12, Jan, 2025
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Canon Digital IXUS

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If you want to look cool, this is the device for you. It is slightly smaller than a pack of cigarettes and weighs only 190g, including its rechargable Lilon battery. It dangles off its wrist strap like a piece of exotic jewellery. Luckily, there is plenty of substance there too, under the brushed alloy and stainless steel casing. A 2.11 megapixel CCD captures images via a tiny metal-barrelled 35 to 70mm zoom lens with an f 2.8 maximum aperture, and the slightly smaller than average 1.5in LCD viewer has good clarity.
Due to its tiny size, the controls are restricted to a power button, a zoom/ magnify lever, and a record/play slider. The back panel also has a minuscule set of four buttons to control menu selection, flash, macro, zone foots and so on. The 680mAh battery takes up almost half the case, leaving just enough room to squeeze in the 8M CompactFlash card and a universal connection that outputs TV and USB data.
There is no LCD status panel, but the IXUS obligingly flashes up understandable status icons on the viewing screen before shooting. The zoom action was one of the smoothest and fastest of the bunch, notably better than the Kodak or Ricoh cameras.
Bearing in mind the target market, the option list is reasonable, but if you want the same degree of image control as the Coolpix 990, forget it. White balance, exposure and quality can be altered, or you can switch to monochrome shots. Otherwise, it’s auto all the way.
The image quality was surprisingly good. The camera pro vided very smooth detail with minimal jaggies, but with less shadow detail than some. Highlights were excellent.
Canon also seems to have ban ished Its indoor flash coldness, and the IXUS produced very neutral results. Images had a greenish overall hue if no flash was used.
The most impressive feature of the IXUS is its operating speed. It was ready two seconds after switching on, including the unfurling of the lens from the front panel. It only required two seconds to refresh after each shot, and downloading an image over the simple USB connection Into Canon’s ZoomBrowser also took only two seconds for a 650K image.
The battery lasted about an hour before needing a recharge, but it might be hard to replace if you travel. The software is acceptable, but it could be improved. However, considering its size, this camera is still a surprisingly competent device.

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