If you can't afford a true DSLR.... This class of camera came about in order to satisfy the dreams of those who would have a digital SLR... IF they could afford Canon PowerShot SD1200IS and the lenses they'd like.
The image quality of the Canon SX10IS is pretty good but you always give up some image quality to gain such a large zoom range so there is a small bit of chromatic aberration, purple fringing, in the extreme zoom ranges.
The one thing that I do miss is a remote shutter release, I like to do night photography. The 2 second self-timer setting helps a bit to overcome this oversight. Also the operating temperature range is a bit limited, 32 degrees F. Anyone who likes to take winter photos may have to keep the camera under cover, against their bodies when not shooting. I haven't tried Canon PowerShot SD1200IS in below freezing temperatures yet so I don't know the practical limitations as yet.
If even this price range is too much I'd strongly suggest the Fujifilm Finepix S1000fd at less then half the price. Canon PowerShot SD1200IS has most of the features though less zoom and no external flash hotshoe. I bought the Fuji as an early Christmas present for my girlfriend and she's quite enjoying it.
March 9, 2009 UPDATE:
This has been a very good "consumer" camera but there are two things that bug me about Canon PowerShot SD1200IS so far.
The first is that the Command Dial (I think that's what they call it) is not very responsive at all. You'll see other people complain about Canon PowerShot SD1200IS as well. If you are using the dial to make exposure adjustments or if you are selecting "Scene" settings then jerk the dial in 1/4 turn increments. Simply using a smooth dialing motion won't work. Secondly, Canon PowerShot SD1200IS really sucks for manually focusing! Canon PowerShot SD1200IS is really hard to manually focus this camera. *so sad*
Secondly... because this is a consumer level camera the CCD sensor, the chip that senses the light in place of film, is a smaller sensor then pro or semi-pro cameras. This has the very sad side effect of creating "digital noise". This is the equivalent of higher ASA/ISO film having more grain and in some ways is to be expected BUT if you can afford one of the higher priced DSLR cameras then I'd go for that as the larger sensors have less digital noise.
If you want to get a little better image out of this smaller sensor try using the "dust and scratch" removal settings in your photo editing software. Try a 2 pixel setting first.
Overall Canon PowerShot SD1200IS is still a great camera. If you move up to a DSLR later then keep Canon PowerShot SD1200IS as a backup.
avoid Powershot cameras. I bought the Powershot S2 Is
S on amazon just over a year ago.. worked fine till just out of warranty, then all the pictures began to come our overexposed. I sent Canon PowerShot SD1200IS into Canon and they want 157 dollars to repair Canon PowerShot SD1200IS or replace with a refurbished model. Canon PowerShot SD1200IS cost 259 new! I wrote them and told them that I expected a lightly used expensive digital camera to work more than one year, but no dice. I'll never buy another Canon. Beware!
Not happy with it.. Greetings-- since the release of this camera I have been following all the user reviews on Amazon and the consensus seemed to be overwhelmingly positive. Based on the user reviews and other research that I did, I pulled the trigger and bought one. I was really excited about getting this camera because Canon PowerShot SD1200IS sounded like the next step up over what I currently have.
When I received the camera I began running Canon PowerShot SD1200IS through it's paces. Very soon into Canon PowerShot SD1200IS I began to see issues with the camera. Moving beyond those though, I started taking test pictures using all of the different settings available. I then loaded the images to my PC and began looking at them. What I viewed was very disappointing. First off, the images were not sharp. Secondly, the colors seemed muted and they were not very accurate to what the actual scene looked like. Lastly and on closer examination, I was stunned to see large amounts of purple fringing. This is a problem I would expect on earlier generations of digital cameras, but not now and not on a Canon. What is really sad is that purple fringing is most common in high contrast areas; with my test pictures high contrast scenes were not the case. The purple fringing explained the lack of punch, sharpness, and color accuracy. Thinking I may have received a defective camera I did some Googling. To my surprise I found other people were reporting the same problem with this camera.
I have to tell ya, prior to this Canon purchase I had used a Kodak Z650. The images I get from the Kodak blow away anything I got out of the Canon. Needless to say, the Canon was returned for refund. (I want to thank Amazon for the quick and painless processing of the return.)
Here are some other issues I found with this camera:
1. The selector wheel that is used to navigate within the menus did not translate properly. I found myself spinning Canon PowerShot SD1200IS around several times before Canon PowerShot SD1200IS would begin moving the cursor. Along with that there was a stickiness to it. Canon PowerShot SD1200IS would stick and you'd have to apply more pressure for Canon PowerShot SD1200IS to turn, this in turn caused the cursor to jump father than you wanted to go. Canon PowerShot SD1200IS was frustrating to use. You can get around all that by pressing the dial down in the corners for the direction you want to go. That seemed to translate well but Canon PowerShot SD1200IS is more time consuming. One click equals one position in the menu. If you want to reach the end of the menu you'd have to click your way through one position at a time.
2. I feel the menu layout and functionality was poorly designed and not very intuitive. There are too many layers to navigate through and too many ways to get where you want to go. Here again, my Kodak does a much better job in accessing the options and settings. And just to be clear, the Kodak has many of the same SLR functions to choose from. My point being, it's pretty much an apples and apples comparison. The Kodak is extremely easy to navigate and very easy to learn. Canon could take some lessons from them. I'm not trying to sell Kodak here. The Kodak has it's own issues. The one main thing going for the Kodak is that Canon PowerShot SD1200IS is capable of producing some stunning images, and that is the very least I'd expect from a camera.
3. The camera is pretty heavy as others have reported. It's not a problem for me but I think Canon PowerShot SD1200IS is worth mentioning again.
4. I found that the lens cap falling off was not a problem for me, but taking Canon PowerShot SD1200IS off was. I found this primarily true when you are using the lens shield that Canon supplies. Canon PowerShot SD1200IS was difficult for me to fit my fingers between the inner lens shield wall and the lens cap where the releases are located. Canon PowerShot SD1200IS was very clumsy and difficult to squeeze the tabs in order to release the cap.
I would have overlooked notes 1 to 4 if the image quality had been there. Sadly for me Canon PowerShot SD1200IS wasn't.
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