Even with image stabilisation on continuous there was the occasional blurred shot, though less than you’d get without. Switching to ‘shoot only’ was more reliable. There’s also occasional fringing in areas of high contrast, only visible when enlarging a small area. Colours were well saturated.

The Canon Ixus 800is goes to the top of the list of pocketable digicams alongside the Sony DSC-W100. The Sony has more pixels on a bigger sensor. The Canon wins the glamour stakes. Both have optical viewfinders. The Canon has image stabilisation and costs $100 more. Both are highly recommended and whichever is chosen it will not be the wrong choice!

It has excellent image quality, good battery life, and very fast operation. While it doesn’t have any true manual modes, the person that buys this camera typically isn’t looking for them. The included feature set, including the fun My Colors feature, is fun to use. While the camera is not cheap, it is worth it if it’s in your budget.

Bottom line – The PowerShot SD700 is another outstanding member of Canon’s Digital ELPH series, offering great image quality, robust performance, and useful exposure modes, all packed in an ultra-compact, durable and stylish shell. It’s sure to make an excellent choice for any user in the market for an extremely pocketable 4x zoom, high resolution digicam.

Easy to use, reliable, fast in operation – and delivering pictures that, for the most part, require little if any post processing – the Canon Digital IXUS 800 IS suggests itself as one of the better (perhaps even one of the best) compromises between style, features and portability.

We can conclude the Canon Digital IXUS 800 IS is a champion among compact cameras, a camera that truly deserves to be a style icon! An outstanding performance!

The Canon PowerShot SD700 IS is stylish and easy to use, and produces very good to excellent image quality. The addition of optical image stabilizer technology makes it a perfect easy-to-use take-anywhere ultra compact digital camera.

Canon’s Digital Elph models have always been very nicely made cameras, with finely machined metal bodies and high-quality controls. The latest Elph, the SD700 IS ($500 as of 6/15/06), takes that build quality to a new level. It’s attractive without looking like a cheap bauble, with shiny accents in just the right places. Plus, it has image stabilization for sharper images.

The Canon PowerShot SD700 IS has some hits and misses. Its hits include the 4x zoom lens with image stabilization. The new stabilization system has three modes, continuous, shoot only and panning, that work well. The SD700 has 6 megapixels on a newly developed sensor that was designed to suppress noise from the higher ISO setting.

The Canon Powershot SD700 IS almost turns in an excellent performance for an ultra-compact cameras. It does produce well-focused images with accurate exposure, low image noise and good color but its ultra-compact lens lets it down with the usual corner-softness, barrel distortion and inexcusable vignetting.