Head to head · Canon PowerShot ELPH

Canon SD1000 vs SD750 vs SD1100 IS: which of the three ELPHs?

On the reviews we have read, the SD1100 IS is the best of the three and the SD750 is the one to buy only for its screen. The SD1100 IS added a stabilised lens and 8 megapixels, kept the optical viewfinder, and launched at $249, below the SD1000's $299 and the SD750's $350. Imaging Resource called it easily the greatest bargain among pocket cameras,¹ and told readers to buy the cheaper SD1000 unless the SD750's big screen was essential.² All three use the same NB-4L battery and take SD and SDHC cards up to 32 GB.

By the Digicam Atlas team · Last updated 20 October 2026 · Built only from our sourced reviews and the sources they cite · We have not tested these cameras ourselves

Canon PowerShot SD1000: full review · Canon PowerShot SD750: full review · Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS: full review

What you will not find in any single review

Which one cost what, and how did one outlet change its mind?
Where did reviewers draw the noise line for each?
Big screen, or a viewfinder you may not use?

Side by side

	Canon PowerShot SD1000	Canon PowerShot SD750	Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS
Sold in Europe and Japan as	Digital IXUS 70; IXY Digital 10³	Digital IXUS 75; IXY Digital 90⁴	Digital IXUS 80 IS; IXY Digital 20 IS⁵
Announced and on sale	21 February 2007; March 2007⁶	21 February 2007; March 2007⁷	23 January 2008; March 2008^8,9
Sensor	7.1 MP CCD, 1/2.5 inch³	7.1 MP CCD, 1/2.5 inch⁴	8 MP CCD, 1/2.5 inch⁵
Lens (35 mm equivalent)	35-105 mm, 3x, f/2.8-4.9; no stabiliser^3,9	35-105 mm, 3x; no stabiliser^7,2	38-114 mm, 3x, f/2.8; lens-shift stabiliser^8,1
Screen and viewfinder	2.5 inch, 230,000 pixels; small optical viewfinder^3,10	3.0 inch, about 230,000 dots; no viewfinder^4,7	2.5 inch; optical viewfinder, about 84% coverage^5,1
Top ISO	Auto ISO Shift to 800¹⁰	Up to 1600⁷	80 to 1600¹
Battery	NB-4L, about 210 shots³	NB-4L²	NB-4L, about 240 shots^5,1
Size and weight	86 x 54 x 19 mm; 125 g³	91.6 x 56.8 x 19.6 mm; 130 g without battery⁴	86.8 x 54.8 x 22.0 mm; 125 g without battery⁵
Largest card (maker's words)	Canon's table: SD: 2 GB max; SDHC: 4 to 32 GB. SDXC not marked as supported¹¹	Canon's table: SD: 2 GB max; SDHC: 4 to 32 GB. SDXC not marked as supported¹¹	Canon's table: SD: 2 GB max; SDHC: 4 to 32 GB. SDXC not marked as supported¹¹
Launch price	$299; 249 pounds in Britain^6,12	$350⁷	$249⁹

Weights are as Canon lists them; the SD750 and SD1100 IS figures are stated without battery, and the museum figure our SD1000 review quotes carries no such note, so do not compare them to the gram.

How do the three ELPHs differ?

They share a sensor family and a processor, and differ in the parts you touch. The SD1000 and SD750 were announced together on 21 February 2007, and DPReview picked out the SD750's 3.0-inch screen and the SD1000's thinness as the difference between them.^7,13 Both have a 7.1-megapixel, 1/2.5-inch CCD and the DIGIC III processor.^3,4,2 The SD1100 IS arrived a year later with an 8-megapixel CCD of the same size, a lens-shift stabilised 38-114 mm zoom in place of the 35-105 mm zoom, and five colours.^5,8,1

The SD1000 and SD1100 IS have a 2.5-inch screen and a small optical viewfinder; the SD750 has a 3.0-inch screen and no viewfinder.^3,5,4,7 The SD750 also replaced the usual four-way pad with a touch-sensitive dial that Imaging Resource found a little insensitive and more gimmick than convenience.² Canon's museum describes the SD1100 IS as the successor to the SD1000.⁵ The SD750 carried on a separate line from the IXY Digital 80.⁴

Which one cost what, and how did one outlet change its mind?

At launch the order was backwards: the SD1000 at $299, the SD750 at $350 and the newest, the SD1100 IS, at $249, with a stabiliser the SD1000 did not have.^6,7,9 By our arithmetic the SD1100 IS undercut the SD1000 by $50 and the SD750 by $100. Imaging Resource reviewed all three, and its verdicts track the prices. In 2007 it thought the SD1000's price a little high for a point-and-shoot;¹⁰ in 2008 it called the SD1100 IS easily the greatest bargain among pocket cameras, with stabilisation, a good lens, face detection and a low price.¹ Reviewed.com agreed the SD1100 IS was fairly priced.⁹

In Britain the SD1000, sold as the IXUS 70, listed at 249 pounds, and Tech Digest cited that price among the reasons it held the camera back to three stars.¹² We do not print today's used prices, because eBay's licence forbids deriving them; the sold-listing links below show what each fetches.

Where did reviewers draw the noise line for each?

The three cameras use the same class of small CCD, and the noise verdicts differ more by reviewer than by camera. For the SD1000, Imaging Resource found noise well controlled to ISO 400, treated ISO 800 as the practical limit, and thought ISO 1600 good only for small prints, while PhotographyBLOG found files already noisy and a little soft at ISO 400 and told readers to avoid 800 and 1600.^10,14 For the SD1100 IS, Imaging Resource found ISO 1600 still made a decent 4 by 6 inch print, DPReview found it pretty noisy at anything above ISO 200, and Reviewed.com scored manual-ISO noise only 4.72 and said the camera is not for shooting in the dark without flash.^1,15,9 For the SD750, Imaging Resource called image quality a surprisingly mixed bag and the biggest disappointment, with soft pictures and a blue cast in shade.²

The line sits between ISO 200 and ISO 800 depending on who is drawing it, and it does not move much from one of these cameras to the next. What does differ is how steady your hands need to be. Imaging Resource measured the SD750's shutter speeds at just under 1/30 of a second at ISO 1600, about 1/14 at ISO 800 and about 1/6 at ISO 400, and said it missed stabilisation even on so modest a zoom.² The SD1000 had no stabiliser either.⁹ Our reading is that the SD1100 IS is the only one of the three where a lower ISO and a slow shutter are a workable pairing in a dim room, which is not the same as being better in the dark.

Big screen, or a viewfinder you may not use?

The SD750 is the camera for people who frame on a screen. Imaging Resource called its 3.0-inch screen the only way to frame a picture and warned it could make you forget to take pictures, and noted a scratch-resistant, anti-reflection coating.^7,2 The price is the viewfinder, which PCMag called the SD1000's edge.¹⁶ Reviewers were lukewarm about the viewfinders that the other two kept. Imaging Resource called the SD1000's unusual at this size and handy in bright sun, though small and hard to use,¹⁰ and commended Canon for keeping one on the SD1100 IS, which showed about 84 percent of the scene; DPReview called it only an emergency solution.^1,15 The SD1000's own screen had a triple-layer coating meant to resist fingerprints, scratches and glare.⁶

Face detection: nine faces, then 35?

All three cameras use face detection from the DIGIC III generation.^17,2,1 Reviewed.com's account of Canon's system, introduced on its DIGIC III cameras in autumn 2006, was that it finds up to nine faces as long as they look straight at the camera.¹⁷ A year later Canon advertised the SD1100 IS with up to 35 faces at once, and Reviewed.com tested it: boxes appeared on four faces in the live view, five on the quick review and 18 in playback mode.⁹ The reviewers did not agree that it mattered. Imaging Resource found the SD1000's faster and more accurate than competing systems, while PhotographyBLOG thought it made little practical difference.^10,14 Treat face detection as a bonus on any of the three.

What do all three share?

The same NB-4L battery: the SD1000 is rated at about 210 shots and the SD1100 IS at about 240,^3,5 and Imaging Resource found the SD750's battery life unusually good.² One spare therefore fits all three. They also share a card limit. Canon's own table marks each for SD cards up to 2 GB and SDHC cards from 4 to 32 GB, with SDXC not marked as supported,¹¹ so use a card of 32 GB or smaller. The same camera carried different names in other regions: Digital IXUS 70 and IXY Digital 10 for the SD1000, Digital IXUS 75 and IXY Digital 90 for the SD750, and Digital IXUS 80 IS and IXY Digital 20 IS for the SD1100 IS, so search every name when you shop.^3,4,5

Which should you buy?

The SD1100 IS is the pick of the three on the reviews: a stabilised lens, 8 megapixels, a viewfinder and the lowest launch price. Know its weak points: Reviewed.com called the battery door flimsy and Imaging Resource agreed it looked fragile, and the flash sits in the corner where fingers go.^9,1 It is also the thickest of the three, 22 mm against 19 and 19.6 mm,^3,4,5 which Imaging Resource put down to the stabiliser.¹

The SD1000 is the one to buy if you want the thinnest of the three and a viewfinder, and it earned an Imaging Resource Dave's Pick,¹⁰ but its metal body collected fingerprints within a couple of hours and its menus were buried.^12,10 The SD750 is for those who want the big screen and the looks, and who accept soft pictures. CNET took a kinder view of its photo quality,¹⁸ but Imaging Resource sent readers to the SD1000, and PCMag said the SD1000 had slightly better image quality and an optical viewfinder.^2,16 We have not tested any of the three ourselves.

What the reviewers said at the time

Outlet	Camera	Date	Verdict, in our words
Imaging Resource	SD1000	8 May 2007	Dave's Pick: loved the simplicity and looks, frustrated by buried menus, and thought $299.99 a little high.¹⁰
PhotographyBLOG	SD1000	9 Apr 2007	4.1 out of 5: praised the design and build; noise was the main weakness.¹⁹
Tech Digest	SD1000	8 May 2007	Three stars: well built with instant start-up, held back by fingerprints, fiddly menus and a high price.¹²
CNET	SD750	Apr 2007	More elegant design and a large screen than the SD1000, and to its reviewer better photo quality.¹⁸
Imaging Resource	SD750	20 Jun 2007	Among the prettiest cameras reviewed, with soft images and a blue cast; recommended the SD1000 unless the big screen was essential.²
PCMag	SD750	Oct 2007	Very similar to the SD1000, which had slightly better image quality and an optical viewfinder.¹⁶
DPReview	SD1100 IS	27 Feb 2008	A typical IXUS with efficient stabilisation, but noisy above ISO 200 and nothing groundbreaking.¹⁵
Imaging Resource	SD1100 IS	May 2008	Dave's Pick: easily the greatest bargain among pocket cameras.¹
Reviewed.com	SD1100 IS	Undated	Attractive and fairly priced at $249, but noise rose quickly at high ISO and manual control was limited.⁹

What to check before you bid

All three. The NB-4L battery is the part most likely to be tired; a fresh one fits all three.^3,2,5
SD1100 IS. Make sure the battery door latches and the flash fires.^9,1
SD750. Ask for a photo of the screen powered on, with no scratches or dead patches.²

Looking for one?

PowerShot SD1000: Recent sold prices on eBay Live eBay listings Canon NB-4L battery on Amazon
PowerShot SD750: Recent sold prices on eBay Live eBay listings Canon NB-4L battery on Amazon
PowerShot SD1100 IS: Recent sold prices on eBay Live eBay listings Canon NB-4L battery on Amazon

Affiliate links: we may earn a commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. We print no used-camera prices; the sold listings show what these actually fetch.

New to the jargon (CCD, ISO, xD cards, IXUS vs ELPH)? Read our plain-English digicam glossary. Card questions: memory card guide. All comparisons.

Sources

These are the original sources our reviews were built from. We have not tested these cameras ourselves; where we do arithmetic or draw a reading of our own, the text says so.