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Thread:	Pentax Optio E85 vs. Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS
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Excerpt:	Let me start off by saying that I am not the most tech savvy person. I do, however, understand the importance of being familiar with the specifications of a product you buy, especially when you're buying over the internet. In 2008 I planned a trip to Paris to celebrate finishing my first year of college. As such I decided to buy things I would need as a tourist. The first thing I bought was a camera, specifically the Canon Powershot SD1200. I had seen commercials advertising the Powershot that featured the really tall Russian tennis player who isn't that great but gets many endorsements anyway. I thought the commercial was super cheesy but I didn't let that deter me from buying the Powershot. Actually the only reason that I bought the Powershot was that it was the best price for the amount of megapixels that came with it (5). It came a couple of days after I bought it and I fell in love with it. As I said before, I am not the most tech savvy person, but the features it came with suited me just fine. I'm sure by now you're wondering why I'm writing about a Canon digital camera that I bought more than two years ago (and still have by the way; assuming I can find it the jungle I call me bedroom). This is an editorial on the differences between the Pentax Optio E85 and the newer Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS. Since I own neither camera, I will be basing this article solely on specifications of each camera. I am obtaining the E85 specs from Dpreview.com and I am obtaining the SD1200 specs straight from usa.canon.com. I would base this article on personal reviews of people who have supposedly both the cameras but you can never tell who's really a human and who's just a Japanese manufactured robot. As with the original Powershot, the Pentax Optio E85 and the Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS are both compact digital cameras. Dpreview.com lists the E85 weight at about 5 ounces but I could not find the weight of the SD1200 on the official Canon website. It looks just like the Powershot that I own and if it weighs close to it then it should weight about as much a medium roast beef sandwich from Arby's (i.e. about 5 ounces). The E85 has 12.1 million pixels and the SD1200 IS has 10.3 megapixels. I don't know what the conversion rate is, but if my guess is right 12.1 million pixels is probably 12.1 megapixels so let's just say the E85 wins in this category. The E85 has a resolution of 4000x3000 and the SD1200 IS has a 12x combined zoom. I'm obviously not a professional photographer but I'll assume the resolution and zoom are two sides of the same rabbit, which would further lead me to believe that 4000x3000 on the E85 and 12x combined zoom on the SD1200 IS are just two sets of the same numbers in different forms so we'll call this another tie. The E85 does, however, beat the SD1200 IS in the category of digital zoom with the E85 coming in at 5x while the SD1200 IS slightly trails at 4x. Both cameras have built in flash but this time the E85 trails the SD1200 IS with their flash ranges being 3m and up to 4.2 m, respectively. The Canon website mentions the recycle time after flash as 10 seconds; dpreviews.com mentions nothing about flash recycle time. Both cameras have a place for a storage devise. However, only the SD1200 IS specs list what types of devises (i.e. SD, Multimedia card, etc) while the E85 specs only states that the package will come with 10 MB of storage. The E85 has screen size of 2.7” while the SD2100 IS has a screen size of only 2.5”. Judging by the categories that I put in this review alone I would say that the winner is this battle of the digital cameras is a no one. I call this one a stalemate. If I had to pick a camera, I would pick the SD1200 IS simply because the site I viewed its specs on made things more clear. I looked on Google and could not find any useful objective information about the E85. I even went to the Pentax website but the camera model is not even listed there. I'm sure that Pentax is a reputable dealer and I'm sure that their Optio E85 is a great camera but I've seen nothing to fully confirm it. The best advice I can give you is to try to find objective specifications and be very weary of customer reviews. They may be from a disgruntled customer who's exaggerating or the online retailer may be posting shining reviews that are fraudulent or worse yet, it may just be an internet troll looking to start trouble for what may be a good online dealer. Just make sure you take your time to research a camera and watch out for those trolls.

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