The SD870 IS is about everything you could want in a compact point and shoot digital camera. It offers excellent image quality, a large vivid LCD display, intelligent defaults, fine low light sensitivity, a high quality movie mode (with sound), an outstanding wide angle lens and (most importantly for me) a photo capture speed that leaves many other digital cameras in the dust.

I cover a fair amount of electronics trade shows such as CES and CEDIA for my home theater site (Big Picture Big Sound), so I need a camera that is quick on the draw, has a good macro feature for close ups, and has good low light sensitivity and zoom for distance shots at press conferences. But portability is also key, as I need to carry the camera around in my pocket along with other gadgets for note taking. I've owned a Canon S400 Digital Elph for a number of years, and it has served me well, but the lag time between pushing the shutter button and actually getting a picture (particularly indoors) was frustrating, and the low light sensitivity is also fairly poor.

The SD870 retains all of the positive features of the earlier ELPH models, yet improves on the weaknesses. You can go from power up to pictures snapped in about a second. And once the camera is powered up and ready, you can capture shots in 1/2 second or less (depending on lighting conditions). For taking pictures in low lighting, the "Night Scene" mode (along with built in optical image stabilization) is excellent, enabling me to capture on stage action at a press event from 20 or 30 feet away (ISO sensitivity on the camera goes all the way up to 1600, but you can expect some graininess when the camera goes above ISO 400). Other scene modes such as "portrait" are also handy when you're going in for a close up shot and want to capture a posed or candid pic of a loved one with an "artistic" out of focus background.

In terms of size, the camera is very small, yet comfortable in the hand. The camera's aluminum frame feels solid without being weighty and controls are logically laid out so you can be up and running without cracking the manual. Unfortunately the small size means it does not take standard AA batteries, but the Lithium Ion battery that comes with it will last through a couple of hundred shots in normal use. You will want to buy a spare battery however, as there is not always a lot of warning between when the on screen low battery indicator starts flashing and the camera powers itself down (hint, get the Lenmar NB 5L equivalent it will last about as long as the Canon for about 1/3 the price).

All in all, I'm very pleased with my purchase of the SD870 IS and am looking forward to using it to snap high quality pics of the latest gadgets at next year's Consumer Electronics Show.

Update (2/23/08) Coming home from a party one night, I was mortified to find that the SD870 lens was halfway extended inside its case, inside my pocket. Apparently the power button was activated while inside my pocket and the lens motor has no safety so it tried to extend itself and the mechanism broke when it met resistance. So the lens would no longer fully extend and the image was perpetually out of focus. Sending it to Canon, I got a letter back saying it would cost $100 (flat fee) to repair even though it was under warranty. I argued that the camera was not abused or dropped and eventually they relented and covered the repair.

However this design flaw in the lens motor would lower my score of the camera to 4 stars if I could edit the score. What good is a portable camera that can't be carried inside a pocket? My advice would be to take the battery out if you're going to pack this inside luggage or transport it somewhere it could be jostled about. And I hope Canon addresses this with a safety retract mechanism (or a recessed power button) in future models.