Choosing the right Canon ultracompact camera

Lori Grunin, Senior Editor June 18, 2009

No fewer than 11 of Canon's ultrapopular, ultracompact digital cameras are still widely available, and some are still going strong after more than a year--remarkable in such a fickle, high-churn market. With street prices ranging from about $150 to $400, there's not a lot of room for price differentiation, unless you're really pinching pennies. For the most part, they're all of equal quality, with extremely similar feature sets. Canon seems to have finally officially dropped the PowerShot SD430, which is more than three years old now, leaving Canon without a model with Wi-Fi support. So if you've set your heart on one of these other sleek little snapshooters, how do you choose among them? Let a salesperson steer you toward the one that happens to be in stock? Perish the thought! Make your own decisions. Here are some guidelines that should help--we hope.

• If you want the cheapest model, your choice is last year's SD1100 IS (sorry, no room on the chart), though the price seems to overlap with this year's least expensive model, the SD1200 IS.
• If you want the smallest model, opt for the SD780 IS.
• If you want a wide-angle lens, the SD880 IS and SD960 IS offer 28-112mm-equivalent lenses. The SD880 is cheaper, but the SD960 offers HD movie capture.
• For the best overall photo quality, buy the SD880 IS.
• For the fastest, buy the SD970 IS. Though Canon has offered faster models in the past, none of them are widely available anymore, leaving the SD970 in front. Its one speed flaw is slow flash shot-to-shot time. However, the SD880 is only a little slower focusing in dim light, so it's probably worth taking that hit for slightly better photo quality and a lower price.
• For the most feature-packed model, which includes a 5x zoom lens, 3-inch LCD, and HD movie capture, buy the SD970 IS.
• If you want HD movie capture, your choices are the SD960 and SD970; the SD960 delivers more bang for the buck.
• The best overall buy is the the SD880.

That's our advice. If you're still undecided, you might as well let the salesperson steer you toward a camera.

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