This is the Canon Powershot SD880 but whats missing here is also missing on my Panasonic Lumix Tz3 – a view finder. Now I can live with a compact camera that has a paltry manual mode settings range of f4.5 to f12 for for f-stop settings and shutter speed range of 1/60th to 1/500th – or none at all. I also can live with a compact camera that does not allow me to add location or note tags except by writing directly on the image. And I can live with a camera that makes white balance/image temperature corrections an obscure operational sequence equivalent to programming your TV with its button befuddling remote.
But I am now officially putting SHOWSTOPPER on any compact camera that does not have a viewfinder. Even with my Lumix pumped to the brightest battery-eating setting I can barely see the LCD screen on even modestly sunny days. Worse – at the Car Show the brights eclipsed the LCD screen.
Now Canon has a Powershot SD890 as seen below:
The optical zoom is 5x instead of 4x on the SD880, the image is equivalent at 10MPixel – and there is a viewfinder. And the price is $300 less on Amazon [but hey, I have found Amazon camera prices not always reflective of what’s best in the market]. Unfortunately, I am seeing more very good compact cameras coming out with no viewfinder. Don’t make the mistake that I did – assuming the in-the-camera shop LCD screen will work out in the bright lights of an ordinary sunny day.