Review on Canon PowerShot SD1200IS Digital Camera - 10 MP with 3x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5-inch LCD Display - Dark Gray by Jeff Henkhaus

I bought this when my Sony Cybershot died. After several weeks of searching, I decided on this camera. It seemed like you couldn't beat it for the price. I'm an amateur photographer and my main camera is a Canon Rebel Xti DSLR. I wanted the camera to fit in my bag when I didn't feel like carrying a DSLR around. Here are the pros and cons of this camera that I've been using for a few months. Pros: Great amazing clear macro shots! This camera rivals my DSLR in macro quality, water droplets on plants, flowers, food, etc. Anything close up and this camera shines. Outdoors, this camera takes great landscape photos. Even at night when using a tripod this camera has excellent infinity detail. Compact and thin enough to fit in your jeans pocket. As with all Canons, the battery life is amazing. I will use it for almost a week without charging. The LCD is excellent, very bright, a bit too bright I think, photos are not as contrasty as they seem but excellent nonetheless. Cons: - Flash is really heavy! So bad it's almost impossible to use indoors at night. My last camera had the option to set the flash to either a + or - setting to adjust its strength, and I almost always left it on the minus (-) setting. If this camera had that, I would give it 4 stars. It's so stiff I'm considering getting a Gary Fong diffuser and gluing it to it forever. It just blows things away, especially in macro, forget it. - The zoom is faulty. The zoom is constantly not jerk-free. It starts when I zoom in or out regularly and stops when I hold down the zoom button. It's very slippery. This camera has a very smooth surface and easily slips out of your hand. There's nothing to grab, it's all a smooth surface. Verdict: This is a great outdoor and macro camera, but like most point-and-shoot cameras, it suffers from harsh flash indoors. I would look for a camera with adjustable flash power, as all digital camera flashes are by default too bright and glaring for indoor use. However, for $150, you can't ask too much of this little camera.