Replacement for SD800 IS?

[kat.hayes]

1.) I currently own a SD 800 IS that was damaged after a fall. Would I be better off quality/feature wise getting a newer one, such as the SD890 IS, or buying another SD 800 IS from somewhere? I am not concerned with saving money by getting the older 800. I am interested in quality and features. Thanks.

2.) Do you know if all of these small point and shoot canons uses the same batteries?

Thanks!

[David Metsky]

The SD800 has a 28mm wide angle lens. If you want to keep that, the replacement is the SD870, which is very similar except it loses the optical view finder and has a bigger LCD.

The SD890 has a 5x zoom but it's all on the telephoto end, so you lose the wide angle. If that isn't a big deal the extra zoom and in camera red eye reduction are probably worth it.

The SD800, SD890, and SD790 all use the NB-5L battery. The SD770 uses the new NB-6L which isn't compatible. The SD1100 uses the older NB-4L, also incompatible. Go Canon. :(

[kat.hayes]

1.) What type of a difference will having the 28mm wide angle lens make over not having it with the 890? Is it a significant difference?

2.) When you say the 890 has a 5x zoom on the telephoto end, this is a true zoom, right, and not a digital one?

Thanks!!!

[David Metsky]

1) With your (and my) SD800) you can go all the way on the wide end of the zoom (28mm) and get more in the photo then you could otherwise get. Have you ever tried to take a photo of a large group of people and had to keep stepping back until they all appear in the frame? Wide angle lenses allow you to get the shot without moving. It's great for indoors when you are trying to capture a room, or outdoors when you want to get more of the landscape.

2) Yes, this is optical zoom. There's no point even discussing digital zoom. The SD800 lens is 28mm to 105mm. The SD790 lens is 37mm to 185mm. You lose quite a bit at the wide end, but at the telephoto end you get rougly 80% more zoom.

[kat.hayes]

"The SD790 lens is 37mm to 185mm. You lose quite a bit at the wide end, but at the telephoto end you get rougly 80% more zoom."

1. Did you mean the 890?

2. What about actual image quality? Since the newer ones have more MP, is more noise being introduced into the image?

3. What would you get if you had to replace your 800?

Thanks so much!

[David Metsky]

Yes, 890. The naming scheme on these cameras is mind boggling. :)

I haven't seen any images so it's hard to say if there is a drop in image quality. The increase isn't that major, so I'm hoping that it won't have too much of a degradation, and the electronics are getting better to compensate.

I'd probably go for the 890 and give up the wide angle, or I'd just buy another 800. I really use the 28mm lens so it would be hard to give up.

[kat.hayes]

Thanks so much for your help!