New Digital Camera

I recently went on a quest to find a new digital camera. What was wrong with my old one? Well, nothing really. Sure the back LCD is all banged up and getting hard to see through, but it's really a great camera besides that. However, it doesn't do all the "new and improved" features that most current handhelds do. And since I'm going to Costa Rica in a week, I wanted something that I could change the scene modes on. it - snow, beach, nature, indoor, night, underwater, etc. I had already decided on getting an underwater housing for my new camera, so I could take it snorkeling and on the kayak without worrying about water. So now I just had to pick the camera.

After lots of searching, and many trips to the camera store, I narrowed it down to two choices. (I should stop here and say this: if you are looking for a new digital handheld camera, go to Fry's and check them out. They have TONS of display models. I wish I would have done this). So back to my story. I was divided between the Canon Powershot SD 990IS and the Canon Powershot SD 880IS which a friend had recommended to me. Before my friend recommended the 880IS I had already been pretty convinced on getting the 990IS. I really wanted something that had tons of features and was fast. But when I received my 990IS from Amazon (along with extra batteries, flash cards, and a waterproof case) I was kinda disappointed. I took the time to read the manual, and sure it had both program and manual modes, but the shutter lag time seemed really long. Also, the way it felt in my hand was kinda weird. I'm not saying the body style is made poorly, I'm just saying that it wasn't impressive to me. Even from when I first opened the case, I had this feeling that it wasn't the amazing camera I had made it out to be. Sure the pictures looked great, but then again, I have 20 8x10 pictures on my office wall, all which I took with my SD600 6MP camera and printed on my home printer and they look great. So I sat here thinking, why do I have this 14.7MP camera?

It was about at this point that I realized that Fry's had both the 990IS and the 880IS display models. ding ding! I should have gone here before placing my order. none-the-less, I took myself over to Fry's to check out this 880IS camera. I liked it immediately. It was the same size and form factor as my old SD600, had 10MP (plenty for me), and all the scene modes that the 990IS had. PLUS it was wide view. I was a little confused about this "wide view" at first, but then I understood it's just a wider camera angle, but same "4x6" ratio if you will. Plus the shutter lag time is much better than the 990IS (in my opinion) and works just as quickly as my SD600, which was what I wanted.

So now I'm heading to the post office to return my canon powershot 990IS to amazon (thank goodness for good return policies) and I am eagerly awaiting my powershot 880IS from amazon. It's in Dallas right now! I'm hoping it will come by tomorrow, but realistically, I know it will be Tuesday.