Choosing the right Canon ultracompact camera

No fewer than 10 of Canon's ultrapopular, ultracompact digital cameras are still widely available, some are still going strong after more than a year--remarkable in such a fickle, high-churn market. With street prices ranging from about $150 to $400, there's not a lot of room for price differentiation, unless you're really pinching pennies. For the most part, they're all of equal quality, with extremely similar feature sets. The PowerShot SD430, which is more than two years old now, stands out as the only model with Wi-Fi support--no hard decisions there. So if you've set your heart on one of these other sleek little snapshooters, how do you choose among them? Let a salesperson steer you toward the one that happens to be in stock? Perish the thought! Make your own decisions. Here are some guidelines that should help--we hope.

• If you're on a budget, the SD750 is the least expensive of the lot--not because it's a budget model, but because it's a year old. It's still a great camera, though, with a big 3-inch LCD, it delivers a lot of value. Unlike all the newer models, however, it lacks image stabilization.
• If you want the smallest model with image stabilization, your choice is the SD1100 IS. Plus, it's the most colorful of the Elphs.
• If you want the fastest or a wide-angle lens, the SD870 IS holds the current title among widely available models. (The veteran SD800 IS still holds the overall performance crown, but it's starting to disappear from the market.) Plus, with its 28-105mm-equivalent lens, it's also the only relatively wide-angle model of the bunch.
• For the best overall photo quality, buy the SD790 IS.
• For the most feature-packed model, which includes a 4x zoom lens and optical viewfinder, buy the SD850 IS. It's also significantly cheaper and better than its successor, the SD890 IS.
• If you want to print really large photos or crop them, the 12-megapixel SD950 has the resolution you'll need, though the 10-megapixel SD790 IS may suffice as well as deliver better photos.