International Rose Test Garden, Portland, Oregon

We went back to International Rose Test Garden, Portland, Oregon and this time to test our new Canon SD1100 camera. In our earlier post, we had shared some snaps taken in the month of June when roses were at the peak of their blossom. These snaps are taken in August month when there were not too many roses but nevertheless place was still a photographer's delight. We got enough opportunities to use color accent & digital macro feature of the camera. I found this particular shot very satisfying where a yellow colored spider is easily mixed in the internal shades of the flower. Snap1, Snap2 & Snap3 were shot with color accent. One can compare the original shot with the color accent one. Last snap is of Robinson Tunnel, Washington Park Max Station.

Review of Canon PowerShot SD1100IS

This post is dedicated for the review of Canon PowerShot SD1100IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver). I am not a professional photographer. More like a level above an amateur but this camera makes me certainly look a little better.

I am including some of the features of the camera that have been used to a good measure
Digital Macro: This is used for taking close up shots. In this snap & one can clearly see some finer details of the flower including a mosquito lying on the side of the petal. In these snap1, & snap2 few water drops look amazingly clear.

To compare how macro works I have included couple of snaps below. Notice the second picture, which shows the T-Shirt and the first one is its close up shot in Digital Macro

Foliage
This feature is used for bringing out the *green* in nature. Notice the visible difference between the below two pictures of Reed College grounds. First snap is without foliage and second one with. Notice the difference in the green.

In the below snap you can notice the different shades of green. Camera captures the shades of varying colors very well and results are quite satisfying.

Below two snaps also show a drastic difference. The first snap is taken with Minolta and the second one is with Cannon. Notice the visible differences in the colors and sharpness in the picture. Cannon one is obviously a more closer resemblance of the nature's true colors.

Color Accent
This feature helps to bring out a chosen color and making the others in black & white (B&W) and thus useful when one wants to highlight a color more than others.
In the below shown pictures it can be more explained. The first one is the original Ganesha (Hindu Religion God of Prosperity) idol. In second one, gold and its shades are selected and others including pink are changed to B&W. In third one pink and its shades are selected and other colors are in B&W.

In the below snaps, the first one shows the yellow and its shades of the flower and surrounding plants. Second one shows the color of the toy dog and all others in B&W (Below pillow is actually of navy blue color)

The left one is the original and the right one is in accent bringing out the lavender color.

Color Swap
This feature is used for swapping original color to some other color. In the first picture orange is the original color which is swapped with green. Similarly the middle one is the original in the decorative lights and the other two are swapped colors. And in the last ones in this category the original one is replaced by fall colored leaves.

Sunset
The first image is of a darker sky and the third one is just before dusk on a cloudy evening

Stitched
Below picture shows multiple pictures stitched using the software PhotoStitch one of the cannon softwares supplied along with the camera.

Vivid Colors (Blue)
In this below picture one can see the blue color of the sky being more vivid and this is what this feature helps achieve

Infinity
This feature can be used when one needs to focus on a far off object(s)

Pros
#1. Well pictures speak thousands of words and above ones are a testimonial enough for what this camera is capable of
#2. Its a point and shoot camera and for me the best in business. Light and compact that so easily fits in that its difficult to forget you actually are carrying a camera. Put it in...Take it out...Capture memories...Put it in...Its that easy really. No extra accessories (Lens, Flash, etc) to get some awesome spectacular photos

Cons
I was trivially disappointed to see that Camera was *made in china*. I remember reading one person commenting in the reviews of getting the camera ordered through Amazon that was “Made in Japan” and that made me expect similar deal. I am more inclined towards Japanese product as some of our prized possessions include Sony DCR-DVD405 3MP DVD Handycam Camcorder and Minolta Digital Camera, both great products and we had some beautiful, awesome memories captured through them for quite a number of years with lot of satisfaction.