Canon PowerShot A1200 (Silver)

Pros: Compact form
Takes AA batteries
Fully automatic point and shoot

Cons: Optical viewfinder does not capture full seen and shows significant spherical distortion
No image stabilization so low light pictures may turn out blurry, even for the steadiest of hands
Video isn't a replacement for a camcorder

Summary: This is a great, compact point and shoot budget camera that is worth the retail price of $109 and is definitely a steal if on sale. The camera is a point and shoot in every sense of the word so there are no manual options. However, the camera lives up to the powershot brand and takes great pictures in all automatic modes. Like many other cameras, the camera has various scene modes that let you choose the setting, and then the camera takes care of the rest. In daylight, the camera takes clear pictures with little to no noise which is typical for most Canon Powershots. In low-light, with the lack of image stabilization, most pictures turned out blurry. With adequate stabilization, such as a tripod or resting the camera on a table, low-light pictures turned out clear with little noise.

This camera also takes 720p video which is useable. The extra resolution does not seem to be a significant increase because videos still come out to look about the same as videos shot from my old Canon SD500. Most of the time, even with adequate light, the video seems darkened. Video also comes out shaky because of the lack of image stabilization. There is also no optical zoom during recording so the focal point is fixed after you press record. There is however, digital zoom which allows for some usability.

This camera is a great throw-back to old cameras that took standardized batteries and had viewfinders. The AA are a plus, but the optical viewfinder is almost unusable because it doesn't show the whole picture. In addition, looking through the viewfinder almost makes it look like you're looking through a marble because there is significant distortion (does not show up in the pictures). Overall, when considering the price of the camera, it is a great value that takes clear images in various scenes. The video is ok to use on occasion, but is not a substitute for a real camcorder. The only thing that this camera is really missing is optical image stabilization which would have probably brought it up to 5 stars.