Have just got the Ixus 870 IS and am very pleased with it.The choice is a difficult one with several competitive options.The 28mm wide angle was important to me and the very good video quality and sound - in fact the video is so good that I'll use it on lots of occasions I'd have used the camcorder because its that good.The operating manual is huge and shows the large number of options you can have in the way pics are taken but I suspect most of us bung it on 'auto' which copes well with 90% of the the average shots.I can see my SLR being used even less as these compacts progress.As far as technical assessment goes of colour balance,sharpness,etc in my view all the leading makes provide good performance which is acceptable to the vast majority of users.A great little camera.