by Christina Pomoni

Created on: February 20, 2009

In the beginning of the 20th century most amateur photographers still captured images with large, heavy, and tripod-mounted glass plate cameras. With the increased popularity of photography, shooting cameras became more modern, faster, more powerful and much simpler. Hearing the distant buzzing of customers requesting a groundbreaking product, Canon launched Powershot SD1000, its latest ELPH from the classic series of ELPHs and definitely one of the highest performance digital cameras.

Canon's Powershot SD1000 comes with a 3x optical zoom lens that fully retracts into the camera when not in use making the camera really compact. The 2.5-inch wide viewing angle LCD screen has a 7.1-megapixel resolution, which offers bright, sharp and accurate pictures in all lighting conditions. In addition, the Powershot SD1000 features an optical viewfinder, which is considered a rarity in cameras of this size. Users may use the optical viewfinder to frame their photos in sizes up to 11X14 inches.

Thanks to its DIGIC III processor, the LCD screen shows 100% of the image frame for better image quality, performance and efficiency, new face detection technology and in-camera red-eye correction. In addition, the Powershot SD1000 provides all the necessary information such as shooting mode, white balance setting, ISO setting, flash setting and so on. With a simple push of a button the light sensitivity may be bumped up to a maximum of 800 with a new, on-demand, Auto ISO Shift feature.

Having included "Face Detection Technology" with the PowerShot SD1000, users may find various faces in the frame and spotlight on them without focusing necessarily on the closest object. Also, FDT ensures suitable exposure for the people in the frame, which works perfectly when shooting with the flash over several feet.

The response times of the PowerShot SD1000 are quite impressive. The first photo may be shot in 1-1.5 seconds after the power button is on with an unnoticeable shutter lag at a fraction of a second. Shot-to-shot delays range from about 1.5-4 seconds, depending on whether or not the flash is used.

The PowerShot SD1000 comes with a 32-megabyte memory card which is good for relatively low resolution pictures. For high resolution shots, a larger memory card will be required and maybe also a second battery as the PowerShot SD1000 runs only from a rechargeable (proprietary) battery.

Much smaller, much faster, much more capable, much more powerful, and much simpler to use, Canon's Powershot SD1000 features also a stylish design offered in with either in black or white lens on a silver body. Knowing how much technology is inside the PowerShot SD1000, the most amazing feature is how thin this handset is. Its ultra thin body of 0.76 inches makes the PowerShot SD1000 fitting easily in a pocket.

The PowerShot SD1000 comes in the reasonable price of $299, but savvy consumers may find it for around $200.

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