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Choosing the right Canon ultracompact camera

Lori Grunin Lori Grunin, Senior Editor October 16, 2009

With street prices ranging from about $150 to $400 for Canon ultracompacts, 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 the SD1200 IS. Though you may see some lower prices for last year's SD1100, be careful--many of them are for refurbished models.
  • For a touch screen, your only choice is the SD980 IS.
  • If you want the smallest model, opt for the SD780 IS. It's also the smallest model with an optical viewfinder.
  • If you want a wide-angle lens, the SD960 IS (sorry, no room in the table) and SD940 IS offer 28-112mm-equivalent lenses plus HD movie capture.
  • 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.
  • For the most feature-packed model, which includes a 5x zoom lens, 3-inch LCD, and HD movie capture, buy the SD970 IS.
  • The best overall buy is the the SD940.

For the first time, I have no pick for best image quality; the SD880 from February 2008, which seems to have finally disappeared from the Internet's shelves (at normal prices), was the last of the Canon ultracompacts with image quality truly outstanding for its class. The current generation produces photos that are all pretty good, but relatively undifferentiable from each other and as flawed as the competition's.

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

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Product name
Price $159.95 to $219.00 $195.00 to $258.00 $259.00 to $299.99 $279.95 to $341.99 $309.00 to $329.99 $299.95 to $380.00
CNET editors' rating
Average user rating 0 stars 0 stars 0 stars
Review date June 17, 2009 May 12, 2009 September 16, 2009 January 15, 2009 October 13, 2009 May 14, 2009
The Bottom Line Simple and stylish, the Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS is a fine back-pocket camera as long as your photo-quality expectations are reasonable. If you need an ultracompact camera for your pocket or purse, strongly consider the Canon PowerShot SD780 IS. One of the best ultracompacts available, the Canon PowerShot SD940 IS nonetheless falls short of greatness in performance and photo quality. The Canon PowerShot SD990 IS is a fine ultracompact camera, but its price-to-feature benefits are questionable. The Canon PowerShot SD980 IS is a very good touch-screen camera for those on the fence about using a touch-screen camera. It might take a good picture, but the Canon PowerShot SD970 IS' feature-to-price ratio is disappointing.
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Features
Lens apertureF/2.8-4.9
F/3.2-5.8
F/2.8-5.9
F/2.8-5.8
F/2.8-5.9
F/3.2-5.8
Equivalent 35mm focal length35 - 105 mm
33 - 100 mm
28 - 112 mm
36 - 133 mm
24 - 120 mm
37 - 185 mm
Optical zoom3 x
3 x
4 x
3.7 x
5 x
5 x
Light sensitivityISO 80
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO 3200
ISO auto
ISO 80
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO 3200
ISO auto
ISO 80
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO auto
ISO 3200 (2Mpix)
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO auto
ISO 3200 (2Mpix)
ISO 80
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO auto
ISO 3200 (2Mpix)
ISO 80
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
ISO 3200
ISO auto
Display (projector) technologyTFT active matrix
TFT active matrix
TFT active matrix
TFT active matrix
TFT active matrix
TFT active matrix
Video input typeDigital camera
Digital camera
Digital camera
Digital camera
Digital camera
Digital camera
Digital zoom4 x
4 x
4 x
4 x
4 x
4 x
Weight4.2 oz
4.1 oz
4.2 oz
5.6 oz
4.6 oz
5.6 oz
Effective sensor resolution10,000,000 pixels
12,100,000 pixels
12,100,000 pixels
14,700,000 pixels
12,100,000 pixels
12,100,000 pixels
Still image formatJPEG
JPEG
JPEG
JPEG
JPEG
JPEG
Display (projector) diagonal size2.5 in
2.5 in
2.7 in
2.5 in
3 in
3 in
Manual focusAutomatic
Automatic
Automatic
Manual
Automatic
Automatic
Automatic
Full specifications Full specifications Full specifications Full specifications Full specifications Full specifications Full specifications
Buying choices