Canon PowerShot SD1000 Digital ELPH

The Canon PowerShot SD1000’s new cosmetic look harkens back to the original Elph with the big black circle around its lens, but drew mixed reactions from the people to whom we showed our sample. Some were turned off by the overall boxy shape, though just as many admired the tiny, simple shape. Likewise, about half felt the look was too retro, while the other half admired the throwback design. If you don’t like the black-on-silver design, Canon also offers a silver-on-silver version.

To date, Canon hasn’t seen fit to include manual exposure controls in any of the cameras in the Digital Elph line, and the SD1000 continues this trend. On one level, it makes sense, since the target audience for these compacts is snapshooters who often don’t know an f-stop from a shutter speed. While we can’t hold this against Canon (its competitors do the same thing), with more and more pros and advanced shooters looking for pocketable back-up cameras, it might be time to broaden the scope of these models. Fourteen scene modes help you tackle specific situations, such as portraits, fireworks, and snowy scenes. Some of these appear in the main function menu, but Canon makes you press the menu button again to see them all. In addition to scene modes, there’s also a full auto mode, as well as a mode marked manual, which lets you choose certain options, such as exposure compensation, white balance, and metering mode (evaluative, center weighted, or spot).