Before the Canon SD1000 got discontinued, that was my general recommendation. Now I would now recommend the Canon SD1100
to anyone who now asks me the billion dollar question, "Hey Caroline, which camera should I get?"
This is actually a question I get asked pretty often, and the answer really depends on how hardcore you wanna be, your budget, and how you're gonna use the thing. But if ...
- you could stand to pay $200 or less
- you want the ability to pick a stylin' color to match your personality (silver / blue / *pink* / gold / brown)
- you want to have something compact and lightweight to take with you while travelling or partying or clubbing
- you like sharing your photos online and occasionally printing out 4x6 photos or making photo gifts for people
- you want the ability to take decent video also (this was done with the SD1100 time-lapse function built-in by a friend)
- you have no idea what f-stop or DOF means and don't care / these terms scare you
... this is your best bet, imho, until this thing becomes discontinued, anyway. AND it even comes with IS, or image stabilization, which has been a feature in cameras priced around $300 or higher generally.
General marketing hype to avoid
- number of megapixels. This thing has 8 MP, which is already overkill for the average consumer. In fact, for regular 4x6 photos, you only really need 3 MP, but all the manufacturers want you to believe the more = better. It's only better if you plan on printing life-sized photos (for the SD1100, up to 16x22), which the average user does not do.
- digital zoom: this is fake zoom. Be sure the description says "optical zoom".
- humongoginormous screen: well, all screens nowadays are over 2" diagonally. It's really mainly for composing pictures, so you don't really need much more. Personally, I like that the SD1100 also has an optical viewfinder, so if you're really trying to squeeze the last few pictures out of the dying battery, you can turn off the screen and just take pictures by looking through the little hole.
