Canon PowerShot A1100IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD (Silver): Customer Reviews & Product Details

This little pink camera is easy to use, handy to carry in my purse, and the pictures are good.

Nice camera. Cannon is always good. I just did not like the type of battery.

This Camera is very nice and I would highly recommend it for new users in the field of Digi Cameras.

I just got this camera and its fantastic.
The pics look great like a professional camera.
Easy to use

Our Canon 780IS met an unfortunate demise (dropped) and had to be replaced. I didn't want to spend a lot because I was also thinking about getting an SLR, so I decided to go with a low end Canon point and shoot to cover the gap before I jumped into SLR territory. I got the A1100IS because it was at the "top" of the line of Canon's low end cameras and I have had very good experience with Canon products.

Build quality seemed OK, but you can tell there is more plastic in this camera than in the Elph models I've owned. I liked that the camera has a bulge grip as it is less likely to be dropped. Form factor it is a little bit bigger than the Elph series, but that is to be expected. I'm only giving it two stars because of the picture quality. The camera did not focus well, or quickly for me. Trying to snap pictures of our two small boys was very difficult. The autofocus would lock onto other objects in the frame and the subjects would be blurry. This was not obvious looking at the picture on the LCD screen, but once the picture got into the PC for viewing we were very disappointed about missing some shots. My wife took pictures at the school's halloween parade, so mind you these are fairly slow moving kids in costumes, and only about half of them turned out to be in focus.

I then took my son outside for an experiment. I asked him to walk slowly at a diagonal into the camera's view and snapped several pictures using "Easy", "Automatic" and "Kids & Pets" settings. Nearly all of them came out blurry. The camera simply could not detect him in the picture and instead chose to focus on other, stationary objects. I was actively trying to get that little green 'focus' box on him, but it just wouldn't cooperate.

I sent it back to Amazon (first time I think I've used their return policy) and ordered a Canon SD1200IS for just a few extra bucks. After some limited use appears to do a much better job, similiar to my older, deceased Canon.

Also, I just ordered the Canon T1i through Amazon. They've got a fantastic price which includes a Canon MFR rebate on an additional telephoto lens that is good through Nov 21st.