If you are looking for a solid yet ultra-portable compact point-and-shoot digital camera, then the SD1100IS model by Canon will definitely suit your needs. I am by no means a professional photographer, but I have seen lots and lots of consumer digital cameras, and this one simply delighted my shooting experience. In this article I will try to describe the pros and cons of this gadget and hopefully this will ease your buying decisions.

To start off, here are the strengths I managed to pinpoint:

- 8 megapixel image sensor with DIGIC 3 processor. While not up to the latest DIGIC 4 technology, the images are still excellent for the needs of a non-professional photographer.
- Most of the body is made of aluminum. I once dropped it outside on solid concrete and nothing happened (well, except of some nasty scratches on the case). A plastic cased camera would have shattered to pieces.
- Logical user interface. Anyone can figure out how to work its basic functions without even touching the user manual. If you have ever operated a digital camera you will know what to do with this one.
- The Macro mode produces stunning pictures
- Optical viewfinder, particularly useful when the sun is shining so brightly that you can't see anything on the LCD, or when you want to turn the screen off to conserve battery.

Cons and limitations

- No manual control over aperture, shutter speed and focusing. These belong to higher end cameras, you get what you pay for.
- Annoying noise starting at ISO 400, which makes taking pictures in the dark rather impossible
- Very slow auto-focus and shutter speeds. Quite impossible to shoot moving targets.
- Shutter lag increases heavily if you are using the flash mode. You can lose up to several seconds waiting for the flash to charge.

The overall impression I had was great, I would rate it 5 out of 5. Even though it has some limitations, I didn't find them to be too annoying and didn't affect my shooting experience. As a final piece of advice, I would recommend buying a few spare rechargeable batteries and at least one 8 GB memory card, since the camera comes with a tiny 32MB one.