Product ReviewsCanon PowerShot Digital ELPH SD980 IS / Digital IXUS 200 IS 12.1MP Digital Camera - Silver

Second one I have bought. Great Product. Don't ever get Canons repaired.

This is my second PowerShot SD980 IS, and it works just like the first one (which broke due to use in dirty conditions). I love the touch screen, it is very responsive. It has some fun gestures you can do. I like the different shooting modes and options. The style of the camera is nice but it wouldn't hurt if it were a bit thiner. The zoom toggle can be a little finicky, I wish the on/off button wasn't so slender and awkward in shape sometimes, the lens cover doesn't always close fully, but a light touch with your finger usually does the trick. It doesn't do really well with moving objects and sometimes the shutter can be finicky if you are in a hurry to get the shot, but this also take time to just play with and figure out how it works best for you. I got this camera for personal use to take pictures of friends, nature, and swim meets mostly. I like this camera, and for the price I paid, it was worth it.Read full review...

Canon PS SD980

The brightness of the screen doesn;t work well in bright light, but I just took a lot of pic's and got one I liked. The VIdEO is the best part of this camera. Took 2 min of a watersurf park with people surfing and the video came out outstanding. Can't change the zoom when imaging, tho...
The focus is great on this little guy. Pic's look great on my computer, can't waitto plug in to my 1020 TV. I would recommend this camera to anyone, beginner to advanced. Easy to use, almost too complicated to get a manual f-stop or time. Maybe I should look over the directions better.Read full review...

Great Little Camera

I have not owned much in the way of Canon camera equipment but I have bought several point and shoot Canons for my wife. This camera, when it came out got a lot of great reviews. I was looking for a camera I could put in my camera bag as a back up camera to my Sony A700's. I bought it used but it has performed very well and makes really nice pictures. Could use a little more telephoto range, but for what I use it for, it's a fine camera.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: juniceg

Canon PowerShot SD980 IS Digital ELPH 12.1 Megapixel

I really want to like this camera but I think this may have to go back. Indoor pictures are relatively grainy (ISO is 500+ on most even with the flash) and outdoor pictures look washed out. I compared the pictures to a 870 IS and the 870 came out ahead 5 out of 6 times (Not a scientific test, but both were with similar setings and mounted on a tripod and shot with a 2 second time delay to eliminate hand shake, ISO 200 on both cameras).

Granted, as I've only used a Canon 30D DSLR with pretty decent lenses for the last few years, but I didn't think that the pictures from my 7-year old 4MP Konica KD400Z were awful. (A lot of the ones from this camera are just awful)

The HD video is pretty good and even the 640x480 movies look decent on a 47 inch tv - so high marks for that.

The touchscreen is pretty useful but it would have been nice to be able to assign any camera function to the 4 allowed 'gestures'. It is great for touch-focussing on 'this-one' and it holds the focus point pretty well as you pan the camera. All in all, I like the touchscreen.

The 'click wheel' is very well implemented (much better than my Canon HG10 HD vid cam) and is nice and responsive. I have a gripe about the tiny triangular on/off button as it is not responsive on the narrow side, but that is a minor inconvenience.

I'll play with this a bit more (Reset to factory settings; turn off some of the 'Smart' functions etc) and see if I can get the picture quality to improve. Othewise I'll be looking closely at the S90 - even though that doesn't have HD video capture (whose bright idea was that? The S90 product manager should be taken out and flogged for descoping HD video).Read full review...

Don't be fooled by any negative reviews you may find!

This is by far the best camera, especially for the price. It has every feature you could possibly want in a camera, and HD video which (depending on your memory card size) has quite a decent length of recording time. Canon's newer models in no way comes close to the features and value of this camera. I love the large touch screen LCD screen and the coolest feature (which canon seems to be leaving out of some of the newer models) is the color accent. Color accent allows you to pull one color and makes the rest of the photo black and white. Color accent is beyond cool for taking pictures of my son's blue eyes.
I've seen reviews complaining about fingerprints and smudges on the LCD screen but you can get a 3 pack of LCD screen protectors which eliminates this problem, and is actually 9 screen protectors when cut to size.
There are reviews about grainy pictures or low quality pictures, which I have not experienced at all. For simple point and shoot pictures and video it is very easy to learn. In order to use some of the features and take more complex pictures I would highly recommend at least skimming through the full user's manual included on the cd, because while very easy to learn it is not very easy to figure out without the use of the manual.
If you have a problem with the small power button on the top of the camera (you will learn in the manual) you can use the review button (top button on the back of the camera that looks like a play button) to turn the camera on and off by holding it down until it turns on and off.
Unfortunately this camera is no longer being made by canon, but if you are looking for a great camera at a great price that has every feature you could possibly think of using, I would recommend purchasing from some of the online stores that still carry it.
I reviewed cameras for over a year before making my purchase and tried every camera I could find in the stores and found nothing that came close to the value of the canon SD980.Read full review...

Canon SD980 / Ixus 200

I was unsure of the touch screen, and in reality, could certainly live without it, except for one terrific feature which makes it worthwhile - you can touch the screen to indicate where you want the camera to focus - I love it!

WIDE starting point - 24mm equivalent to 35mm format - this was the prime reason for purchase of the camera. Distortion level is more than acceptable at widest angle, and gets better from there.

Image quality is very good, though I note with some disappointment that the "Superfine" setting of old is gone, just "Fine" and "Normal" available... not a huge concern, but an unnecessary omission.

Camera handling is better (for my hands) than most of the Elph line because of the extended length, and the flash position is OK for me - I don't find myself blocking it with a stray finger.

I believe this to be the best of the small cameras for someone interested in wide-angle photography.Read full review...

Wonderful Camera.

This is the best camera that I have had. I love how it does wide views.
Picks up different lighting environments very well. I like the no blink option, the touch options on the screen .The battery has a good life for a lot of photos.
Takes great pictures of diamonds without having to use macro or a loup.

The only down side , is a couple blurry photos inside. Not sure why. It is a random thing. Over all I love this camera!Read full review...

good camera

After having 5 cameras before, I can say that this one is the best. The size is good, it's fast and pics are very good. The videos are good too, you can make zoom when you film, it's not so common this in digital cameras. Whereas when you zoom in the image loose quality.
I recommend it.Read full review...

Kodak vs. Canon

I have used Kodak digital cameras for years and have been fairly satisfied. A friend had the Canon sd980 camera with the touch screen and was totally happy with it's functions. I was sold on it's pocket size and features that for the money was better than the Kodak camera I was using. The price was right and the learning curve took no time at all to learn. Having used it for a couple weeks, I feel it is a better camera over all than the Kodak Easy Share.Read full review...

Canon.PowerShot SD980 IS.ELPH

If you can get this camera for under $175 it is a decent value. If you want truly impressive pictures in the point & shoot mode this camera will disappoint and the manual mode is lacking when it comes to shutter control. Optical macro mode is impressive when supplemental lighting is used because the flash coverage in general is a bit spotty. I love the size, camera will fit inside of shirt pocket and probably even a cigarette box and the touchscreen is fun and simple. If this camera proves as durable as my rock solid 9 year old 'A20' I will be quite pleased...Read full review...