Canon PowerShot SD880 IS (Digital IXUS 870 IS)

Opinion: I bought this camera mostly based on Ken Rockwells review http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/compacts/sd880.htm

I'm happy to say that I totally agree with what he says about the camera. I have taken thousands of shots with it and I am very pleased with it. The lens is wonderfully sharp and the wide angle is great. The shots are contrasty and vibrant. I have made many prints in A4 size that I deem just as good as any DSLR could do.

As a gearhead, I immedeatly downloaded CDHK to shoot raw when I bought it. After messing around with it for a while, I abbandoned it when I realized that the camera jpg's are every bit as good as what I got from the rawfiles. Also, the auto whitebalance of the camera NEVER misses, I only wish we will ever see anything this good in DSLR's. Now I just let the camera do it's thing, I use KR's method of easy access to exposure compensation, and expose on the bright side to avoid noice. Works great.

The camera is well buildt and very stylish, I have gotten quite a few complements on it :-) As if that wasn't enough, people are just blown away when they see the large and wonderful LCD.

Being a compact with a tiny sensor, you WILL get noice in dark areas of a frame or when upping the ISO, but this goes for every compact ever made. Compared to the other compacts I have tried, this camera has the least noiceproblem of all compacts I have tried, except for the S90. It's considerably better than the G9 I had for a while.

I recently borrowed a S90 for a day as I have read many good things about it, also from Ken Rockwell :-) My conclusion was that even though the S90 did perform better, the difference is not large enough to make the upgrade a worthwhile investment for me. Looks like I'll hang on to this camera until Canon comes up with a APS sensor compact.

Opinion: This is the best camera for the price. I am really amazed. I can only recomend it to buy. Excelent piece.

Opinion: I have this camera for over an year. I was very satisfied with it until a week ago when I saw that three dead pixels occurred ON THE SENSOR.
I didn't knew that was possible, at first I thought it was only on the LCD screen while I didn't saw the red dots in my pictures. But that's because of the large MP amount. You can clearly see the red dots in the movies. That's a shame, I previously had a SD870 IS and had the same issue and returned the camera right away. But this SD880 IS is out of warranty now.
To bad, very disappointed.

Opinion: I have had this camera for 12+ months and it has really become a user. Years ago I had a G3 and then when the G7 came out minus so many G6 features ( f2.0 lens, rotating screen, etc) I went and bought 4 G6s.

I have been shooting for 40+ years, using everything from Kodak Retina folding rangefinders to my current Canon 50Ds. What so sells me on this camera is the ergonomic design. One can easily operate it with one hand. I have an old Pentax UC-1 35mm rangefinder which also was so so so easy to use with one hand. The screen is superb even in bright sunlight. The wide angle results are in my mind excellent. I also shoot with a Canon 16-35 and a Nikon 20mm AF D fixed using Canon 50D and Nikon D200 SLRs. At wide angle the 880 is very very decent, vignette effects are minimal, and all is acceptably sharp indeed.

I would like to say that the noise issue which everyone seems to harp on is really NOT that big of an issue, at least for me. I shoot at low ISO ( <400) so personally for my shooting style I feel it is a non issue. Because the camera can so easily be adjusted, flipping from ISO 400 to 80 is a snap. Also, the grid lines which one can optionally turn on are a great help for composing pictures and keeping the horizon level in landscape photography.

My next camera will likely be a micro four thirds (MFT) camera, but until then, this SD880 gem will keep on chugging, along with my many Canon G6 models. Oh yeah...and so will my Kodak Retina IIa if only for nostalgia. I see the price has spiked on this camera at some of the dealers as of September 2009.

Opinion: Unfortunately this camera is a complete disappointment for me. This was my first time with a Canon product - I can only say bad luck with my choice of model/camera. Nonetheless, with limited budget that can be allocated on gadgets like this next time I plan to take my chances with another brand.

Opinion: This camera is a big step down from the previous model, I should have kept it. The major disappointment is of course the image quality: grainy, noisy, not as sharp and definitively less pleasing to the eye. Canon also got rid of the time lapse movie. They also modified the menu, the digital macro mode is now in the scene modes.

My Canon A720 which costed $100 less takes far better pictures. I will return it to the store.

Canon, where are you going?

Opinion: Really good camera. Got this for quite a long time alrdy.
Captures enough detail and performs decently at higher
ISO.

Opinion: This replaced my SD870IS. Image quality is slightly better. Flash is about equal. Controls are better laid out, butons larger and more "clicky", so there is less chance of accidental activation. LCD is still 3", but better in bright light.

The lens is better with sharper corners. I did add a small piece of Velcro pile to the rear where my thumb rests which significantly improved handling.

Mine is the gold version, and it looks sexy.

Opinion: It's OK. takes OK pictures, Noisy pictures ISO over 100
Upgraded from my old Canon A70, thinking this new SD880 will be amazing. Thinking my 5 year old A70 took great photos, crisp and clear, so I figure the SD880 will be so much better, considering the technology package in it. Boy, Was I ever wrong? The first time I took pictures. My wife and I looked at them and concluded that they are a bit fuzzy, silk screen effect etc.
I bought Canon because I was very pleased with my old PowerShot A70. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the PS SD880is.