Canon Digital IXUS 980 IS

Besides the two dials is a high quality 2.5 inch screen that works brilliantly in day light too. Overall - the solid frame, aesthetically pleasing compact design, and well though of button placement - not only makes the Canon Digital IXUS 980 IS a really travel friendly companion, but after using it for a while you truly begin to respect Canon for their attention to detail where design is concerned.

Features
The IXUS 980 IS is loaded with enough features to put other ultra compacts to shame. For starters, apart from the huge 14.7 megapixel images the camera allows, you get access to a motherlode of presets besides the the standard modes. To list it out for you, the Scene mode includes the following - Portrait, Landscape, Night Snapshot, Indoor, Sunset, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Aquarium, Underwater, ISO 3200, Digital MacroColor Accent, Color Swap, Stitch Assist - forming an overwhelming� amount of options. While a lot of these sub-modes seem unnecessary,modes like Color Swap and Color Accent quite a lot of fun to use, if not too useful.

The Color Accent Mode in Action

Color Swap in Action

This plethora of features extend to please both - the casual user who just picks one of the scene modes to fit his shot, as well as those who wish to dabble with Program and Manual mode to get that perfect picture. The camera's ISO settings go up to an impressive 1600, while producing usable images. It also features the ever-so-handy image stabilization, and a maximum Optical Zoom that goes up to 3.7x, which is commendable for an ultra compact. As you can see, where features are concerned there's no beating the IXUS 980 IS.