I've dreaded writing this, though not because I was at a loss for things to say about Canon's latest digital camera. What pained me was the knowledge that upon publication of the review, it would be time to pack up the loaner camera in a nest of Styrofoam peanuts and mail it back to Canon; the teeny little Ixus is my new favourite. It'll be hard saying goodbye.
Canon's knickname for the PowerShot Digital Ixus "Digital Elph," nicely conveys the model's astounding compactness. The petite form factor plus a sturdy stainless-steel body add up to a camera that's both ultra-portable and arrestingly cool, and I suspect that these two factors combined will be enough to move the Ixus off of store shelves. But there's more to the camera than a nifty exterior -- it also offers a retractable zoom lens, very good image quality, and 2-megapixel resolution.
Features
- 1.9 million pixels resolution (1600 x 1200
- 2x optical zoom; digital enlargement
- 1.5-inch LCD optical viewfinder
- 8MB CompactFlash card
- manual exposure compensation and white balance
- lithium battery and charger included
- USB and video outputs
- Windows and Mac software
- 2.2 x 3.4 x 1.1 (HWD); 0.42 lbs.
Most digital cameras with optical zoom lenses have 3x telephoto power. Having tested many such models in the past, I did feel slightly constrained by the mere 2x zoom on the Ixus. Still, 2x is preferable than no zoom at all.
Since digital cameras as a group are serious battery hogs, I appreciated Canon's inclusion of a lithium-ion battery and recharger. The charging unit, incidentally, was also designed for compactness -- it plugs directly into the wall (no cord to worry about) and the prongs fold down when not in use. You should keep in mind that the lithium power cell is of non-standard shape, so you can't pop over to the chemist for some AAA alkalines if you forget to charge the Ixus's battery.
My only major gripe is with Canon's decision to bundle a mere 8MB of CompactFlash memory with the Ixus. That's sufficient for only about a dozen images at the full 1600 x 1200 resolution, as I was reminded recently when I took the Ixus along to a press event. An 8MB card is just fine for a 1-megapixel camera, but barely adequate at the 2-megapixel level.
Connectivity
There seems to be a growing trend among digital camera makers to eliminate serial ports on new models, and the Ixus is no exception -- the camera supports USB transfers only. This is perfectly fine by me, since I consider serial uploads intolerably slow once you get above a megapixel. However, users with old, pre-USB computers will need to invest in an external card reader to upload picture files.
When I first glanced at the camera, I saw only a familiar-looking USB jack, and assumed that the Ixus had no video output to display snapshots on a TV. In fact, the single output jack does double duty for both digital data and analog video. Canon's engineers probably deserve a round of applause for ingenuity ...
Clap clap clap clap clap!
... but since it still amounts to the same connectivity you'd find on any current camera, I won't award extra points for cleverness.
Look & Feel
I hate recommending a product simply because it "looks cool" -- it makes me feel like I'm picking my favourite N'Sync member for a Smash Hits reader poll. Surely performance, not superficials, ought to be the deciding factor for a digital camera!
But there's no getting around the fact that the Ixus' tiny, stainless-steel body makes it the niftiest-looking digital camera I've ever seen. (It's so near in dimensions to a cigarette pack that you can't help but picture some Japanese executive tossing a pack of Marlboro Reds to Canon's R&D team: "It must be this small!")
It feels right, too: the metal exterior is reassuringly durable, inviting you to shove the Ixus into a pocket as you head out for a hike in the bush. I particularly liked the built-in cover that snaps shut after the lens retracts into the camera.
While the Ixus' physical design approaches perfection, I did have some minor problems navigating the LCD's onscreen menus. On a recent boat trip around the tip of Manhattan, I took a couple snapshots of Lady Liberty before realising that the statue was coming out as a dark silhouette because of the bright sky in the background. I knew what the solution was, but it took several fruitless minutes of pressing buttons before I figured out how to adjust the exposure compensation. The user interface really could've been more self-explanatory.
Performance
This is always a tricky category to judge. For me, using a graphics editing package to optimise picture quality is an integral part of the digital photography process. Therefore, I don't find it objectionable if a camera's output requires minor tweaking. Others, of course, may insist that digital snapshots be ready for Web publishing or printing as they're uploaded from the camera.
Perceptive readers can guess where this is going -- although the Ixus produced excellent picture quality overall, some of the images definitely benefited from judicious tweaking with Paint Shop Pro (my preferred image editor).
The most common problem was underexposure of pictures taken in low-light scenarios. Compared to the last two cameras I reviewed -- Toshiba's PDR-M5 and Kodak's DC290 -- the Ixus seemed to have more trouble with light metering. The good news is that slight underexposure can be fixed easily and with good results, as in this brightness-corrected sunset.
Like most digital cameras, the Ixus captured the most accurate and vivid colours in natural daylight.
The fluorescent illumination in the etown.com offices yielded pictures that were sufficiently exposed but had a slight bluish cast, as visible in this lifelike diorama of the late Jurassic that sits on my desk.
Value
As noted above, the Ixus' amazingly portable form factor is its strongest selling point, and few other digital cameras can approach this Canon in size. If compactness is important to you, Fuji's MX-1700 is slightly larger than the Ixus but costs about 15 percent less. However, the MX-1700 is only a 1.3-megapixel model and lacks USB output.
Nikon's Coolpix 800 could also save you about 15 percent. It's not unusually small, but offers the same 2-megapixel resolution and 2x optical zoom as the Ixus. Like the Fuji, it lacks the high-speed USB connection.
Canon S100
Company: Canon Australia
Price: AU$1,600 (rrp)
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