Canon PowerShot Digital ELPH SD780 IS / Digital IXUS 100 IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera - Red

This camera has some drawbacks, small, weak flash. Poor high ISO performance. Slow AF indoors in normal home lighting. That said, this is still the most amazing P&S camera I've ever used. P&S cameras always have limitations, and this camera when used properly isn't much more limited than any other, but it's SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than any P&S I've ever used. It's literally the size of a deck of cards and rounded on the corners to slip into a pocket easily. The HD video isn't perfect, it's noisy indoors, but again, when you look at the camera used, it's pretty impressive. I haven't had a chance to try it outside in the daylight but I'd imagine it works much better that way. Turn on time for this camera is also very fast. I would definitely recommend this camera to anyone who wants a tiny camera with big features. For serious photography this is not the camera to go with, I bought it to supplement my D200 so I don't have to carry it around all the time to take good photos.

The camera was everything I was looking for in a camera. It had both a digital viewer and an optical viewer,which is rare to find in a compact. It also has some of the best auto settings that I have ever seen. It is a little smaller than most compacts,which makes it a little bit harder for hitting the buttons all the time.You kinda have to look at the buttuns to find them. Pictures are of excellent quality,AND it does have manual settings that you can use in special situations. The video is HD but I would say it's more like 720p than 1080p. The sound is only out of one side of stereo,so a mix would have to be made to make it middle or stereo. Battery life seems to be pretty good,but since it has a built in Lithium battery,you would need to carry a charger with you,or what I done,buy an extra battery(about 8 bucks on Ebay).The optical viewfinder is small due to the size of the camera,but still very functional in needed places where sunlight makes it hard to see the screen. Although the screen is easier to see from than most other cameras All in all very pleased with the performance of the camera

Here is my take after shooting about 500 pics and a dozen or so videos. A very capable camera, limited zoom, small enough to carry every day if you wish. Good battery life, nice color rendition. Tiny viewfinder( but at least there is one), solid feel, quality build. Will accept a 32GB memory card, I chose an 8GB( 43mins of HD video or a couple thousand pics, plenty for me). I never loaded the enclosed software but use Picasa (Google) instead, love it. Great screen with some washout in bright sun, but usable. The user interface feels intuitive ( with a couple of exceptions that must be learned), much like my wife's SD 870is. The flash is limited to about 6 feet and I used it for fill in some shadowy outside shots and liked the results.
I primarily bought this camera so I could keep it in my pocket every day. I take it hiking and biking. Perfect for that. I went to Yosemite recently and found the 3x optical zoom a little limiting, but with 12 MP I can enlarge and crop to compensate somewhat. The digital zoom reaches 12x, but after 3x the picture degrades. You have to give up some features for such a compact size. If size matters, It's a great little camera for it's intended purpose, I'm happy with it and would buy it again.

If you want a very compact point-and-shoot digital camera with excellent resolution, this is the camera for you. I purchased this camera for my wife, who still prefers to have buttons to press to access the various features of the camera. The somewhat more expensive versions of this same camera now come with touch screen, which would be preferable in my opinion. This camera has a reasonably large viewing screen. My wife has had this camera now for six weeks and has had no problems with it. One problem is that the manual for the camera does not explain how to access all the features. My wife wanted to use the feature that allows you to take a photograph of a person with strong backlighting (the icon with the sun). Neither she nor I could figure out how to do this after reading the manual and playing with the camera for more than 30 minutes. She then took the camera to a Canon Service Center where the service personnel showed her how to do this - it was NOT explained anywhere in the manual. By the way, if you buy this camera or probably any other Canon camera, Canon offers a free digital photography 101 workshop to help you exploit the full features of the camera you buy from them. In summary, I strongly recommend this camera if you want a reliable, very compact, high resolution digital camera that provides exceptional features at a very competitive price.

The Canon SD 780 IS ranks up there with the best cameras I have owned. I would say it even competes with my DSLR (Canon Rebel XSi) on some images to a degree. It does an excellent job in the category where it fits best. That is, a very small, compact camera, which makes it likely to be the one you actually carry with you. My experience with this camera reveals excellent IQ in closer pictures, even when enlarged. An early judgment on distant shots seems to reveal less resolution. However, this judgment call may be too early to be accurate. At 100% crops the image is still acceptable even though some aberrations may show. At 66% you can still see them, but to a much lesser degree (not objectional). There was absolutely no purple fringing noticed at 100%. I did not judge beyond that. I did see some hardly noticable gray fringing in a test photo. You may have a different experience or have different evaluation criteria than I do. So, your experience may differ from mine. Everyone does not like this camera. At 12 Megapixils, the camera makes very large in camera pictures, meaning fairly large prints should be possible that look good. I am very fond of this camera. It feels good in the hands, seems to be made of metal, has a great LCD and some weight making it feel like a quality piece of photographic equipment, which it is. In fact very much so. Nothing seems cheap other than the plastic USP port cover. However, my camera is 1 1/2 years old and the cover is still holding. It has many modes including totally auto which help it fit most situations. It also has a tiny eye level optical view finder that zooms with the lens. Some say it is useless, but I say it works great even though it is small. Great on those bright sunny days. The view finder does not show the same composition boundaries as the LCD, but it works good for me. It makes such good pictures, I am going to keep mine. Even though I reccommend this camera for anyone looking for an ultra compact carry anywhere camera that looks good and has many features as well as the possibility of making great pictures, you should read many other evaluations to get a more balanced view of this camera. One evaluation is useless if there are contradicting ones out there. They are out there, but seem to be few in number. OH, forgot to mention, the SD 780 IS makes really nice HD movies. Only drawback here is that the optical zoom (3X) is disabled while shooting. The digital zoom (4X) is usable.