A Top Performer

Author's Rating:

Pros: Awesome image quality. Great size. Good speed. Lots of features. Well built.

Cons: on/off button. USB and A/V out cover is hard to acess for dowloads.

The Bottom Line: 
There is a reason why Cannon is #1 when it comes to digital camera sales; it is precisely because of camera’s like the SD950is. It is that good.

Author's Review
I have to admit; I am a fairly brand loyal person. Once I find something that works; I tend to stick with it. Over the years I have found that when it comes to digital camera’s; Olympus simply cannot be beat. I had tried Fuji; Kodak, HP and others; but Olympus was always king for me. Great performance and fairly bombproof design and build quality. Recently I went into a very large digital camera store and went in looking to upgrade to the latest Olympus model that I had saw advertised on special. When I went into the store I ran into a very knowledgeable sales person. Rather then simply give me the Olympus I was asking for they asked me what features were most important to me.

#1 on my list was performance. I wanted outstanding image quality; but I also wanted something that was fast. I have really noticed lately just how painfully slow some digital camera’s can be when it comes to writing the images to memory; something you seldom hear about in most reviews; but certainly something important to me. I also wanted something that was as compact as possible; but I also wanted a solid optical zoom (digital zoom lowers quality) at the same time I wanted features. Steady shot technology; face recognition technology; a quality CCD; yes I wanted it all. Naturally I also insist on a good old fashioned view finder. I don’t like cameras that only offer LCD display for picture taking – just trying using one on a bright sunny day to find out why; they don’t work. Before I was done with my list of “must haves” the salesperson said “here – you need to try this new Canon SD 950is it is the perfect camera for you”

I spent five minutes in the store; mostly testing the speed because clearly it had all of the other features I needed. The speed was there. The size was there. It seemed perfect so I bought it and brought it home. To suggest this camera has wildly exceeded my expectations is an understatement. I got a very compact form fitting leather Roots camera case that can attach to my belt and I take lots of pictures. The speed of powering both on and off is impressive. Likewise the picture quality is incredible. It is everything you could possibly ask for in a compact point and shoot digital camera and more. It’s really that good.

I won’t bother getting into all of the spec’s and details because there are hundreds of websites on the Internet that will do exactly that; but only a very select few like Epinions that offer real world feedback from everyday users. As you can see I am pretty excited about this camera; and if you read my other reviews on this site you will see that seldom do I get so excited about a consumer electronics product; clearly this Cannon is that good.

Is it perfect ? No. The power on switch is very small and flush making it difficult to power on and off. Conversely; the plastic A/V and USB out cover is fairly small and difficult to open and insert the USB cable; it’s almost kind of a pain to download your pictures as a result. However that is about the only negatives I could find. One thing I like is that it is very easy to switch between fully automatic and fully manual mode. Conversely the menu controls are all easily accessed and the camera is the ultimate point and shooter as a result. The LCD is also surprisingly big for the size of the camera. All in all it’s an impressive package and I simply, cannot see how anyone could possibly regret buying one. Battery life is good; it is easy to add more memory; image quality is outstanding; and the speed is awesome. I suppose price wise it is at a premium compared to other comparable models; however in this case you truly do get what you pay for. The quick start manual is very easy to read and get you going; and for the more technical crowd the full manual offers you everything known to camera kind and in detail explains every aspect of the SD950is.
Long story short; I have discovered that there is a reason why Cannon is #1 when it comes to point and shoot digital camera sales. They make the best camera’s on the market bar none.

Strongly recommend to the point of suggesting it is truly the best camera you can own for the money.