SONY W90 or CANON SD900?

Question

Hi;

I’m about to get a new digital camera.
I currently owe a SONY DSC-H1 which is kind of big for me.
So I’m between a SONY W90 and CANON DS900.

What I like about the W90 is the price ($100 less) and the image stabilization feature.
It also has ISO 3200 compared with ISO 1600 of CANON.

In the other hand, the DS900 has 2 more mega pixels, but lacks on IS, and I read a couple of reviews saying that the zoom motor is noisy and tend to get broken. Is this correct?
Also the CANON has double screen resolution than SONY, 230k pixels against 115k.

Other than that they share pretty much the same characteristics.

What do you think?
Is ISO 3200 a clear advantage over ISO 1600? Why?
Is image stabilization really necessary in these types of camera with only 3x zoom?
Is the zoom motor in the SD900 noisy and tend to break?

Which one would you pick?




Thanks

Answer 1

I have a Canon Elph SD700IS, and it is just amazing. I gave away my Olympus SLR because the little Canon is so great. I would go for the Canon, but do get one with image stabilization, because it does make a difference. Sonys are okay, but I wouldn't put it in the same class as Canon or Lumix (Panasonic).