Canon 12.1MP PowerShot SD980 IS (IXUS 200) Review by CNET With Rating 7.5/10

Average Camera Review Rating [4 reviews]

On August 19 2009, Canon announced 6 new PowerShot cameras. One of them is the Canon's first touch-screen cameras, the PowerShot SD980 IS (aka Digital IXUS 200 IS). The SD980 IS features a 3-inch touch-screen LCD and an optically stabilized 5x zoom lens starting at a wide 24-120mm equivalent. The touchscreen system is very easy to use: simply tap the 3.0-inch screen to point at the face you want to focus on, and the camera will do the rest such as automatically tracking your subject and keeping them in perfect focus. When reviewing your images a simple movement of your finger on-screen allows you to erase, protect, rotate or tag your favourite photos so you can easily review your favourite shots.

The camera features 12.1 Megapixel sensors and offer HD video recording at 720p resolution. Different from the SD940 IS, the SD940 IS is bundled with a wide-angle 28-112mm equivalent lens with optical stabilization and 2.7 inch LCD in a slim body design. It is scheduled to be available in October with the SD980 IS currently selling at $295 (drop from $325 about 2 weeks ago). Here is a recent review by CNET UK, giving the camera a rating of 7.5 out of 10:

"The 24-120mm zoom is handy. The difference between a 24mm wideangle zoom and the more common 28mm sort may not sound much, but it's worth having. The 200's lens performs pretty well, too, producing good edge sharpness and quite crisp images at full zoom. The 200 is by no means the smallest compact on the market, and its curved edges and design details aren't particularly pretty. But it feels like a solid and well-made little camera, and the touchscreen interface gives the back a clean, fuss-free look. The touchscreen interface is pretty good. Three big icons down the right-hand side control the shooting mode, flash mode and EV compensation. You adjust the EV by dragging left or right across an exposure bar that appears when you tap the relevant icon. You tap on the main part of the screen to start the touch-autofocus mode. The camera locks onto the subject you've selected and tracks it around if either it or the camera moves. It's quite quick in use and it tracks subjects well, so it's not just a novelty.

The Canon Digital IXUS 200 IS is attractive, its 5x zoom has a very useful range, and its picture quality is good too, within the usual limits of these tiny 1/2.3-inch sensors. But there are just too many Digital IXUS models to choose from, and it's too difficult to work out why this one might be any better than one of the others. Worse is that there's nothing new and exciting here, just cautious evolution."

Canon PowerShot SD980 IS Sample Photos on Flickr

Canon PowerShot SD980 IS Camera Reviews Roundup

DigitalCameraReview: "The get-up-and-go PowerShot SD980 takes some very nice images right out of the box. Colors are bright, in the traditional vein of Canon's consumer digitals, and somewhat saturated. The neutral setting, one of the options available under the "My Colors" submenu, will bring saturation down a notch. Adjustments can also be made to color, saturation, and sharpness and saved as a custom setting under the "..." - Dec 16 2009 More »	N/A
Photography BLOG: "Given that this is a point and shoot pocket camera, not a tank-like super zoom nor bridge model, Canon may struggle to justify the price of the Digital IXUS 200 IS and indeed a quick internet search will reveal better deals; we found one major retailer offering it from £270 at the time of writing which, psychologically at least in coming under the £300 'barrier', is much more like it. If you're not sold on th..." - Oct 13 2009 More »
LetsGoDigital: "The ease of use of the average IXUS camera was already great to begin with, and with the introduction of a touchscreen operation, the Canon IXUS 200 IS adds a whole new dimension to it. It is actually a different, perhaps more modern way of operating a camera. It is not so much that the user experiences more speed or more ease; it is simply a fact that more and more electronic devices such as mobile phones now often..." - Sep 18 2009 More »
TechRadar: "More important is the IXUS 200's image quality, which is excellent. It uses the same DIGIC 4 processor as the Canon 5D MKII, and our test images were superb. Our shots show rich, accurate colours, and the 5x zoom (24-120mm in 35mm terms) lens is cracking as well. Zoomed all the way in we noticed no problems with sharpness. The motor powering the lens is fast as well - going from wide-angle to fully zoomed-in to..." - Sep 09 2009 More »

Canon PowerShot SD980 IS Reviews Roundup [Total 4 Reviews] »

Canon PowerShot SD980 IS Camera Recent User Reviews

GREAT CAMERA!!, B. Walter - May 09 2013
Wanted a small , easy to carry camera that would take great pictures. This is it! I can put it in my purse and take it anywhere! Just what I wanted....

Amazing i love it, SMS - Dec 29 2012
I have had it for over two years and i love it, it takes great pictures and has great features.....

Just wide angle and nothing more, florin iftode - Nov 29 2012
I tried and tried to like this camera, but I can't. The quality of the pictures, even outside in day light are really bad and without vivid color. The auto mode it is a real joke, my smart phone takes better pictures and if you want to take pictures at interior, just forget about - takes awhile to focus, and when finally got the focus the picture still comes out blurry....

Feeding my camera addiction!, Gary Brown - Jan 15 2012
Am a Canon SLR kind of guy, love telescopic lenses. Always wanting closer pictures. Purchased a Swaroski spotting scope (20-60x 60mm), then I found the digital camera adapter for this scope. If you know anything about digi-scoping wildlife, you use the viewer on the back of the camera to aim your spotting scope at your subject. This is where this little camera shines, it...

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