Canon series, SD 870, SD880,SD890

[Fall1]

I am CONFUSED! Are the Canon SD870, 880 and 890 essentially the same camera? I was all set to buy the 870, but the man at the store told me it's being discontinued for the 880.

I am looking online and really can't tell the difference between the 3 and want to buy this week!! Thanks so much!!

 

[frugal_mar]

You should go to Canon's website and do a comparison. From the website, I was only able to start with the SD890 and SD880 but when the comparison page came up, I was able to add the SD870.

The following link doesn't show the SD870, but you can drag it to the red box from the digital cameras on the left.
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/c...ategoryid=113&modelid10=16719&modelid11=17626

Take a look and see which features mean the most to you.

For example take the focal length, you can think of the lower the number the wider the angle of view and the larger the number the greater the zoom. (I am not an optics expert, so someone may have a real/better explanation.) Choose the range that fits your needs.

From what I can see the cameras are pretty similar. If I were to choose, I would probably go with the SD880. I like the range for the lens and aperture speeds. But you should try them out to see the differences at the different focal lengths to see what would suit your shooting needs. If the SD870 were much cheaper, it may be the way to go since the difference isn't that much. Just because it is discontinued doesn't make it a bad camera - they are always coming out with newer features to sell more cameras. Between the SD870 and 880, they added some more megapixels in the 880. That difference shouldn't really matter to you unless you are planning on printing huge photos or doing extensive cropping afterwards. Look for the best price and feel for you.

Good luck.

 

[seashoreCM]

The SD890 has more zoom , 170mm, or 5x relative to its widest field of view called 35mm* The other two allow a wider maximum angle of 28mm* although the same maximum zoom field of view of 105mm* as the usual point and shoot.

The '890 also doesn't have quite as fast a lens (f/3.2 rather than the ubiquitous f/2.8 at widest angle), which should only be a slight difference for shooting in low light. This was probably a concession that had to be made in order to achieve the additional zoom. The '870 and '880, although having f/2.8 lenses, probably show f/3.0 or so when adjusted with a little zoom to match the widest angle of 35mm of the '890.

Beyond that, as far as I know, they're similar.

*Ratings expressed in terms of equivalent lens focal length of 35mm film cameras for the same field of view.