Canon Powershot SD1100 IS

Color (12.26)
Color accuracy is one of the most important aspects of the performance of a camera, and the Powershot SD1100 IS did an overall excellent job capturing the wide range of colors in this big, bright, and beautiful universe of ours.

We test the accuracy of the colors cameras capture by taking photos of an industry-standard Gretag Macbeth ColorChecker color chart under precisely controlled conditions, then analyzing the accuracy of the colors using the image analysis program Imatest. This produces the following chart, which shows the colors the camera captures in the outer rectangle of the color squares, the colors after they have been corrected for luminance in the inner squares, and the original color in the small rectangles to the right of the center of each square. 

As you can see, the SD1100 IS generally does a good job capturing colors; many of the colors the camera captures (on the outside of the square) are almost indistinguishable from the original colors shown in the small rectangle in the center. But there are a couple of minor issues: some of the yellows are a little off, and the cyan (on the right, in the second from bottom square) is a little dark. Imatest also produces a chart which shows the color error of the camera represented on the color space the camera should, in theory, be capable of capturing. On this chart, listed below, the ideal colors are represented by squares and the captured colors are represented by circles. The longer the line between them, the more inaccurate the colors are.

This shows the errors on the blues and yellows, but these are relatively minor issues; the chart also shows the great majority of other colors are accurately captured and represented, particularly the important skin tone colors. This means the SD1100 IS captures excellent, accurate color.


Resolution (7.3)
The SD1100 IS captures images at an 8-megapixel resolution, and we found the images it captures have a good, but not outstanding, level of detail. A camera’s resolution is about more than the number of megapixels the image sensor can capture; if the lens in front of this sensor produces blurry images, more megapixels won’t help. So, we test the resolution of the captured images by photographing an industry-standard test chart under controlled lighting conditions at a variety of settings and focal lengths. We then use Imatest to analyze these images to ascertain the maximum number of alternating black and white lines the camera can capture before they dissolve into a gray mess. This measure is called line widths per picture height (lw/ph), and it indicates how much detail an image contains and how well it captures the more subtle aspects of the scene.

Click on the image above to view the high-resolution image

The Canon SD1100 IS captures an impressive 1783 lw/ph horizontally with 4.6 percent oversharpening and 1668 lw/ph vertically with 9.65 percent undersharpening. That’s a very decent set of scores for a point-and-shoot like this, indicating that the SD1100 IS can capture a decent level of detail. This means it scores a little higher than most of the point-and-shoots we’ve tested, but it is worth remembering that digital SLRs (which have much better sensors and lenses) consistently score much higher than this, so there is always a price to pay in resolution for using a point-and-shoot. 

Noise – Manual ISO (4.72)
Noise is the staticky discoloration you see in some images, particularly those shot at higher ISO settings and in lower light. The SD1100 didn’t do overly well here; although there was little noise at the lower ISO settings, it quickly became more obvious at the higher ones, particularly at the maximum ISO 1600. Noise is mostly caused by the sensor picking up the electrical noise of its own operation, plus environmental factors. It becomes more obvious when you increase the ISO sensitivity of the camera to shoot in low light because the camera is effectively amplifying the signal it captures, thus amplifying the noise, as well. We test noise by shooting images in fixed lighting at all ISO settings the camera supports, then analyzing the captured images with Imatest to see how much noise is in each image.

As you can see from the graph, the noise in the image increases sharply as the ISO increases, ending up at just more than 4 percent of the image at the highest ISO setting of 1600. While that might not sound like much, it is visible (as you can see in the still life images below) and detracts from the quality of the image: higher ISO setting images look grainy and slightly blurry, like a poorly-tuned TV. However, the SD1100 IS is not much worse, or indeed much better, than the other point-and-shoots we’ve tested recently; all show significant noise as you increase the ISO. The SD1100 has no user-controllable noise reduction settings, but there is some noise reduction being used, which is why the noise at ISO 200 and 400 is nearly identical. However, at 800 and above, the noise reduction isn't all that effective, so you should definitely keep the ISO down if possible.

Noise – Auto ISO (1.37)
We also test the noise in images taken with the camera set to auto ISO, where the whirling electronic brain of the device sets the ISO as it feels is appropriate. In our test shots on this setting, the camera picked an ISO setting of 200, which only showed moderate noise. Again, this was not much different from the noise levels we have seen on other recent point-and-shoot cameras.

Still Life Sequences
Click to view high resolution images. All images were taken using the Manual mode, as this is the only way to gain direct access to the ISO settings

Still Life Scene
ISO 80	ISO 80
ISO 100	ISO 100
ISO 200	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 40
ISO 800	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 1600

White Balance (11.54)
White balance is another highly important factor in the quality of images a camera captures, because different light sources produce different types of light, but the camera has to do the same thing the human eye does; compensate for the lighting and capture the true colors. We found that, like most Canon cameras, the SD1100IS does a very good job, accurately judging the cast of the incoming light and adjusting the white balance appropriately.

The color of the light falling on the subject is called the color temperature, and this depends on the source of the light (such as the sun, indoor lighting, etc); each outputs light at a different color temperature. A camera must accurately judge and adjust for the temperature of the light to be able to capture an image properly. To judge how well a camera does this, we test two aspects of white balance: the automatic settings, where the camera automatically analyzes the light and corrects on each image, and the preset settings, where the camera uses a pre-defined preset to adjust the white balance.

Auto (11.93)
The SD1100 IS does an excellent job automatically judging the white balance of different types of lighting, as you can see from the images below: the white parts of the test chart are reasonably close to the natural white. Only the Daylight setting is slightly off the mark, and not by much. This means for most shooting situations, you will be fine shooting with the camera in automatic white balance mode.

Exaggerated White Balance Errors   Auto WB - Florescent Illumination

Auto WB - Daylight illumination

Auto WB - Tungsten illumination

Presets (11.15)
We found the various white balance presets on the SD1100 IS are generally spot-on: each is an accurate preset for the appropriate light source that would need only slight correction to get clean whites. So, most users should have no issues using either the automatic or the preset white balance settings on the SD1100 IS.

Exaggerated White Balance Errors Florescent WB Preset - Florescent Illumination

Shade WB Preset - Shade Illumination

Tungsten WB Preset - Tungsten Illumination

Low Light (5.62)
Not all your shots will be taken in perfectly lit situations; sometimes you have to shoot with what little available light there is. This is why we also test cameras in less-than-ideal shooting conditions, and we found the Canon SD1100 IS does an adequate, but not outstanding job capturing images in these conditions.

To test low light performance, we photograph our industry-standard ColorChecker chart at light levels of 60, 30, 15, and 5 lux. This corresponds to the amount of light in a room lit softly by two table lamps (60 lux), down to very dim light levels that would make you squint (5 lux). All shots are taken at ISO 1600.

Low Light Tests
60 Lux	30 Lux
15 Lux	5 Lux

As you can see from the above images, colors become progressively weaker as the light level decreases, and the noise in the images increases as the camera struggles to capture more light. This is no surprise, but the SD1100 does a reasonable job judging the light level and using the appropriate shutter and aperture settings, which is more than many do; all of the images are fairly accurately exposed. The colors are also reasonably accurate, but the noise is a big issue.

Our other test is to shoot a series of images at progressively longer exposure times, then examine the captured images. In Normal mode, the SD1100 has a maximum exposure time of 1 second, but this can be extended to 15 seconds in the Long Shutter mode that’s available in the Manual mode. But there’s a big price to pay; the metering features of the camera are disabled for long exposures, so you have to shoot and see how the images come out. And the images are also extremely noisy and have weak color. The bottom line is that the SD1100 is, like most compact point-and-shoots, not a camera you should rely on if you like to hang around in dark locations shooting without the flash. Instead, invest more in an SLR or a more complex point-and-shoot that includes better manual controls and noise reduction technology. 

Dynamic Range (4.80)
Dynamic range is a measure of how many shades of gray a camera can distinguish; a camera with wide dynamic range will do a better job capturing both highlights and shadow details. The SD1100 only had a middling score in this test: although it can discern a good range of shades at the lower ISO settings, the dynamic range quickly falls off as the ISO increases.

We test dynamic range by photographing a backlit Stouffer step chart at all ISO speeds. The Stouffer chart consists of a long row of gray rectangles, varying slightly in tone from brightest white to darkest black. The more rectangles a camera can discern at the darker end of the scale, the better its dynamic range.

The Canon SD1100 has a decent dynamic range at the lowest ISO setting of 80, but this quickly drops off at the higher settings. Although all cameras do this, the amount it drops off is more than most: many other point-and-shoot cameras maintain a higher dynamic range as the ISO increases. For instance: while the dynamic range of the SD1100 IS drops to about 3.7 stops at ISO 400, the Panasonic TZ3 manages just under six stops. So, for the best image quality on the SD1100, it is important to keep the ISO as low as possible, otherwise images will look contrasty and shadow detail will be lost. But while the SD1100 IS didn't do that well in this test, the results were not a huge problem.

 

Speed/Timing

All speed tests were conducted using a Kingston Ultimate 120X 2GB SD Card, a fast card that should not be a limiting factor for the tests.

Startup to First Shot (8.4)
The Canon SD1100 IS takes 1.6 seconds to go from being turned completely off to taking the first image. That’s pretty fast, and should mean you don’t miss many shots if you keep the camera turned off in a pocket or bag.

Shot-to-Shot (4.0)
In our tests, we found the SD1100 is somewhat on the slow side in Continuous Shooting mode, with a lengthy 1.4 seconds between shots at the highest resolution. To get to the Continuous Shooting mode, you also need to put the camera into the Manual mode; it’s not available in the full Auto mode. Reducing the image quality to either the fine or normal settings didn’t reduce this time, but this time could be decreased to 0.8 seconds by taking the resolution down to 3 megapixels. This means you’ll have problems capturing fast action sequences, such as a play at a football game at the maximum resolution, but you can capture a decent set of images by reducing the resolution.

Shutter-to-Shot(8.0)
This test measures how quickly the camera reacts to a shutter press. If you hold the button down and let the camera pre-focus, we found no measurable delay in the image capture; it’s pretty much instant. If you press the shutter all the way down immediately, we found the camera takes about half a second to focus and capture the image; a fairly standard time for a point-and-shoot camera.

Processing (7.8)
At the maximum image quality setting, we found the approximate image processing time (how long it takes to process the image after it is captured) is around 1.1 seconds. This is obviously the limiting factor for the Continuous Shooting mode.

Video Performance (4.0)
Bright indoor light – 3000 Lux
In this test, we analyze the color of the video the SD1100 IS captures under good lighting, using two large lights in our test lab. In this lighting the SD1100 IS does a decent job capturing color: there is some error, but this is a lot less extreme than many cameras we’ve tested. The noise in the video is also not a huge problem: it is noticeable, but not overly distracting.



Low light – 30 Lux
All sorts of interesting things happen in the dark, so we also test the quality of the video captured at 30 lux-about the equivalent of shooting indoors in a room lit by a single lamp. The SD1100 IS does a fairly decent job capturing video in this situation; the colors are flat but distinguishable, and the video is acceptably sharp. There is a lot of blotchy shifting noise, though, and this means the video looks a bit like a poorly-tuned TV. However, the color and noise on the video the SD1100 IS captures is no worse than many other cameras we’ve tested; capturing light in dark places is difficult.



It is also worth noting that we were able to greatly improve the color performance of the camera in both lighting situations by using the evaluative white balance, where you use a white card and the camera sets the white balance from that. However, we don’t score against this because most users don’t do this, but it is worth remembering that you can get better color in your video if you put in the effort to do this.

Resolution
In our tests for the resolution of captured videos, the Canon SD1100 IS managed to capture 579.3 horizontal and 396.8 vertical lw/ph. That’s a very decent score for video captured by a digital camera: we usually see significantly lower values for this. As you can see from the images below, the video has a good amount of detail in it. The SD1100 seems to be doing a lot of processing to sharpen the image, which can be a bad thing (as it often makes edges in the video artificially sharp), but this doesn’t seem to be a big issue on the SD1100 IS; the video is sharp without being overly sharpened.



Motion
To test motion, we take the camera out and shoot video on the mean streets of Boston. We found the motion in the videos the SD1100 IS captures is acceptable; there is some evidence of motion artifacts when we pan around; the entire frame of video becomes slightly blurry as the camera struggles to compress the rapidly-changing video. Most motion (such as a car passing across the frame of the video) looks fine, though, so the video the SD1100 IS captures should be fine for most uses.

Physical Tour	Page 3 of 13		Components
Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS Digital Camera Review Navigation
Intro	Physical Tour	Testing/Performance	Components
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