Canon PowerShot SD1400 IS (Black)

Pros: Very simple to use and beautiful images. Simple to use, pocket-sized point and shoot camera. Insert the battery and SD card, turn it on, and set it to auto with a slider switch. Small enough to fit in a small pocketbook. Takes good video.

Cons: Usual slow auto-focus. Pre-focusing speeds up considerably. Only shoots jpeg, no raw. Hinges on doors for battery/flash card compartment and video cables flimsy. Cable door sticks at 1/3. Checked store model and it was same. Only 4X optical zoom.

Summary: My wife is technology adverse. This camera exceeds her expectations for simplicity and quality. A few elegant controls are on the body so there is little to learn. Only controls she needed to learn were on/off, display/view, zoom, and shutter buttons. Truly point and shoot. I did have to set up date/time and initial configuration. This was easy to do through a fairly straightforward menu system.

Image quality exceeded my expectations. I am an amateur DSLR photographer who understands camera physics, digital file formats/limitations, and image processing technology. I am surprised at the quality of the images. Over the Holidays we have shot outdoors (sunny and cloudy), indoors at home, and at two large museums. I took pictures of the kids jumping and captured them in mid-air by pre-focusing and timing the shutter release.

Program AE has a good selection of program modes, ISO can be selected, white balance, etc. But with the Auto as good as it is -- why bother?

I used the movie mode at Christmas dinner and was very pleased with the quality and sound. I also used the movie mode outdoors at a changing of the guard ceremony and again was pleased. Good image stabilization, sound, and image quality. This shoots video as .mov files. If you want to convert to mpeg, you will need additional software.

Overall - this camera exceeds expectations for something so small and relatively inexpensive. It was on sale for $150 and I had a store coupon for 10% discount.