If there was a heaven for cameras, when the time came, St Peter would be ushering my Canon PowerShot SD800IS through the Pearly Gates with no questions asked. What a workhorse.

Maybe 3 years old at this point, it’s been dropped on concrete at least twice, and as luck would have it, just snapped it’s 10,000th picture at CES. (I know because the counter reset. After picture IMG_9999 it went back to IMG_0001. I now inadvertently know what Ford Truck owners feel like in the commercials as their trusty steeds roll over 1,000,000 miles and they're back to mile 1.)

As if knowing the end was nearing after passing such a milestone, it’s case cracked open on it’s top seam in the middle of the convention center. Not from any drop or fumble, simply from taking it out of my pocket. The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. I’m fairly convinced my camera wanted to pass on at CES, where it knew it was loved.

Luckily, I’m not one to dwell on tech toys lost, especially when this one’s had such a good life and delivered so many beautiful pictures. So it was off to the Canon booth to discover what new iterations of the PowerShot the geniuses of the pocket cam had come up with recently.

Upon showing the Canon rep my now fading friend and asking what the new version of it was, he quickly snapped into defense mode. “How long ago did you buy it? Maybe it’s under warranty.” I smiled and said it’s been many years, the warranty long since expired, I’m not here to complain, just want help selecting my 4th Canon PowerShot in 7 years. (Yes, Canons are the only digital cameras I’ve ever had. I can’t recommend them enough.)

Luckily, the new Canons didn’t disappoint. They have an amazing array. Canon point & shoots tend to be a bit larger than the tiniest point & shoots- not big, mind you, just not micro sized like some from Sony or Casio. I’ll happily take the extra smidge of size for the image quality that rarely disappoints.

Very quickly we had it narrowed down to the SD790IS and the SD880IS. I don’t want to get into technical names and model numbers, but I was struck how 3 years later, the updated versions of my camera still had model numbers in the same ballpark. My 800 vs the new 790 and 880. Why one is higher and one is lower, I have no idea.

In the context of full disclosure, before I'm accused of being on the take from Canon, I will ask why their model numbering system doesn’t go in order of, say, least to most features (worst to best, in other words). As a lifelong techie, I’m very used to the credo of the super gadgetron 300 being great, the 400 being better and the 500 being unbelievable. Simple, a higher number means better. Why would Canon abandon this tried and true formula? Their SD1100 is actually not as good as the SD880. Bizarre, no?

Back to the cameras… My girlfriend’s mom just got the 790 and loves it. There’s a great scroll wheel on the back to easily navigate your pictures. You point, shoot and are done. But for me, I loved the look & feel of the 880. The gold version – sounds cheesy, it’s not – stands out. I was told Canon is now up to a “Digic 4” image processor, which is great, mostly because I’m a huge fan of Digics 1-3. (Kidding, I had no idea, I’m not that much of a geek.)

What they have added in version 4 is something called “Face Detect”. When the camera sees a face in a picture, that takes priority over everything else. Even with your subject standing in front of a bright background, the camera recognizes the face, and makes sure that what comes out looks perfect. It works. I wanted to take a picture and show you, but my dying camera doesn’t have that technology. Soon it will be recycled and welcomed into that camera heaven in the sky after my new 880 arrives. So long old friend.

Canon, to be sure, isn’t a one trick pony. Their Digital SLR cameras produce some stunning images, like these 2. How amazing are these? (A picture of a picture! I know, how ultra-geek of me!) I asked why my Digital Rebel never takes pictures 1% as good as these (seriously, I asked), Canon’s expert politely told me about lenses, and how important they are. He talked about the right glass, and using manual settings. Oh, and then he mentioned that those pictures were taken by professional photographers. Yea, sums it up nicely. I mean, I can get good pictures, but seldom do I get gorgeous, and never are they as visually arresting as these. Such rich color, such deep texture. Taking amazing pictures is on my “wish I could do” list- right next to play the drums, carry a tune and draw anything resembling what it’s supposed to be.

Moving on, they also had their photo printers on display. The Selphy ES30 (pictured here) caught my boss’ attention as something she has to get for her daughter. Cute and square, while spitting out beautiful 4x6 prints.

Next to it was the Pixma iP100, a short and compact rectangle, with a marvelous 8x10 printout sitting on top of it. This couldn’t have been printed with this small, at home, printer, could it? Yup, sure was. I’d never be able to tell the difference between this and something professionally printed at my local photo shop. It also features something called “hybrid ink”- basically a complete separation of inks for photos and inks for everyday black & white printing. The color ink is self contained with all the colors including its own black, then there’s a separate black ink cartridge, only used only for printing black text. But, in a pinch, if you run out of black for text, you can manually override and allow it to use the other black. Very cool way to maximize ink.

What a day! Can it get any better? I’ll find out as I check out the latest in ultra-portable laptops (not Netbooks, I’m talking fully functioning, full power laptops with DVD drives under 3 lbs), laptops that you can put under the faucet without damage, how you can unlock your front door using your BlackBerry, if the iPhone app store’s competition has anything to worry about, live TV in the backseat of your car, oh, and I think I saw a TV or two kicking around here somewhere…

[Amber's Note: Peter, bring me back one of those laptops!!!!]

--Peter Szabo