Canon PowerShot SD980IS 12MP Digital Camera (Silver)

My last digital camera was a Canon Power Shot SD550 digital elph. I decided to buy a new camera for my trip to Costa Rica. after investigation I chose the Canon Power Shot SD980 IS. It was perfect for this trip. The touch screen makes it easy and fast to use in all types of settings. Anyone who has used an iphone will have no problem using this camera. It is small enough to fit in your pocket yet takes beautiful pictures for an amateur photographer. You can take pictures in bright light as well as almost darkness. The battery has a long life. It is easily charged. It is a perfect little camera.

I bought this camera hoping for nice general use and was disappointed by some fundamental shortcomings
The camera does well in well lit conditions or indoors at wide zoom levels. The features and touch screen works well after you get used to them
Indoors at more than half zoom and the camera struggles. The slow lens speed and small flash don't measure up to adequate performance
The 720p video is awesome, however be advised that you can not rotate wide screen movies if you take them portrait versus landscape format
Also, the camera does not provide a full owners manual - only an electronic one. This slows down the ability to get familiar with it.
Bottom line, if you need portability this is a good choice. If you need performance indoors forget it
In conclusion, I would recommend this only as a second camera to one that does better at any decent zoom settings and indoors

My wife and I were looking for an inexspensive digital with at least 12MP. This camera is amazing. Loaded with features and picture quality is outstanding. Would definitely recommend. Great value!!

This is my 3rd Canon compact camera. This camera has so many more features than the other versions I have had. I love the touch screen features. It makes using the camera much easier and faster when you need to change a setting.

I certainly agree with the reviewers who have been saying the SD980IS produces fine pictures, but not in automatic mode. However, my review is less forgiving. If I buy a PowerShot, I expect it to perform well in ALL modes. I typically prefer to shoot in the manual modes, but there are times when I really like to go fully automatic and not think about settings.

I kept hoping there would be some type of firmware update that would tweak the settings in the automatic mode, but none have been produced yet. In auto mode, the picture quality is the lowest I've seen for any PowerShot, 8MP or greater. I tend to upgrade my pocket camera every year. I don't know if it is something unique to the sensor used in this camera or is a firmware issue.

I've traded my SD980IS for the Canon Powershot SD990IS 14.7MP Digital Camera with 3.7x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Silver). I was worried, because I was afraid it was an issue with the DIGIC 4 technology, but the pictures with the SD990IS are great in ALL modes.

However, the touchscreen features of the 980IS are fun to use and I like the ease for using the focus features it allows. Intuitive. Also, the VIDEO quality is excellent. Would like to combine the touchscreen features of the SD980IS with the picture quality of the SD990IS.