Canon PowerShot SD870IS 8MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver)

I wanted to replace an aging digital Canon Powershot camera earlier this month, and started my research at cnet.com and amazon.com. I thought it would be a question of reading a few articles, narrowing the list down to a few cameras, and then reading reviews about it on those two websites and bingo, I would end up with the perfect camera for my situation and needs. Boy, was I wrong!First off, there are probably about a thousand decent camera models out there that would satisfy anyone but the most diehard camera professional. I am an average, non-expert user who craves convenience, ease of use, low shutter lag, ease of carrying around, and reasonably good quality pics in most lighting and situations. Nothing fancy.After reading amazon users' comments about the models that cnet's editors recommended, I realized there were a LOT of models out there that I could buy that would satisfy my criteria listed above. I ended up researching this for over 15 days, for hours at a time after work and on weekends.Here is a summary (in no particular order) of why I chose this camera and why I like it, after two weeks of intensive use on vacation in Russia:1) Ease of use - I had to refer to the manual only once or twice as I took hundreds of pics and many video clips in different situations and lighting.2) Relatively slim and light to carry around in my shirt or pant pocket.3) Wide-angle lens - most of my pics tend to be of people, whether in posed photos or candid shots. This model has a roughly 28-105mm equivalent optical zoom (hence the 3.8x designation, i.e. 105 divided by 28). Unless you regularly take pics of distant objects or wild animals, you don't need 12x or 18x optical zoom. Sure, more zoom is better, but it comes at the cost of increased bulk. And increased bulk means you are less likely to take your camera with you and take pics.The wide angle means better group shots. That's why I did not buy any other model that had 5x zoom in a slim body, for example - because almost all of them had lenses that started from 35 or 38mm, and those don't fit people into the shots as well as a wide angle lens does.4) Reasonably high mega pixel count. 8MP is good enough, unless you regularly take pics that you want to blow up into large sizes for printing.5) Optical image stabilization - very good feature, because it cancels out camera shake and results in better pictures.6) Good-quality video clips that are very easy to shoot. Plus, the built-in microphone on this model is powerful and picks up conversations from across a room in video mode. Or, you can record your own commentary on top of a video clip afterwards.7) Reasonably low shutter lag - unless you buy an expensive (and necessarily bulkier) digital SLR or megazoom camera, you are going to get some shutter lag on any digital camera. The question is, can you live with it if it is low enough? This model's shutter lag is not bad at all.8)Canon quality. There is a reason that Canon's at the top of the heap in digital cameras, and this model's further proof of it.9) Rechargeable battery that comes with its own (relatively slim) charger. I had carried along a voltage converter and different plugs for use with my other devices in Russia anyway, so this was a big plus for me. Using disposable batteries usually increases the camera's weight.10) Beautifully crisp, large (3") LCD screen. I did not feel the absence of an optical viewfinder at all, since using the screen even in broad daylight was so good and so convenient.11) Good-quality pics.Websites used in my research - cnet, amazon, pcmag.com, among many.Other models considered - Canon's SD970is, 850is, 890is, 950is, 1100is; Nikon Coolpix S600 and S550; Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8S; Olympus FE-350. I read about some of Sony's point and shoot cameras, but did not want to buy them because everything about Sony is proprietary, which means every single item related to their products needs to be only Sony's and, naturally, costs more.Finally, a note on the fact that this model is almost 10 months old now. Initially, this was a downer for me, despite the numerous awards and favorable user reviews it has garnered. There was one expert review on a British website that finally put it in perspective for me - to wit, that newer models from a particular brand aren't necessarily improvements over the older ones and that if you like the features of an older model, to go ahead and buy it.I would highly recommend this particular model from Canon. Buy with confidence. And oh btw, though I checked a ton of websites, amazon had the best price on it, as usual.

This camera has a superb user interface, and some cool features. Optics are not so good though.Pros:- Responsive user interface with excellent adjustments in manual mode which offers a custom setting with sharpness, contrast, saturation, and separate R/G/B levels!- In-camera editing with very effective red-eye removal; it amazingly detects where (even multiple) pairs of eyes are, and you can also manually point to any area you want to apply the reduction.- Good image quality even at lower light levers.- High-speed USB2 interface.- Good quality movie mode (and cool time-lapse movie mode)although optical zoom/autofocus don't work during captureCons:- Red eye appears in every single picture I take with flash. The Panasonic DMC-TZ3 which I tried did not have this problem. I think the Canon's flash is too close to the lens. If Canon moved the flash to the corner of the camera furthest from the lens it would reduce the problem. Thankfully in-camera editing has good red-eye removal capability.- No USB mass device support, so I can't mount the camera; however "gphoto2 -P" downloads all files just fine on myubuntu linux box.- Optics not good. I see glare in a several of my pictures (big, bright, circular spots if a light source shines direct on the camera at a specific angle). My old S40 did not have this problem. Also the lens has strong barrel distortion especially at wideangle, causing fish-eye images. If you take a picture of a building or picture frame so it almost fills the photo, you'll see lines severely bent at all 4 edges of the screen.Thankfully there is free software that corrects lens distortion, like fulla (part of hugin-tools) and clens,which use a free version of the commercial PTLens software camera/lens database. The SD870 / SD800 (also wideangle) cameras are not in that free database, so I came up with the right settings on my own which took a lot of effort.Here are the parameters I came up with, which I put in the canon_profile.txt file of the ptlens database (which I got from the hugin project page on sourceforge.net):begin lensgroup: canonSD800multiplier: 6.3menu_lens: Standard# a value: controls complex distortion near the image edges# b value: controls barrel distortion# c value: controls complex distortion near the center# multiplier: value multiplied by focal length to give 35mm# camera equivalentcal_abc: 4.600 0.020000 -0.052000 0.000000cal_abc: 6.142 0.010000 -0.030000 0.000000cal_abc: 7.564 0.005000 -0.018000 0.000000cal_abc: 9.107 0.002000 -0.009000 0.000000cal_abc: 10.833 0.001000 -0.005000 0.000000cal_abc: 12.672 0.000000 -0.003000 0.000000cal_abc: 14.694 0.000000 -0.001000 0.000000cal_abc: 17.300 0.000000 -0.000200 0.000000endbegin cameragroup: canonSD800multiplier: 6.3menu_make: Canonmenu_model: SD870exif_make: Canonexif_model: Canon PowerShot SD870 ISendYou can add similar camera models like SD800, IXUS 850 IS, IXUS 860 IS, IXY 900, to reference the same lens entry.Here comes the best part: "fulla -p -l Standard *.JPG"will correct lens distortion of all your images appropriately!! It reads different focal lengs (how much you zoomed for each photo) from each image's EXIF header and applies the right correction parameters to it.I really wish Canon could do some processing in the camera to correct the lens distortion. That would not increase the camera cost like a premium lens might.This is a great little camera otherwise.Please comment on how my lens correction parameters work for you, if you have a chance to try them.