OK So I've been meaning to do this little experiment for some time in order to learn a little more about my camera. Below are a few shots I took this morning.

All shots were taken in "Auto" mode, with "ISO Auto", at the highest resolution with the lowest compression the camera allows. There were no modifications done in Photoshop (other than the obvious circles/lines/text and some cropping). All were saved via "Save for Web" using the "JPEG High" (60%) preset.

First shot:


Second shot - the "Shot" setting on the IS menu is supposed to be better quality from what I've read.


Third shot - All handheld as steady as I could be while standing in the 25F cold.


Final shot - Tripod, with IS off, taken with 2sec delay so I wasn't touching the camera/tripod when the shutter went off:


So what did I learn? Well, the difference in levels straight from the camera with the tripod caught me by surprise.
I also learned that either my camera has something wrong with it, or the SD700 is a lot worse outdoors in "Auto" mode than my SD550 was, because the levels are always horrible and the shadows almost always need to be pumped up a bit after I take pics unless I force ISO 80 in Manual mode.

 

Nice test. Do you really think something is wrong with your camera, or is it possible that IS (at least on the P&S's) really does sacrifice levels?