Canon PowerShot SD870 IS

Model Design / Appearance (8.75)
The Canon PowerShot SD870 IS comes in silver and black, although both have a silver front. It is the back panel that has the color change, along with the base of the lens barrel. The SD870 carries on the tradition of its Digital Elph predecessors with the "perpetual curve" design; the side where the right hand grips the camera is rounded. This adds a little interest to the eye. The combination of chrome, black, and brushed metal components makes the SD870 an attractive digital camera.

Size / Portability (6.75)
The SD870 isn’t the slimmest digital camera on the market, but it is still one of the best-looking. It measures 3.65 x 2.32 x 1.02 inches, making it thicker than pocket models like the 0.68-inch thin Casio S880. The hefty body weighs in at 5.5 ounces, not including the battery and memory card. It won’t break wrists, but it still feels heavier than a chunk of camera that size should.

Handling Ability (6.75)
The SD870 made some slight handling improvements, the most significant being that its body doesn’t have the same slippery finish as the SD850. The earlier model handled like a live, wet fish. The Canon PowerShot SD870 IS still isn’t the easiest camera to handle, though. It is small, speckled with smooth chrome, and doesn’t have much to hang onto.


The camera can be operated with one or two hands. When shooting two-handed, users must be careful for the left fingers that wrap around where the weak flash is located. Our fingers often wandered in the way of the flash for quick candid shots – and half the frame looked darker for it.

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (6.75)
This small camera still manages to have decent-sized buttons, but they generally don’t protrude much from the surface. They are labeled intuitively – although the multi-selector is cluttered with too many tiny icons.

The multi-selector is slightly bowl-shaped, but not enough to make handling comfortable or navigation flawless. Users with large fingers will have trouble differentiating between the directions on the selector because it is a smooth-sided control. In the Setup menu, the "touch icon" feature can be activated to show which direction the selector is moving on the LCD screen. This is interesting, as it magnifies the icon (e.g. flash bolt) on the pressed side of the virtual selector. Modes can also be changed by caressing the selector like a rotary dial; this doesn’t work nearly as well as it should, but can be done.

In the Recording menu, users can change the function of the print/share button to activate the following features in a Recording mode: Exposure Compensation, White Balance, Custom White Balance, Digital Tele-converter, Display Overlay, Record Movie, Display Off, and Play Sound Effect. Users can also leave the button unassigned so that it’s useless until hooked up to a printer.

There isn’t a mode dial on the camera, but there is a mode switch that moves from movies to scene modes to the program and other modes. This setup isn’t as clean as a mode dial; it is easy to forget that the camera is in Movie mode. I took several one-second videos simply because I thought I was taking a picture.

Menu (7.0)
The SD870 IS has the same menus included on other Canon PowerShot digital cameras – except they are bigger and more readable on the 3-inch LCD screen. The menu system is split into two: an easily accessible Function menu with the options on one screen, and a lengthier tabbed menu with recording, setup, and customization options. First things first: here is the Function menu.

Function Menu
Exposure Mode	Auto, Manual, Digital Macro, Color Accent, Color Swap, Stitch Assist Left to Right, Stitch Assist Right to Left
Exposure Compensation	+/- 2 in steps of 1/3
White Balance	Auto, Day Light, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Custom
My Colors	Off, Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Red, Vivid Green, Custom Color (Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation, Red, Green, Blue, Skin Tone)
Metering	Evaluative, Center Weighted Average, Spot
Compression	Superfine, Fine, Normal
Image Size	L (8M – 3264 x 2448), M1 (5M 2592 x 1944), M2 (3M 2048 x 1536), M3 (2M 1600 x 1200), S (0.3 – 640 x 480), Postcard 1600 x 1200, Widescreen 3264 x 1832

The Function menu has a few benefits. It is easy to see the options on one screen and find the right one. These options are generally the most frequently used, too. The best part is the live previews of the exposure, such as lighting changes as the metering options are scrolled through.

The Recording menu is more in-depth. It includes three tabs labeled with graphics and colors. The red Camera menu accesses the performance-related options not found in the Function menu. The yellow Setup menu has a plethora of options, such as volume, that tailor the camera to a user’s particular needs. The purple Customization tab adds flowery and somewhat unnecessary flourishes to the camera.

Recording Menu
AF Frame	AiAF, Center, Face Detect
AF Frame Size	Normal, Small
Digital Zoom	Off, 1.6x, 2x, Standard
Slow Synchro	On, Off
Red-Eye	On, Off
Custom Self-Timer	Delay 0-30 seconds, Shots 1-10
Auto ISO Shift	Off, Print/Share button, On
AF-Assist Beam	On, Off
Review	Off, 2-10 seconds, Hold
Review Info	Off, Detailed, Focus Check
Auto Category	On, Off
Display Overlay	Off, Grid Lines, 3:2 Guide, Both
IS Mode	Continuous, Shoot Only, Panning, Off
Date Stamp	Off, Date, Date & Time
Set Print/Share Button	Not Assigned, Exposure Compensation, White Balance, Custom White Balance, Digital Tele-converter, Display Overlay, Record Movie, Display Off, Play Sound Effect
Setup Menu
Mute	On, Off
Volume	Start-up, Operation, Self-timer, Shutter, Playback all with 0-5 levels
Touch Icons	On, Off
LCD Brightness	+/- 7
Power Saving	Auto Power Down (On, Off), Display Off (10 sec-3 min)
Time Zone	Home (set time zone), World (set time zone)
Date/Time	Set date and time, MDY order, Daylight Saving Time
Clock Display	0 sec-3 min
Format	Low Level Format (On, Off), Cancel, OK
File Numbering	Continuous, Auto Reset
Create Folder	Create New Folder, Auto Create (Off, Daily, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monthly, Off), Time (0-24)
Auto Rotate	On, Off
Lens Retract	0 sec, 1 min
Language	English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, Spanish, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish, Hungarian, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Romanian, Greek, Czech, Thai, Arabic, Ukrainian
Video System	NTSC, PAL
Print Method	Auto, PictBridge
Reset All	Cancel, OK
My Camera (customization)
Theme	Off, 1-3
Start-up Image	Off, 1-3
Start-up Sound	Off, 1-3
Operation Sound	Off, 1-3
Self-timer Sound	Off, 1-3
Shutter Sound	Off, 1-3

The lengthy menu has a large font, fitting only six options on the screen at a time. There is an indicator on the right side that shows approximately what page of menu the user is at within the proper tab. Navigation in and out of the menu system is simple, and users never get kicked out of the menus if more than one option needs to be accessed. Navigation through menu items is done with the multi-selector, which is very small and has a slight bowl shape to it. Large and clumsy fingers will have trouble navigating through menus with the tiny control. Besides that, the menu system is thorough and organized.

Ease of Use (7.0)
The Canon PowerShot SD870 IS is fairly simple to use, especially if users are familiar with other PowerShot digital cameras. The layout and menu systems are the same. The large LCD screen makes the menus very easy to read and the buttons are properly spaced and labeled, although the multi-selector is quite cluttered with icons. Handling seems to have been tossed to the wind, but that’s common for tiny portable point-and-shoot digital cameras. All in all, the Canon SD870 isn’t a tough cam to figure out.