Shooting performance is average for its class heading toward slow. From powering on to capturing its first shot is 1.4 seconds, which is decent. Its shot-to-shot times are OK, too: 2.7 seconds without the flash and 4.9 seconds with. The shutter lag in bright lighting conditions is average at 0.5 second; in dim conditions it does well, though, at 0.7 second. Lastly, the continuous shooting speed from the SD1300 IS is somewhat pokey at 0.6 frames per second. These speeds are by no means fast, making it best for still subjects such as portraits and landscapes.
Photo quality from the SD1300 IS is overall very good for its cost and size, but not without issues. Representative of its class, subjects noticeably soften from noise reduction above ISO 200. Give this camera plenty of light and your results should be great. Indoors without a flash or in dim lighting and details will be softer and noise more visible. Despite details getting softer, though, they're not smeared beyond recognition--even at higher ISOs. Its color consistency is very good up to ISO 800, too; above that and there is some shifting and yellow blotching.
Barrel distortion is minimal at the camera's widest lens position. There is no pincushion distortion when the lens is fully extended. Sharpness is excellent in the center and is fairly consistent edge to edge as well. Purple fringing is a problem for most point-and-shoot cameras; that includes the SD1300, which produces an above average amount of it. In high-contrast areas of photos it's readily visible in prints larger than 4x6 inches.
Video quality is decent, suitable for Web use and on par with a standard-definition pocket camcorder. The optical zoom doesn't work while recording, though.
The Canon PowerShot SD1300 IS is a simple, well-built point-and-shoot that excels in one area--photo quality. Unfortunately, it's not that far ahead of the competition in that department. And for some users this Canon's slight edge won't make up for its basic feature set and average shooting performance at this price.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
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Time to first shot | |
Typical shot-to-shot time (flash) | |
Typical shot-to-shot time | |
Shutter lag (dim) | |
Shutter lag (typical) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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