Canon SD1000

My wife has been a long time G6 user and absolutely loves her G6. Recently she wanted a small PnS camera to keep in her purse instead of having to bring the G6 everywhere she goes. I had a Gift Certificate to Best Buy so I picked her up the SD1000 this past week after she read how it was Editor's Choice in some places, etc.

She's noticing though that the pictures that it takes are rather dark compared to the G6. She took 2 pictures, in the same lighting, one with the G6 and the other with the SD1000 and there's definitely a noticeable difference between the brightness of the two photos.

Is this the norm for small compact camera's or just the norm for the SD1000? If it's just the SD1000, can anyone recommend any of the other Canon PnS Compact's that we wouldn't notice such a large difference. I figure I'm still within my 30 days at Best Buy so I'll return it if need be.

Any input is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Since I had no replies to this, I thought perhaps an image might help explain what we're seeing as far as quality goes:

http://www.sorrentinow​eb.net/images/compare.​gif

I mean, if this is standard quality for a point & shoot on indoor shots, we'll live with it, but if this is just poor picture quality of the SD1000, I'll return it.

What I'm seeing looks like more a white balance difference. The G looks, if not warmer, more tan than the "cooler" SD1000. By the way, an animated GIF is not the best way to display these for others to compare. Resizing them and posting the resized pictures where they can be seen side by side will make it much easier for us to evaluate any differences.

Is this better for comparison?

http://www.sorrentinow​eb.net/images/compare.​jpg

The G6 is on the left. I'll check out the white balance settings on the SD1000 to see if we can get the color to balance. On a quality note, take a look at the pink blanket on the bed. I realize there will be some quality difference between the two camera's, however, I was really surprised at how significant the quality is between the two camera's. Is that the norm for compact P&S camera's?

I agree with Jon, the color difference is mainly due to white balance and also due to different ‘gamma’ between the cameras.

As a former television engineer I can tell you that matching broadcast quality cameras of the same brand and model was difficult and matching cameras of different brands and/or models almost impossible.

You can match your images pretty close in post-processing using ‘match color’ adjustment in PhotoShop, but no matter how close you set the cameras there will be subtle differences.

I don't think the SD1000 photo's inherently any darker than the G6 shot. Look at the window shade - it's blown out in the SD1000 shot and not in the G6 shot. Granted the little girl's darker, but that's not necessarily an indication of an underexposed photo, given the blown-out window. It may reflect differences in how the cameras meter. Were the cameras in the same metering mode? What were the exposure settings used for the two shots? Since you merged the two photos into a single JPEG, I can't read the EXIF data for the shots. They're also a bit small. If you were to separately post (attach them to your post; max. dimension of 800 pixels in the longest dimension and not over 100 KB) them it'd be easier for us to assess them.

Have you looked at how you've set the contrast processing in the two cameras? Since the G6 is showing more detail in the shades and also a better exposure on the little girl than the SD100, it looks like it's set to a lower contrast value than the SD1000 can provide. That's something you can't change in the SD1000, AFAIK, which is not unexpected since the SD line is a "basic" camera with minimal controls for the user to use (and misuse) while the G6 is the culmination of the non-DSLR "Advanced Amateur" cameras with many and flexible controls that you're expected to know how to use before you monkey with them. If your wife's been using the G6 for any length of time, she's probably gotten very comfortable with it and has made adjustments from the default settings.

In short, I think there are a number of things that can be controlled which may be affecting the different appearance of the two shots. If your wife really wants a G6 but in a smaller package, though, I think she needs to look at an A630 or A640. The SD series are small, but they're designed for the family vacationer who doesn't want to be bothered with learning the camera. Notice, for example, that it doesn't even have a mode where the user can set shutter speed, aperture, or both. It's a good camera. It's just not a "control freak" camera. I got my wife an SD600 (predecessor) as her first "real" camera (previously, she'd picked up a drug store single-use one if she wanted to take pictures) as she's one of the "vacationer who can't be bothered" types. I use the A620 as my "everywhere" camera. It's usually on "P", but it has the controls when I need them. That's the difference between the SD line and the A line.

Thanks all for your replies/input! My wife took the SD1000 with her out this past weekend since it easily fit into her purse. She took a bunch of photo's and she thinks it's going to work out for her. The outdoor shots she took look fantastic. The indoor ones look great as well. She said that she believe the only things she really needs to keep in mind is that it seems the SD1000 isn't really good at taking indoor shots of any distance. Up close, the flash gives off enough light for her tastes.

Thanks again for all of your input, I believe she's going to keep this one.