For about a decade now, ELPHs Canon has become the standard-bearer for point-and-shoot quality. They're small, they are affordable, they are easy to use, and they take great pictures. What they lack in attracting, headline-grabbing features, they make up for with consistent quality.
Yep, consistency has become the name of the game so far, but this year's lineup had a major redesign - at least internally. The 2011 ELPHs all built around the back-illuminated CMOS sensor, a trend we've seen deployed with mixed results over the last year, but one that has the potential to lend a huge performance increase for the ELPH lineup.
At this time, entry-level ELPH 100 HS is a CMOS-based compact most affordable on the market. On specifications alone, it has the potential to out-every other compact class in terms of price range in low light image quality (which seems to be increasingly important to buyers camera), video resolution, and speed of performance. But we also see a camera that promises to be victims of their CMOS sensor, with the fine details smeared into pulp. Read on to see if the new ELPH lives up to its potential and maintain its position as one of the best affordable point-and-shoots for another year.
Body & Design
No surprise here: the entry-level ELPH this year looks almost identical to last year's entry-level ELPH, SD1300 IS. This is slightly smaller than a deck of cards in each dimension, small enough to easily fit in any pocket. (This is slightly larger than the HS 300 ELPH step-up ratio, which is one of the smallest cameras available, period.) The body is sturdy enough to almost feel like it's made entirely of metal, but unfortunately, it's mostly just good plastic disguise.
Also like its predecessor, ELPH 100 has a comfortable 2.7-inch, 230,000-pixel LCD screen emblazoned on the back and a 4x zoom, 28mm wide-angle, f/2.8-5.9 lens slapped on the front. Both are pretty standard for point-and-shoots - not to get excited about or to ridicule either.
The layout is simple, sparse, and logical. It will seem familiar to anyone who uses Canon's compact in recent years - with some minor modifications. Mode switch toggles between two modes of pictures: Auto, and everything else. Sitting next to a switch mode switch, tiny little hidden power and shutter release, surrounded by the zoom tilter. Both the shutter and tilter flush with the camera body, which looks cool, I guess, but it makes it more difficult to find with a quick release without looking, and also to accurately hit a half to autofocus. What is wrong with the shutter slightly raised, I do not know, but the design is more comfortable, definitely.
This is the same problem with the button on the back: The access menus, playback switch, and four-way eligible voters took their places behind, but they are also flat against the body and are also awkward to find by touch. A selection wheel will actually bind interfaces together, too, but that features usually reserved for more expensive cameras. In a nod to the impressive 1080p video mode, ELPH 100 sports a dedicated video record button as well.
On the right side, a good rubber cover protects the dock port A / V, USB, and HDMI, while the thin plastic door hides the battery and memory card slots on the bottom. There is a metal tripod thread in there, too.
Performance & User Experience
The ELPH 100 user experiences such as meeting new parents in the best way possible. It's as efficient and easy to use as any camera ELPH / SD-series ever, but much faster and more responsive than previous iterations.
Apart from a few complaints with the design and placement of buttons that I mentioned above, the layout and the interface is intuitive and user-friendly. This is clearly directed to automatic operation for most functions are buried in the menu system, rather than assigned to a mode button (not here) or hotkeys (though the four-way selector does not allow direct access to the focus range, exposure compensation, and flash settings).
ISO, white balance, smart contrast, drive mode, and autofocus mode all adjusted to a little more hands-on controls. But for the most part, almost like it's expected that users must trust the ELPH 100 to choose your own settings. And fortunately, the ELPH 100 is a smart camera, and select the settings properly. About eight times out of ten, you'll get a good shot in Auto mode.
Canon filters are expected to make fun of their appearance here, including some color adjustment (Sepia, Vivid, Neutral, and so on), Color Swap, and effects such as Miniature, Poster, Fish Eye, and the like. Alien, yes, but cool, even for just a mistake. There are also several modes of non-critical filters, Nightscene Handheld most useful. This is a high dynamic range (HDR) mode: It takes three shots at different exposures, and mashes them together to create the shot, which obviously rich, smooth, and almost real-looking. Made possible thanks to the sensor, and is very common in CMOS-powered camera today.
Also thanks to the BSI CMOS sensor, the ELPH 100 is a fast all-around player. I'll go out a limb and call it cheap cameras fastest ever used. Startup is not particularly fast - it's about two seconds until ready to shoot - but just about every other aspect of performance that is more agile than the average. Autofocus is accurate and fast to lock. Shutter lag is minimal. Shot-to-shot time is not a problem. Burst mode is a quick cheat 3.8 frames per second, which most matches an entry level DSLR that cost at least three times that much.
The battery is impressive. It's rated for 230 shots, and it's just about what I get from it - enough to get me through the review period without recharging. Mileage may vary, depending on the brightness of the LCD, the time spent reviewing shots, and the like, but it's enough for this camera battery.
Image & Video Quality
The picture quality is very good for point-and-shoot, with rich colors, focus and exposure mostly accurate, and capable of processing. It can handle a wide range of shooting situations quite well, and it's very good at low light shots as compared with low-cost point-and-shoots.
My first reaction was that shot at base ISO slightly soft side, but I went back to compare them with some pictures I took last year with the SD1300 - a camera that we think has the best image quality in its price-point last year - and the results are very similar . Both camera 12.1 megapixel shooter, though SD1300 uses a CCD-type sensor, which I have found generally offer better clarity on the low end of the range of ISO. But side-by-side, the difference between the two cameras is hardly noticeable. (Check out some of the SD1300 samples here.)
In contrast to the SD1300 (and most CCD point-and-shoots), picture quality 100 ELPH remain fairly consistent throughout the ISO range. The sensor seems to handle the noise well enough that the processor does not have to do all that work a lot to make a neat shot - even though it is celebrated Digic 4 processor, so it can only be effective enough that it's hard to tell where the sensor ends and processing begins.
In reaching above the range of ISO, the details get smoothed rather than mushed up. Defined edges and color still remains saturated. Very close inspection revealed crazy, painting-like texture, but can be much, much worse. I saw some in the field splotchiness uniform coloring in dark scenes - the sky is black, for example - but that problem is inconsistent, and results varied shot-to-shot. At least one shot of each batch of night-scene should come out as well. Medium or large prints from ISO 1600 images will surely look a little bit messy, but they surprisingly used. ISO 3200 shots pretty hairy as expected, but the results are still subtle than what is typical of this class - they're fine for sharing online, in other words.
It might sound ridiculous to the reader who does not spend much time reading reviews (which most of you, I guess, considering the price-point and the target audience for this camera) that's worth celebrating a camera that actually works well in his factory given ability. Unfortunately, this does not happen often enough. Perhaps for the sake of marketing and keeping up with the competition, but the point-and-shoots typically do not work very well at ISO settings above them. (See our recent review of the Fujifilm XP30 to see the results of camera operation beyond their means -. Guk)
A few minor problems pop up image quality here and there, although it is expected. Typical for Canon, the colors are on the side of life, especially blue; market research seems to indicate that buyers prefer this look, but it's not for everyone. High-contrast areas (celestial objects, most often a tree branch and the edge of the building) suffer from some green and purple edges, especially towards the edges and corners of the frame. This is a phenomenon that is quite typical, although it seems to be a little aggravated in CMOS camera like this.
Weaknesses continue to be the ugliest player in a shot of yellow indoors. Automatic White Balance hit-or-miss in Canon compacts under artificial lighting, and which can be a real deal-breaker for people. Fortunately there is a simple and effective solution: manual white balance. Really, it takes about ten seconds and a sheet of white paper (think business cards, receipts, whatever), and dye increases dramatically. It is feasible, and easy to do.
Video recording is another feature title in the ELPH 100. It shoots full 1080p HD video, which is as high-res as it gets. This is a video mode is great for what it is, certainly good enough to replace the standalone pocket camcorder like a flip or Kodak, although not a replacement for a camcorder that is more serious. Optical zoom is not available on this model, which is unfortunate - that require step-up for the model HS 300 ELPH.
Conclusion
The ELPH 100 HS is a point-and-shoot, good affordable. It's everything we look for in a camera like this, and everything that we've come to expect from this line of cameras: pocket-sized, handsome, dead simple, and effective. Canon's gamble pays off on a new type of sensor, improved low-light-speed performance and image quality to levels not normally seen at this price. It's not quite perfect: design, especially the button layout, a little too slick for its own good, and some point-and-shoot typical IQ problems still arise. But overall, there is a lot to love about this camera, and it should appeal to just about any kind of photographers seeking a compact inexpensive.
There are several options point-and-shoot others are worth considering. The Panasonic FH25 is a sure bet, packing 8x optical zoom. Performance is a little slower and somewhat less consistent picture (low light shooting is not a strong point, but not weak either one), but based on the successful FH20 years ago, many buyers will take the extra zoom where they can get it. Touch-oriented Nikon, 7x zoom-S6100 is sure to get attention to building flashy. And for additional pieces of the changes, Canon ELPH 500 HS adds 3.2-inch touch screen and most importantly, a maximum aperture f/2.0 lens, which really should improve low light performance (we are ready to review the front camera, so we should be updated soon).
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