sdc-createmachine doesn't seem to be accepting the "--image" switch:
$ env | grep SDC | grep -v CLI
SDC_URL=https://us-west-1.api.joyentcloud.com
SDC_ACCOUNT=xxxxxx
SDC_KEY_ID=fd:9c:78:0f:bd:58:e0:88:38:01:44:3b:ab:80:a5:93
$ sdc-createmachine --image f669428c-a939-11e2-a485-b790efc0f0c1
image must be specified
$ sdc-createmachine -e f669428c-a939-11e2-a485-b790efc0f0c1
<bunch of happy "success" json output here>
$ sdc-createmachine --help
sdc-createmachine [--account string] [--debug boolean] [--dataset string] [--enable-firewall boolean] [--help boolean] [--keyId string] [--metadata ] [--name string] [--networks ] [--package string] [--script path] [--tag ] [--url url]
$ npm list -g | grep smartdc
└─┬ smartdc@7.1.1
└─┬ smartdc-auth@1.0.1