I bought the Canon SD770IS to substitute my PowerShot A95. A few years ago, I purchased a Digital Elph for my daughter and found myself using that small and light camera, instead of my A95. Due to the advancements in technology, it was time to upgrade.

The most crucial feature in searching for a replacement was a small size and the use of a rechargeable battery. Resolution was less a factor as the A95, with just 5 Mpixels, produced clear images. The most powerful advance, even over the recent Elph, was in the increased speed of all functions including boot up and picture recording.

Picture quality is amazing, with the color proportion and metering being brilliant. If you now own a Canon digital camera and you are thinking of buying a new one, the standard navigation of characteristics remains mainly the same, so that will be well known to you. The access to the camera's shooting modes is available from the menus, rather than using a physical dial as on the A95.

The screen is pretty big, well illuminated and easy to view, even in bright light. Ultimately, the most essential condition with digital picture taking should be image quality and ease of use. I have a lot of experience with manual SLR picture cameras and similar point and shoots, and this model suits perfectly for true "turn it on and shoot" photography. Pictures are crisp and vivid with solid detail and vibrant color.

The luminosity meter does a great job of assessing the settings and selecting the best possible combination of the shutter speed and aperture.

A high capacity (SDHC) memory card will give a large number of photographs even at the highest resolution. Uploading photos to a PC or Mac is easy with either the supplied software or Apple's iPhoto software, which works seamlessly with the camera. I would recommend both a high capacity SD card and the optional leather case to protect the camera, especially if dropped.

This camera just blows me away. It makes amazing pictures in full-auto mode. In situations where full-auto doesn't quite do the job as well as possible, this camera lets you change the ISO settings, light balance, focus method, and lots of other factors.

I extremely recommend this camera for someone searching for an easy-to-use, light, small and good digital camera. It's just a superb camera at a good price.