Sony T series vs. Canon SD series

[Jarira]

I'm looking to buy a present for a friend who is going on an extended trip and needs a small, compact camera for photos. The availability of manual controls would be nice (hence the Canons) but I have a feeling that she won't end up using them anyways - it'll probably be set on "Auto" for 99% of the time anyways. As a Canon fan I want to buy the SD850 or 900 but I think that she might like the Sony T series because it's got a great slim look.

Most of the pictures will be taken outdoors during the day/night

Thoughts?

[Photo-John]

I've used (and reviewed) the Sony T50 and the Canon SD850 IS. I would go with the Canon because I think the color and other image quality aspects are muh, much better. The T50 is a nice little camera and it is cute. But I found it had some white balance inconsistencies and I don't think the lens is that good. Tiny little lenses like that usually aren't. As far as manual controls go, I shoot all manual with my digital SLRs. And I like manual controls on point-and-shoot cameras. but the exposure metering with the SD850 IS was so good that I almost never missed having manual exposure controls. And that was sort of hard for me to even admit

Here are links to our pro reviews for the Sony and Canon:

Sony Cybershot DSC-T50 Review >>
Canon PowerShot SD850 IS Review >>

Hope that helps. And for what it's worth, I also like Panasonic and Casio compacts. You might take a look at their stuff, too.