Canon PowerShot SD960IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.8-inch LCD

My old tiny Casio Exilim 5 MP camera died- I loved that thing because it was so tiny and I took many more pictures because it fit in my pocket- and I had to get something for my trip to France. First bought the 970 thinking, ooh, 5x optical zoom. For someone used to ultracompact, that thing was huge and I didn’t notice much difference between the 5x and the 4x or 3x zoom. I returned it and got the 960, which I stuck with. It is much smaller than the 970 though bigger than my old camera (won’t fit in pants pocket too comfortably), but the wide-angle zoom makes a huge difference to the photos. I travelled with someone who had the 780, and we frequently traded the same shot with both cameras, and the picture quality was much better with the 960, though it is larger than the 780. The controls were easy to navigate, the viewscreen very wide/ large on the 960. The video quality is amazing. Aside from the size, the only downside was that it is a little slow to take repeat shots in action situations. However, the motion control is excellent and you can take shots while jogging without blurring. Sadly, I lost my new 960 at the airport (thankfully, I had downloaded the photos). I decided to replace it with the 780 because I’m not a photographer, thought having the very small camera would make up for the difference in picture quality. After 250 photos on the 960, and 2 days with the 780, I miss the wide-angle zoom and am considering getting another 960. It’s not that much bigger than the 780, and the picture quality difference is significant.
Rating: 5 / 5

Got this camera a month ago just before the Coachella festival, where I shot ~4GB worth of jpgs and ~2GB of video. I used max resolution for both and did not use the fully automatic modes and other gimmicks. Being an all day festival in the desert, I had plenty of opportunity to test the camera under harsh light, shadow, twilight and artificial lighting at night.

Video wise no complains; this is not a video camera and whatever you get out of it is a plus IMHO. I got usable footage of bands at night, with reasonable sound quality, and I suspect the image stabilization improved the shots, since I don’t have very steady hands.

Still photography is another matter. I got plenty of purple fringes under sunlight and way too much noise under low light. Going beyond ISO 400 is reckless, and the lens stops down too much as you start zooming, making matters worse. 12MP is a marketing gimmick; you’ll seldom get good enough quality shots that you can enlarge where such resolution would be needed; half the pixel density and much lower noise would yield plenty more enlargement worthy pics.

Controls are limited, you can tweak exposure compensation and sensitivity and that’s about it. The flash is best for harsh sunlight situations. Having said that, this is a very compact point and shoot, with a very nice LCD and good focusing; a good camera for snap shots and 4×6 prints.

Rating: 3 / 5

I brought the Canon 960is on a Mediterranean cruise this summer and there is no other camera, video or still, that I would have rather had. For my money this is simply a terrific little camera that will give you terrific stills and better video than you ever thought possible with a great-looking, no-hassle Point ‘n Shoot. The stills were very sharp (the image stabilization is very good) and the colors were accurate and vivid. I sometimes choose the Vivid Colors or Positive Film setting for more color ‘punch’ and it never looked overly saturated or grainy. The Canon 960SI feels well balanced and yet solid in your hand, and is light enough to not make you feel weighed down when you easily slip it into your pocket. I also often choose to use the Wide Angle (16:9) format rather than the normal picture format because I shot a lot of vistas, and this worked out quite well.

OUTSTANDING VIDEO, BETTER THAN ‘FLIP’

For me the true revelation of this camera though was the video. It shoots in 720p HD, no that’s not ‘true’ HD and a 1080p camcorder will certainly shoot better video, but the video is still quite stunning, it will look wonderful on your large HD TV, and outshines the standard 480i DV camcorders of just a few short years ago. When I got back home I edited the movie clips to really sweet results that got lots of compliments. The biggest drawback over a dedicated camcorder is that the sound, while acceptable, is not outstanding and not stereo. However, if you are considering the very popular FLIP MinoHD or FLIP UltraHD this camera is by far the better choice. I bought the Flip Ultra and played with it for awhile but the lack of Image Stabilization made it nearly impossible to shoot any type of video without it being quite jittery-looking unless you used a tripod. The fact that the Canon 960is is a better choice for video and just happens to shoot outstanding stills makes this a no-brainer over any FLIP camera.

NICE TOUCHES

In the menu you’ll find a setting called ‘i-Contrast’ which will give you good detail on faces even if they’re strongly backlit. I found this very useful and hardly ever used fill flash. I kept it on i-Contrast and found the results on all photos pleasing, though if you’re going for a dramatic contrast effect you’ll want to turn i-Contrast off.

This is the 1st Point ‘n Shoot I ever used where ISO 1600 produced viewable photos. Off course there’s some grain and some artifacts, but much less than other cameras I’ve used and in extreme low light you’ll get usable stills and movie footage.

I generally used P (program) mode as I like to tweak, but the 960 will do quite well left to it’s own devices on Auto Mode, which is very good if you DON’T like to tweak. Auto Mode also automatically knew if I wanted to shoot a close-up and switched to Close Up Mode automatically.

The Canon 960 will go from Turned Off to Ready To Shoot in a little under a second. This was true for Movie Mode as well. Nice.

Battery Life was outstanding. I would generally take over a hundred pictures a day and shoot several minutes of video and I never felt the need to carry an extra battery. The battery also charges pretty fast, in a little over an hour.

If you explore Program Mode you’ll find Long Shutter Mode which was especially good for taking dramatic night vistas. You’ll need to have a small tripod though (like the Flip tripod) as the shutter will remain open for about a second. However you’ll have wonderfully detailed night shots as your ISO can be as low as 80.

NO BIG COMPLAINTS

Continuous Shooting Mode was just OK, shooting about two frames a second. After all, it does have 12.1 megapixels to write. Still, this is the one thing that could stand improvement.

Some early reviews complained of the 960is’s new menu as difficult to master, but this is no serious drawback. It did take perhaps an extra day for me to get comfortable enough with the menus to quickly adjust a setting, but now it’s second nature.

I also had read about “purple fringing” — again not a major issue for me as when I compared the pictures to those I shot with my Canon SD1000, the fringing on the SD1000 was far more noticeable and that camera was a former PC Magazine Editor’s Choice. As of now, I consider it the Canon SD960is the ultimate Point ‘n Shooter.
Rating: 5 / 5