I don't have big hands, definitely not small but I have no issues with the buttons to operate or navigate the camera.
• The screen is awesome and vibrant. It's so bright and shows the pics very nicely. Sometimes too nicely but I think this is just a common issue with all LCD screens on all digicams. Because it's smaller than what you will see on a computer, blurry photos look good on the LCD. Once you port them to the PC, you can see that the pic is blurry for one reason or another BUT NOT because the camera has issues. It's probably more (in my case) from focusing on the wrong object or focusing on an object and then moving closer/further away from it or moving. Understand what I mean? Just know, it's not the camera. One cool thing is that you can turn the camera from horizontal to vertical and the picture will adjust (like the iPod Touch or iPhone) to always show correctly instead of you having to turn your head to the side.
• The video is quite good. It takes just as good of quality as my Canon MiniDV video camera I bought some years ago. The upside for the SD1000 is that I can transfer the video to my PC without having to go through some importing software like Pinnacle, Nero or even Windows Movie Maker. The sound on the videos I have taken is quite good. It doesn't have a "focused" sound but most of the time I've videoed people weren't talking near or around me. I put it on my dash while driving from the grocery store to home in the dark around 9pm and it shot pretty good video for moving and low light.
• The battery life has been quite adequate for me. I've charged it and used the camera sporadically over a few days to a week without issue of running out of battery. I just saw a "camera kit" at another store (didn't check at Walmart.com) for the SD1000 which has a leather case, a strap, and a battery for like $62. I would recommend the extra battery for sure as if you are like me, you tend to not recharge the battery like you should so it's nice to pull one off the charger and then keep shooting or whatever.
• The flash is average at best. I expected as much from such a tiny flash but don't expect to catch photo moments with the flash with the subject more than 12ft or more away. It will light everything close and leave everything else "shadowed." I've found using the night/low light shot to be an occasional fix to this although not always.
• The zoom is good for me as what's the point of a higher zoom if the flash can't light up the subject you zoomed on. It is very nice that you can zoom in and out while shooting video. Not a lot of compact digicams will do this.
• My SD1000 came with a 32MB SD memory card. That holds about 8-10 seconds of video. I didn't count the pics as I just ran the video straight out of the box. I currently have a 1GB card and I've taken around 150 pics without issue. I haven't filled the card with taking photo or video yet as I usually port to PC shortly (30 mins to 1 day) after shooting. I recently ordered an 8GB SDHC card so hopefully I won't ever have to worry about filling the card.
• The screen is beautiful and because of this I would get a protector for the screen or a case for the camera. I use a felt-type back that actually is the case for my Zune but fits the SD1000 nicely. Fingerprints are going to happen but scratches and such are completely avoidable.
• The menu is easily navigated although you may not know what everything does without reading the manual. Menu is fully on-screen-display driven. Some options like auto flash, no flash, delete (during 3-sec review after snapshot) and a few other things can be done with a touch of a button but most functions are in a menu somewhere.
• The digital macro is awesome. I don't use it often but I tested it just to see how it worked/looked and I was not disappointed. You can see the fibers in a bath towel!

I guess I could go on but I think that sums it up pretty well. It's not my Rebel XT but if I could have fit my XT in my front jean pocket without issues, I would not have purchased the SD1000 in the first place. In my honest opinion (and I read A LOT of reviews at various web sites), the SD1000 is one of the best very compact point-and-shoots you can get. If you can find it like I did for a third of the cost like I did, you will most certainly not be disappointed.