Canon PowerShot SD780 IS (Digital IXUS 100 IS)

Opinion: As much as I love my high-end digital SLR's, carrying them (and their components) around isn't always feasible. Going out on a night on the town, a trade show, or just kicking it with friends, having a fully loaded SLR on your shoulder can be quite cumbersome. This is where this little gem really shines!

It's an all around amazing little (and I must emphasize little) point and shoot camera. Unlike many others that simply feel cheap, the Canon SD780 feels solid in your hands, and easily slips into a shirt pocket without weighing it down.

The image quality is excellent and nothing less than what you would expect from a Canon. Many others will nit-pick it's faults, but for most of us who are buying this camera for its form and function, it gets the job done with flying colors. The video mode is surprisingly very good. Much better than anything I have seen from such a small compact digital camera. It wont compete with the high end HD's cameras, but it's darn good.

Lets get to the battery, which for me is a HUGE factor when buying a compact point and shoot digital camera. When I first saw the tiny battery that is packaged with the SD780, I said wow is that all it's got? But sure enough, it's all that it needs! On a full charge, you can easily take several hundred pictures without draining it out totally. Being such a small battery, it's also not that much trouble to get a spare for those time when you may need additional power. Slip one in your change pocket and you wont even notice its there.

If you're the type that loves to take (great) pictures, and needs to have a digital camera on them at all times, this is an excellent choice. Ideal for bar/club hoppers, business individuals, or plain out fun seekers. After all, who can have fun when you're lugging around a huge and heavy digital camera?

Opinion: The IXUS 100 IS (SD780IS) is an amazing little P&S camera with the footprint of
a credit card. It slides into your pocket without noticing it. The ideal camera to
bring with you all the time. The picture quality is very good for a small sensor
camera with typical and pleasing Canon colours. The noise reduction works well
and at lower ISO the picture quality is stunning. It also shoots HD (720p) high
definition video which is a great plus.

Opinion: While my rating may not show it, this camera is a tiny gem. It is extremely small, able to fit inside a deck-of-cards box. You can always have this camera at hand, and a big hand can hide it completely. You'll find you will have this with you everywhere.

Stills look good, though their is a bit too much jpeg compression. The file size at full res usually sits at ~2 MB, pretty small for a 4k x 3k image. Exposure accuracy is quite good, even in mixed light. The camera responds almost instantly - as fast as film p/s cameras were.

The real beauty of this camera is its video. H264 video at 23 mb/s at 1280x720 30 frame looks great, especially considering the size of the camera. While it won't outperform or replace a dedicated HD video camera, you can carry this absolutely everywhere and not draw attention. Audio quality is poor, so don't consider it for that recital recording. Fine for close-up speech in no wind conditions.

Opinion: Great little camera. Image quality pretty good, hi-def video a lot of fun. Stick it in your pocket and take anywhere.