PowerShot SD950 IS Digital ELPH

The PowerShot SD950 IS Digital ELPH is Canon's latest and probably smallest digital camera. It looks great, with its rounded Titanium body. And it’s got lots of those great Canon camera features. So how does it stack up against my old favorite the S5 IS Powershot? and my wife's favorite too who loves taking here before and after weight loss photos with it.

Well the SD950 has the cool high tech optical image stabilization, face detection that Canon is known for. Apparently on the PowerShot SD950 these are next-generation versions of the technology. The LCD is the same size as the S5 but of course it does not swivel. You can’t expect that with one of the smallest digital cameras out there. Also the SD950 has what’s called a PureColor LCD screen. This has scratch-resistant and anti-reflection coating for viewing at multiple angles. Unfortunately the optical zoom is about 1/3 of the S5 Powershot optical zoom, 3.7x. Still pretty cool for a tiny camera like this.

It weighs around the same as the other cameras on Canon’s SD series, 5.82 oz – slightly more than the SD800 IS. The shooting speed is around the same as well: 1.5 fps. Faster than some, slower than others. Of course it’s much smaller and weights way less than the Canon S5 IS.

The resolution is 12.1 Megapixel. That beats out the S5’s 8 megapixel. How use that will be is debatable. For me, not useful at all. I don’t need to print billboards. Digital cameras nowadays are in a race to have the largest total pixel count regardless of how useful it is. If you like huge file sizes for your photographs, go for a digital camera with lots of megapixels.

The PowerShot SD950 has lots of shooting modes like the S5. Some are: Auto, Camera M, Special Scene (Portrait, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Aquarium, Underwater, ISO 3200, Indoor, Kids & Pets, Night Snapshot), Sports Mode, Color Accent, Color Swap, Digital Macro, Stitch Assist, Movie. The S5 IS appears to have a few more like Night Scene which rocks!

Of course being a later model camera, the PowerShot SD950 IS has all the later memory card options: SD/SDHC Memory Card, MultiMediaCard, MMC Plus Card, HC MMC Plus Card. The S5 has less options. And of course, being one of the smallest digital cameras, don’t expect external flash capability or lens attachments like the Powershot S5 IS.

The PowerShot SD950 IS Digital ELPH is not the cheapest digital camera on the market but it fairly priced at around $344 on amazon. The S5 IS is less at $320. Price-wise it’s a pretty much a tossup. So the decision is, do you like small digital cameras or feature rich digital cameras. Most people do like the small cameras based on digital camera sales these days. But check out what your missing, try the Canon S5 IS at digital camera stores in your area.