Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS / IXUS 130 / IXY 400F

Opinion: I have had several point and shoot cameras and SLR cameras... I am an amateur photographer and shoot hundreds of photos every week. I bought this camera to replace a Panasonic point and shoot I have. I usually shoot my SLR, but there are times when you simply don't want to lug it around and want a small compact camera. On paper this camera looks very good, and since there were no reviews of the camera at the time I bought it, I decided to give it a go. At first I thought the camera was great. Staging several photos of my kids and different photos of scenery seemed to come out great. However, in real life situations where you can’t pose people or take the time to compose a proper photograph and simply want to snap off several shots, this camera loses its appeal. With its very quirky autofocus and sometimes long delays from button push to actual shutter release, this camera quickly became frustrating to use and was very difficult to achieve good picture results. After shooting at an event the real test is looking at the pictures on your monitor. With nearly ¾ of the shots taken being slightly out of focus or blurry, it becomes very clear how poorly this camera performs. The shots taken aren’t too bad, in fact they usually look pretty decent on the small LCD preview screen. But when viewed on a computer screen, it is quickly evident they are not sharp at all, very soft and slightly out of focus. Not acceptable in my eyes. So this camera was returned and I will wait for the new Panasonic ZS7 to be released.

Opinion: I usually shoot with a DSLR, but I have had several small point-and-shoot cameras for casual/discrete use. The SD14000 is by far the best I have tried. In particular, it's low light ability is stunning. I have taken several candid indoor shots both of individuals and of whole rooms. Of course you have to be careful not to push the camera beyond its ability and indoor shooting requires a steady hand (any support is a help) and a subject that doesn't move much, but it is a very capable little camera.

Opinion: I have used all of the Canon Ixus/powershot that Canon made and this is the best in my opinion. Very very light material, hard, fast on the response with the menu option (that needs some practice to understand how to use it at the best, and not to coomplicate the life). The flash it is fast in the response and the intelligent feature of the auto-shots it works perfectly and it is very comfortable and funny. I pushed the camera to the ISO1600 with/withous flash. it works perfectly in accordance of his possibilityes. The stabilizer is magic. Very nice camera for a confortable use and to hide in the pocket. The lcd screen it starts very quickly as you push the on/off button and the shutter is very fast to response if appropriate used in accordance with the set up of the pic and the mode you use to shot them. The video runs very smooth and bright, also during the night in a very poor light condition, the audio is ok for a compacted camera. oh.. the pictures? Well no noise also in a very strong close up on the computer, it seems to have the reflex hiding inside this little baby (obviously with all the limits of the sequence shutter speed if you shoot 8/9 frame in a sequence it is not comparable to a 3d/4d/5d obviously) but as I wrote above, it is small, light, fast, clear pictures with no noise!!! A very goog deal between money/good. With one battery I shots 498 pictures, 318 with flash and LCD on. what are we asking more to a little camera? just the word :-)

Opinion: This camera is capable of getting excellent results with a little practice. I bought it to
replace a stolen 5 year old SD550 which had always done very well. My primary
camera is a DSLR and I always carry a PS for a back-up. The SD1400 gets sharper
pictures than the SD550 and has a more useful zoom range. Good points for me are
the picture quality, exposure accuracy, good auto focus, quality of construction,
useful flash, and long battery life. I find the lens performance excellent compared to
the super-zoom compacts I have owned, from Canon and others. This is a great
quality 'toy' for the demanding photographer.