Canon PowerShot SD 880 IS

At 6.3 ounces and measuring 3.7 inches wide by 2.2 inches high by 0.9 inch deep, it'll fit more comfortably in a pants or coat pocket than a shirt pocket, but it's by no means big. Compared with the SD870 IS, the SD880 IS has the latest version of Canon's image processing engine, Digic 4, jumps from 8 megapixels to 10, and offers a few more scene modes.

The 4x f2.8-5.8 28-112mm lens is a highlight of the camera the wide angle is so nice to have on a camera this small, and it's a tad longer zoom than on the SD870. It also records video using the H.264 codec instead of Motion JPEG. On top of the two tone body (it's available in gold or brown and silver or black combinations) are the shutter button and surrounding zoom control, a small power button, and a switch for going between Video, Special Scene modes (SCN), and Shooting mode in Auto or Program AE.

That mosaic like design on the right is the speaker. Scene modes are plentiful 16 in all and include Stitch Assist for panoramas and Underwater for use with an optional casing.

Shooting mode lets you go fully automatic with some minor adjustments, or drop it into Program AE, which gives you control for exposure compensation, white balance, tone, and ISO.

Following the body's curve on the right from top to bottom are Print or Share and Playback buttons, a directional pad surrounded by a thumb dial, and then Menu and Display buttons.

At first glance it looks like there's a lot going on with the controls, and there actually is, but operation remains reliably straightforward. The directional pad is pretty standard instead it's the thumb dial that adds interest here. In SCN mode, the dial is used for rifling through your options. It's also used for swapping between Auto and Program in Shooting mode and tone control in Video.

It works well, but you can barely feel stops when spinning the dial making it just a little too easy to switch out of whichever mode you want. The dial can be used for navigating Menu settings, too. Overall, I like the key design and wheel, but I can also see it confusing new users to the point of frustration.