Wednesday, January 19, 2011

# 10: Canon PowerShot SD1300IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4 x wide angle optical image stabilized Zoom and 2.7 inch LCD (blue)

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559 of 595 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars It is classy and it takes great pictures, March 13, 2010 I will try to share some things I have discovered about this camera, these are just my thoughts, I hope they might be of help .

Some things I am compairing to a canon SD1200 and the SD940, SD1400.
I do not use the viedo enough to judge that part of the cameras.

** No SD memory card included with this camera **, see below

* Some will miss the eye viewfinder that the SD1200 has.

* Some will miss the HD 720p in the movie mode that the SD940,SD1400 has, The SD1300 has 640x480 at 30fps like the canon SD1200, G11 and S90.

* The SD1300 has ( no optical zoom while recording video ) just digital zoom.

* There is a date feature on the SD1300, see below

* The flat button arangement is the same as the SD1200 all but the (( Power Button )) on top is larger and easier to turn on and off, I like that ( but be careful ) it does not come on in your pocket, purse or in your soft camera case.

* I have not had any trouble using any of the buttons even with my big old hands. The flat buttons are a tad larger than on the SD940 and SD1400.

* The menu screens are large and very easy to read and use.*

* You get a 2.7inch very clear LCD screen that has a (very good and wide viewing angle in all directions).

Note > when your LCD screen is set to a lower brightness you can push and hold down the display button for 1 second and it will go to the brightest setting and do that again and it will go back to the lower setting...

A 28mm x 112mm lens, a little better than the 35 x 105 on the SD1200 ( But no view finder on the SD1300 ).

* The SD1300 is very easy to use and small enough to carry every place you go for those spontaneous grand kid pictures like the SD 1200 was .
Just a very good basic camera.

* I like that the mic for the video is in the front of the camera instead of being on the top (where I put my finger) like the canon SD970 and others, it picks up less finger movement noise being in the front.

** Timing and Performance** Very fast start up time of just over 1 sec.
I can not tell any difference in shot to shot or flash shot to shot times between the SD1300 and the SD1200,
which is ( 2secs with out the flash ), and 3 to 4secs with the flash on, (( up to 6secs for full flash recharge )).

(Update > Some of review sites(C-NET) are getting around 2.7 to 3 seconds for the SD1300 between shots with out the flash so I grabed the two cameras and tryed the two again(SD1300 SD1200) with and with out the flash on and I had the same results both ways, I used program mode both times and they would focus and recharge the flash evenly also...)

Shutter lag is good for a canon point and shoot but if you ( pre focus ) that will help even more.

I never tested the continuous shooting( but see my battery test) but canon says it is 0.9 per sec where the sd 1200 is 1.4 shots per sec, if that is important to you. UPDATE > The 1200 does seem to be faster, quicker than the 1300 in continuous mode, how much I dont know but you can tell the difference...

* (Battery) I did test the battery (NB-6L same battery as SD1200) by using continuous shooting mode ( with the flash on ) and got well over 400 pictures and it was taking ( 1 picture every 2 seconds or less in the continuous mode( flash on ) if that helps you out on the continuous shooting part, and when I turned the flash off it seemed to be fast coming from a small canon point and shoot world.

* (Battery life). In real life I get around 300 or more pictures with some of them using the flash, your still need a second battery for a backup.

* The battery has a little larger capacity at 1000mAh in the SD1300, were as the canon SD940 and the SD1400 is a smaller capacity at 760mAh if that matters to you.

** A nice backup battery is a (power2000) for canon NB-6L (1200mAh)$19.00. I have used them for years.
I really like the battery charger that comes with the camera, it is small and charges quickley, about one and a half hours the very first charge and then one hour or less there after...
Some set back the brightness of the LCD a couple of notches to save some battery. I think your new battery will do better after the first couple of charges.

* 10/30/2010 At the Columbus zoo we shot 350 pictures and a lot of them with flash on with one charge...

** Very good image quality keeping the iso at 200 and below.
I am getting about the same image quality as the SD 1200 which is very good for this small size point and shoot camera.

* As point and shoots get better we often try and compare them to digital SLRs ( speed,noise, ISOs, picture quality ) but because of the point and shoots very small sensors and craming all those mega pixels into them it is just asking to much of the little cameras....
Fewer pixels mean there's more room on the sensor and the individual pixels can be made larger to gather more light, making the camera better able to record low-noise images in low-light situations.

This is just me, but I like using the program mode and 100iso best and I try not to use the auto mode indoors ((auto works good outdoors in good light though, Lighting is everything. Indoors alot of times auto seems to want to use a (very high iso)(and sometimes no flash) to get low light photos, but this just results in more noise, which makes your pictures look noisy grainy or snowy looking on larger prints.
* I use program mode and set the iso indoors to (( 100iso ))in good light conditions or (200 iso in poorer light) indoors for the best image quality indoors with out all noise in the picture. Again auto does good outdoors in good light.

* Portrait mode does better indoors than auto in keeping the iso down. It uses 200iso and below. not bad...
For some reason canon has done this with all there newer point and shoot cameras the last couple of years, again this is just me)...
You may be happy with the pictures you take in auto mode and people have posted alot of very good pictures on this site using auto mode check them out, I am just saying if you have a problem try this and see if it helps, ( just something for you to try if your having trouble ).

*They also have taken away the supper fine quality option for the last couple of years , you just have fine and normal now, I miss the supper fine option...

With the SD1200 and SD940 I would use program mode and auto iso but when trying to do that with the SD1300 it wants to go to 500iso or higher some times where the SD1200 and SD940 would go to 250iso ,go figure? The more I use this camera the more I find myself useing ( 100iso in program mode ) in good light conditions indoors or outdoors). Again indoors you might have to use 200 to get the picture you like...

** Just a side note, before judgeing the camera and your picture quality on your computer or camera screen get some pictures printed out, why I say this I thought the pictures that I took at the rest home were just ok, but I took them to the store and had 8 by 10s made and they look so so much better, you can see these pictures on this site under (view and share images on the SD1300s home page). I wish you could see the printed ones...

* A lot of the review sites blow there pictures way up and look for defects, your likely to only make 5x7 or 8x10s and not see (what they see).
If you are going to make larger prints or need a better (low light camera) and still stay in a point and shoot you could go with a canon S90, S95 or the bigger G11, G12, but (much more money I know)! Just keep the iso down at 200 and below and you will do fine...)

* The SD1300 seems to have a nice sharp lens even at the telephoto end of the zoom.

Highlights sometimes tend to blow out in very bright sun (direct light source) as with all small cameras(small sensor) this size, you can see this in some of the pictures I posted on this sight for the 1300. ( But to be fair my G11 does this also ).

In my pictures,I do not see the bad vertical 'ghost' flare from top to bottom that D Kartman talks about in his review, just do not point it at a direct light source like the sun,( bright led lights at night) or very bright light coming in a window, and that goes double for when taking movies...

I do not use I-Contrast in the program mode while shooting, some times in play back I will try it but I am not a big fan of it even then, it will brighten the picture up in dark areas but seems to increase the noise a little, again this is just me alot of people seem to like it and have good luck with it see what you think...
In auto mode you have no controll of I-Contrast and can not turn it off or on...

* I just realy like the colors in the pictures that the canon cameras produce, again thats just me thinking out loud.

Not much problem with red eye in pictures useing the SD1300 unless in a very dim lit room and there are some times when it can not modify or fix it in red-eye correction,
I have many small newer canon cameras and it is no worse or better with red eye than the rest of my newer cameras with red eye correction.

The SD1300 has a touch more style, larger LCD and a little more virsatle lens than the SD1200, but the 1200 is also a very good camera.

The SD1300 does have a weak battery door cover like the SD1200.

* Memory card * You do not get a (SD Memory Card) with the camera, they just do not include a card anymore, just be aware so you won't... Read more ?

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190 of 201 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars The best camera to have..., May 21, 2010 This review is from: Canon PowerShot SD1300IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-Inch LCD (Blue) (Electronics) ...is one you'll have with you. The nice thing about the Canon ELPH series is they easily fit into your pocket, are well built/designed, don't cost a lot, come with a boatload of features, and take great pictures. The SD1300, the latest in the ELPH line continues in that tradition, adding considerable additional sophistication and sacrificing some useful functionality in the interest of cutting cost.

It is a small camera and carries with it the baggage that comes with the convenience of having to carry so little baggage. (sorry, couldn't resist) None of the issues raised, given that they comes as part of the convenience trade-off made me consider anything other than the 5-star rating this camera deserves.

- Many of the functions are only accessible through menus, sometimes several levels deep. The good new is the Automatic and scene modes are pretty good (as long as you spend a few minutes reviewing what they really do). This camera is not intended to be used in aperture or shutter priority, let alone full manual.

- The battery life might be shorter than you expect. That's a trade-off for having a camera that's small and light; you get a battery that is small and light. One thing you can do is get a spare battery. That is good advice for any camera. Another thing that will help is to keep the display off as much as possible. That means using the monitor as little as possible. The "sad" part is that Canon chose to drop the optical viewfinder in this model. That means a camera that is simpler and less expensive to make but will go through batteries quicker because you must use the display when taking picture.

- The camera response is a bit slow for effectively capturing children and pets. The trick for doing that is to either have a great sense of timing and a shutter that reacts instantly or a reasonably fast ( > 4x / sec ) burst mode. This camera has neither.

Some other suggestions that apply:

- Use the lowest ISO available given your requirement for either aperture or shutter speed. To avoid getting technical, higher ISO always introduces higher noise. At issue is when it becomes noticeable. In newer dSLR cameras you can get over 1000, maybe well over depending on the camera, before the noise becomes noticeable. For this camera keeping it at or below 200 is a good idea.

- Don't use in-camera sharpening. Digital pictures will almost always benefit from sharpening but you are better off doing it with a photo editing program. Computer-based algorithms tend to be more sophisticated and you can better judge the results on your monitor as opposed to the camera LCD.

- If you want more vivid colors and have the choice use sRGB instead of Adobe RGB. While you get fewer colors they are distributed over a wider range. They are also render better on computer monitors, many commercial labs, and any other place your pictures are likely to show up.

Finally, I've found the Caselogic QPB-1 Compact Digital Camera Case (Black/Gray) is just the right size for this camera. It's semi-rigid so you get a fair amount of protection but doesn't add a lot of bulk. It's made even better by using one of these, Nite Ize SB1-2PK-01 Size-1 S-Biner, Black, 2-Pack, to secure it to a belt loop.

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