- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 29 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
17 out of 19 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"Good little camera, lots to offer. some flaws."
Pros: Small camera, big 3" Screen, good pictures, good movie mode
Cons: Could use more zoom in picture mode, and optical zoom during movie mode
Summary: I been looking for a camera for a month now, I bought the Sony T100, Panasonic TZ3 and Canon TX1 and returned them all, you can read why on their own reviews in Cnet.com.
I recently bought this camera and I guess I had to make some sacrifices, but got some good stuff in return. This camera is nice and small and to be honest the 3" screen is amazing. I guess I had to realize what I needed more, and when from there. I mostly use my cameras during snowboarding trips. So I need something small, and with a wide lens to get nice scenery pictures, plus it helps for the self portraits.
The camera is faster than the tx1, and it produces better result as far as picture quality goes, much less noise and sharper pictures. the video is pretty good except you can only use the digital zoom, and not the optical. this is due to amount of noise the optical zoom makes and the microphone would pick it up. The noise in the pictures is keep well under range, much much better than the tx1 and the t100, but not as good as the TZ3, but then again people complain that panazonic is pushing the limit with the noise reduction, and creating to many artifacts.
Low light performance is pretty good, the flash is somewhat powerful, better than the TX1. Colors are kept nice and strong during lower light situations and amount of detail is well kept as well.
The battery is nice and strong, it should be more than enough for 2 days or so, close to 300 pictures. The camera is light 153gr, somewhat small.
The BEST option this camera offer is the 28mm lens, it is simply the best. You can get better shots and get a lot more detail than a 35mm, I believe about 33% more detail in each picture.
Yes I lost the HD video but I more about pictures than video, although it would been nice to have the HD video as swell.
People complain about the view finder, to be honest this is why I bought this one instead of the SD800 IS, if you want a viewfinder get that one, it's the same camera. I personally love the 3" screen. Yes they could of left some of the plastics out of the camera, but it's not that bad, I bought the silver one in my opinion it looks better that the black one.
I guess between the 4 cameras I bought the only two I would consider are this one and the Panasonic TZ3, the only thing holding me on the TZ3 is the size of the camera and the lack of color accuracy in the pictures and the fact that you cannot even use the digital zoom in the video(but the again you get a 28mm-290mm lens, instead of 28mm-105mm lens).
here are some pictures for you to look at
http://www.flickr.com/gp/10297837@N05/096Rpe
I will try to upload the video later on.
Updated
by fet123456 (see profile) - September 7, 2007
The video at Youtube.
here is the video, it looks so much better. youtube messes up the quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDheEUJVKAU
The pictures are also downgraded, they look much much better. but it's still good to see what the camera offers.
Remmember there a lot of choices, but I bought this one considering my need, and it fits perfectly for me.
Updated
by fet123456 (see profile) - September 9, 2007
Last set of pictures, and samples from the Panasonic TZ3
I took the SD870 to the beach today and the result were very nice, I set the colors to Vivid and in my opinion the pictures look much much richer. I tried the digital zoom, and to be expected it does not work just like in every other camera I have ever used. The video is good but the microphone is kind of crappy. Overall the camera performs great good pictures. The only thing is men I would love more zoom like the TZ3, but the TZ3 is a little to big to carry around.
Just so some of you know, my final rating for the TX1 is a 7, for the panasonic is a 8, the Canon SD 870 IS and for the Sony T100 a 6 (at best more towards a 5 ). just something to add. If you have any questions just comment my review and I will sure to respond that comment. I wanted the perfect camera, and I guess it's impossible to get right now, maybe in the future. But at least this one comes close to perfection for my needs.
I just got a 8gb SDCH class 6 memory card (Best memory available at the moment) , I bought it for the TX1 so I could do more HD video, but good enough it also works in the SD870 IS, I get 64 minutes of video at max setting not bad, it's like $85 of eBay.
I will be waiting for the second generation TX1 maybe they can fix the noise in the pictures and give me a wider lens, cross your fingers. Or even a smaller Panasonic TZ3 a third generation.
Here is beach set of pictures as promised.
http://www.flickr.com/gp/10297837@N05/386DQG
Flickr.com downgrades the pictures a lot from 3.5 mb to less than 1 mb, so quality is lost, but its still pretty good, maybe the best I saw from all the cameras.
I wont even try to upload more videos, I am not crazy about youtube
This last set of pictures is from the Panasonic TZ3, you can notice how the picture colors are not as rich as the canon, but they are still pretty good. You can also adjust the color to vivid and this helps a little.
http://www.flickr.com/gp/10297837@N05/771205
Updated
by fet123456 (see profile) - September 9, 2007
Small mistake in this paragraph
I made a mistake on one of the paragraphs above.
I meant to give the Canon SD870 IS a 8 for the final review, not a 5 or 6. The 5 or 6 is for the Sony T100(horrible camera).
Where to buy
Canon PowerShot SD870 IS (Silver):
$599.95
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Amazon.com Marketplace
|
$599.95 | Yes |
|
%20user%20review%20and%20rating%20-%20CNET%20Reviews&srcUrl=http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/canon-powershot-sd870-is/4864-6501_7-32471275-1.html){kind=small}