Canon SD1200 IS Blurry Images

If I were superstitious, I would stop doing reviews of products.

Twice now I've praised technology products only to have them turn around and bite me for it. First it was the Apple MacBook Pro (MB470LL/A) that can't run Vista effectively even though Apple claims it is supported. Now it's the Canon PowerShot, which -- at least in the particular cameras I have purchased recently -- has lost its sharp image quality.

I've been without a functioning camera for about 1 1/2 frustrating months now. I bought an SD1100 IS last year that worked fine, but unfortunately I left it at a stop on the way to Santa Fe in January, and since I didn't want to be without, I promptly bought another one at a Best Buy on the way.

This second SD1100 began to exhibit problems, so I sent it in for repair. It came back worse! I sent it back with sample photos thinking it had been repaired incorrectly, and they wanted me to pay this time. Instead of spending $90 on a camera that I thought might be a lemon, and wanting to get a working camera in my hands, I spent $170$188* on a brand new SD1200 IS. It was just as bad -- right out of the box! I tried a second one from Wal-Mart because of their lenient return policy. Same problem! Ugh. I still have the same lousy SD1100 and no way to fix it effectively, when new lenses and cameras are just as bad.

At this point I can only conclude that either A) Canon has relaxed its standards or B) they are producing bad lenses and don't realize it yet. I am going to write them with the serial numbers in case they can track down a problem. Until they improve their output I'm not going to buy another PowerShot.

I hope nobody read my praise of these cameras, bought one, and is now having similar trouble. I sympathize! It's been very frustrating.

This seems like further evidence of the economic entropy I wrote about.

Meanwhile, I'm looking at the Panasonic Lumix series, whose images have a different look (more overall noise vs. Canon's emphasis on edge sharpness), however many of the samples I see on Steve's Digicams have good sharpness over the entire image area, which is important to me. Steve's has test images of each camera, which is a huge help in evaluating products in the electronics market segment, where return policies can be tricky or costly due to restocking fees (although I usually avoid merchants that have such fees). Unfortunately, their test images from both the SD1100 and SD1200 are better than what I'm seeing on mine.

UPDATE: Here is a sample to illustrate. These crops were taken from the same photo using a brand-new SD1200 IS (similar but less-pronounced blurriness was present in the second SD1200 I tested). The left side is the center of the photo, the right is the upper right corner of the same photo. It was taken in manual mode without any zoom (i.e. wide angle). Neither portion was magnified or reduced and they are at the original resolution; I simply copied the sections and placed them side by side.



UPDATE 2: Although this is not what I would consider to be a 100% scientific test, both objects were in approximately the same focal plane, and no such discrepancy existed on my older PowerShot cameras. I know this line of cameras and what worked before, and does not work now. Because the phenomenon shifts, and varies in intensity, it's also a bit tough to get consistent tests. For example yesterday I had an image where the top was clear (both background and foreground) but the bottom half was blurry regardless of distance of the object from the camera. Go figure.

One difference in these problem cameras is they all have image stabilization (hence the "IS" in the name). IS compensates for hand movements, and I'm wondering if it's involved. However, I've turned IS off and get the same results. It still could be something loose. No idea. Maybe I'll try to locate an older model PowerShot that does not have IS.

Anyway, I've done about all I can do until I gather my materials and contact Canon.

Meanwhile, caveat emptor.

*Correction: The SD1200 price was $188, not $170.