Design & Appearance
The Canon A1100 IS is available in silver, silver, blue, pink and green. The colors are fairly mild and aren't over saturated so you won't end up getting a camera that looks like a toy. The sleek design of the body definitely looks good and the shape is ideal for slipping in and out of a pocket. The lack of a good, solid grip on the right side of the camera is a problem, however. The A1100 IS isn't as easy to grasp hold of as some of the older, bulkier models. The design is an improvement over the A1000 and A2000, which didn't have any rounded bubble on the right side to wrap your hands around.
Size & Handling
The A1100 has dimensions of 95.4 x 62.4 x 31.0mm (3.76 x 2.46 x 1.22 inches) and weighs a light 155 grams (not including batteries). There are many lighter and slimmer cameras out there, but the A1100 is by no means large or unwieldy. Again, we must mention that some people may find the camera's right-side grip as inadequate, especially if you have large hands.
The flash is placed a bit poorly and may find itself in the way of wandering fingers if you use two hands to hold the camera. The viewfinder isn't very comfortable to use either, but we still applaud Canon for at least including one.
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| There isn't much to hold onto on the right side of the A1100. |
Overall, the A1100 has a solid design, despite our minor grievances. Buttons are well placed, zoom is easy to control and access, and the camera's size is good for pocket transport.
Menu
The menu setup is pretty simple on the A1100 IS. Pressing the menu button brings up two menus—camera and settings. The camera menu houses most of the shooting controls like flash settings, digital zoom options, and autofocus features. The settings menu deals with the camera's internal display, sound, and format options. Additional menu options are located in the playback section.
There aren't any info or assist titles in the menu, which would be useful for certain settings that are confusing or unusual. Other than this, the menus are easy to navigate and control and they aren't overly cluttered with options or features.
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| The Camera menu |
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| The settings menu |
Ease of Use
The A1100 is quite easy to use. It features two auto modes (Easy and Auto) and offers a ton of scene and shooting modes that will automatically configure the camera's settings for a specific "scene." When you turn the mode dial, text appears on the screen telling you what each setting is for so you don't have to rely on the confusing icons printed on the dial itself.
We could have used some more information in the menus outlining what each setting actually does, but overall the camera is easy to control and get used to.
| Hardware |
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