09-23-2009, 04:56 AM
I have the SD1200 and bought it because of David Pogue's rapture with Canon cameras, which he mentioned in a recent column (though not pertaining specifically to the 1200). I'm not disappointed--this is my first Canon and they really are in a class by themselves. It is a big improvement over the 3-year-old, 5MP Kodak camera I had before, which I was quite happy with.
Quirks:
* it uses a proprietary battery, which I don't mind and which I may in fact prefer. In my experience batteries last 3 years whether you use them hard or gently, and proprietary batteries mean smaller cameras and/or slightly higher capacity than rechargeable AAs.
* you have to remove the SD card from the camera to load the photos onto the computer, unless you use the Canon proprietary software which I opted not to mess with on top of iPhoto and Photoshop Elements. Not a big deal to me.
* it does not come with any SD card whatsoever. You probably already have one anyway, or more than one.
* you have to press an additional button to get the second set of custom scene settings. This isn't well-documented in the manual. A minor point.
Otherwise it takes great pictures, fast. I only wish it had a bit of a larger LCD instead of the optical viewfinder. But the screen is certainly large enough and quite bright. Apparently some people really like the viewfinder. I don't use it, myself.
I picked mine up at WalMart because I broke my Kodak, had to replace it quickly, and only had electric blue to choose from. It's growing on me but the kids think it's the coolest camera in the world. If you have a bit of time, Buydig.com has all colors at a much better price. Buydig's UPS Ground comes overnight to me north of NYC, sans tax. I don't know how Costco prices compare to Buydig's.
Intriguing Canon-only feature:
This third-party firmware hack doohickey hasn't been developed for the SD1200's Digic IV chip yet, but it's quite robust for other Canon cameras, is apparently coming for the 1200 and looks really neat:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK
Here's the CHDK status page for the 1200:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/SD1200IS
Quirks:
* it uses a proprietary battery, which I don't mind and which I may in fact prefer. In my experience batteries last 3 years whether you use them hard or gently, and proprietary batteries mean smaller cameras and/or slightly higher capacity than rechargeable AAs.
* you have to remove the SD card from the camera to load the photos onto the computer, unless you use the Canon proprietary software which I opted not to mess with on top of iPhoto and Photoshop Elements. Not a big deal to me.
* it does not come with any SD card whatsoever. You probably already have one anyway, or more than one.
* you have to press an additional button to get the second set of custom scene settings. This isn't well-documented in the manual. A minor point.
Otherwise it takes great pictures, fast. I only wish it had a bit of a larger LCD instead of the optical viewfinder. But the screen is certainly large enough and quite bright. Apparently some people really like the viewfinder. I don't use it, myself.
I picked mine up at WalMart because I broke my Kodak, had to replace it quickly, and only had electric blue to choose from. It's growing on me but the kids think it's the coolest camera in the world. If you have a bit of time, Buydig.com has all colors at a much better price. Buydig's UPS Ground comes overnight to me north of NYC, sans tax. I don't know how Costco prices compare to Buydig's.
Intriguing Canon-only feature:
This third-party firmware hack doohickey hasn't been developed for the SD1200's Digic IV chip yet, but it's quite robust for other Canon cameras, is apparently coming for the 1200 and looks really neat:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK
Here's the CHDK status page for the 1200:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/SD1200IS