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To examine noise levels under real-life conditions we shot this scene with the Canon PowerShot A1100 IS. The lens was set to 6.2mm (35mm), its widest field of view. Under ordinary circumstances we'd compare these images with high ISO crops from the Nikon COOLPIX L20, but since that camera has no manual ISO settings this wasn't possible.

The above shot was taken with the Canon PowerShot A1100 IS in Program mode with the lens at its maximum wide angle setting of 6.2mm (35mm). The exposure was one second at f2.7. The crops are taken from the area marked with the red square and presented below at 100%.

Generally speaking, these high ISO crops compare very favourably with images from other Canon compacts, including those higher up the price scale. At the lower ISO settings there's no evidence of visible noise, and if we were going to make a criticism it would be that the PowerShot A1100 IS has slightly underexposed at the 80 and 100 ISO settings. There's also a noticeable purple colour cast at the lower ISO settings.

As we progress upwards to 200 ISO things actually begin to look a little better because the exposure is improved and the colour cast is gone. You can see evidence of noise beginning to make an appearance at 200 ISO, but it's pretty negligible. Moving up to 400 ISO again there's a slight increase in the amount of noise visible. Though it's clearly visible in the 100 percent crop, looking at these shots at 25 percent on screen it's hard to spot the difference.

At 800 and 1600 ISO the noise begins to get the upper hand. but even here Canon's noise reduction keeps it manageable without worsening the situation by over smoothing and removing image detail. Yes, the 1600 ISO image is very grainy, and the colour saturation is suffering, but the image is a long way from breaking up and, though you probably wouldn't want to print it full size, this would be usable on a web page at a quarter size or smaller.

Now head over to our Canon PowerShot A1100 IS gallery to see some more real-life shots in a variety of conditions.

Canon PowerShot A1100 IS High ISO Noise

80 ISO

100 ISO

200 ISO

400 ISO

800 ISO

1600 ISO