Canon Ixus I Review

Overall Rating

Stylish
Compact
Being a Canon, state of the art hardware and software

No viewfinder
configuration menu can be a tad confusing

I bought this Canon Ixus i Digital camera in November last year, and it has amazed me how clever it is! The size of the thing is the first point to make. About the same size as 3 match boxes placed side by side, it is ridiculously small, even more so when you realise how much is crammed into that small space.

The functionality of this camera is astounding. There is everything you could want or need in this little box of tricks. Everything from a self timer to anti red eye (for the 'joe public' photographer) leading up to the white balance, colour change facility (vivid blue, vivid green, vivid red, dark skin tone, etc. these you can make one colour REALLY bright, or turn it off. A great idea for the semi-pro person but something I have never used, and probably never will!) and the 'kids and pets' setting. This one lets you alter the resolution and ISO setting (old school, me) so the pics come out correct for the setting, be it indoor, snow, fireworks (Mmm, interesting...) or underwater (strange, as the camera is not waterproof). These will broaden your ideas of what a camera can do, so go out and explore these options.

You can also change the size of the pics, and therefore store more on the removable SD card, or have huge pictures that you can blow up to poster size and not lose any of the definition. A great idea if you want some family photo's mounted on the wall, without spending an absolute fortune at the professional studios.
On the back is a 2 inch (diagonal) LCD display that shows the 5m megapixel pictures in almost breathtaking clarity and all the control buttons. The 10x zoom is good (Up to 2.4 optical zoom, then the digital zoom takes over up to 10 times magnification) so you now never need to be on top of the subject again. The movie capture facility is also very good, and with the in-built microphone, you will never need your video camera again!

The menu, as mentioned above, can be a tad confusing, but once you have the hang of it, navigating through the menu options will become second nature. In there you have a 'micro' setting for the real 'up close and personal' pictures, a portrait setting so the light is just right for the family mug shots, a landscape setting, night snapshot (never used that one...!), and either a manual 'general' setting or an automatic one, for the everyday shots.

There are also some little gadgetry touches that men will love. When using the camera for a 'portrait' shot (sideways, so the camera is on it's side) you do not need to use the shutter button on the top, just use the one below the LCD screen so you can hold and shoot with the same hand. This alone saves the fiddly 'trying to push a button that is in the wrong place' syndrome.

And, also on the same sort of thing, when looking at the shots you have taken on the LCD screen, if you turn the camera through 90 degrees and hold it sideways again, the image on the LCD screen will flip so it is the right way round. Clever, huh!

The only downside I have found with this camera (and compared with the good points, it is hardly worth mentioning!!) is the lack of a viewfinder. Under certain light conditions (blooming sunny, mainly) the screen can be a little hard to see. Nowhere near as bad as other LCD screens I have seen, but you still get a very small amount of glare if the sun is just in the wrong place. This is a very personal gripe, but after studying photography (amongst other things) I like the option of using the viewfinder if required.