New Digital Elph offers colors, stabilization

Offered in five colors, Canon's SD1100 IS adds optical image stabilization and new face detection features to last year's successful SD1000.

(Credit: Canon)

Following up on the success of last year's PowerShot SD1000, Canon has announced the PowerShot SD 1100 IS. As the name implies, Canon includes optical image stabilization in this new camera. A 3X optical, 38-114mm f/2.8-4.9 zoom lens funnels light onto the SD1100 IS's 1/2.5-inch, 8-megapixel CCD sensor. A 2.5-inch, 230,000-dot LCD on the camera back lets you frame your shots and view them after capture. Since the Digital Elph line is made to be carried with you, Canon is offering a choice of brown, gold, pink, blue, or silver finishes.

As has become the trend this year, Canon is building on their face detection system to provide new convenience features. Like the SD1000, the SD1100 IS can see up to 9 faces in a scene and use them to set exposure and focus. However, it also includes Face Selection, which lets you choose one of those faces as the main face and the camera can then track that face if it moves around in the scene between shots. Motion Detection Technology is another face detection-linked feature that can determine if your subject is moving or not and adjust the camera settings accordingly to prevent motion blur in your images. For example, if you set the camera to High ISO Auto mode, with Motion Detection turned on, the camera will raise the ISO if it detects motion, so that it can use a faster shutter speed. Similarly, if it doesn't detect motion, then it'll bring the ISO down to minimize ISO-related noise.

Since the SD1100 IS doesn't include manual exposure controls, it is a point-and-shoot after all, Canon includes 18 shooting modes, including a new scene preset called Sunset. Canon expects the PowerShot SD1100 IS to hit stores this March for about $250.