Canon Ixus 30

I've owned the Canon Ixus 30 digital camera (actually an SD200 in the USA) for 2 months now, and I have used it a lot.

It is so small I can comfortably keep it in my shirt pocket.

It has a fast start-up time, which I find very important if you want to catch that on-the-fly shot, and have the camera shut off and in your pocket. I comment on this because I've had camera's with slower start times and find I miss a lot waiting for the camera to get ready to shoot.

Movie mode with sound is near flawless. Good sound too.

I've found that mega-pixel size is just a number, and if you have a good lens, as this camera does, your pictures will come out great. I can enlarge them on my computer as much as I want, and then crop a different picture if I desire, from most 3.2 pictures taken.

Having owned Olympus cameras (confusing), I find this camera very intuitive to operate and change modes. Menu's are easy to find. Settings easy to change.

Five years ago a quality 3.2 mega-pixel camera could cost as much as $600 or $700. At this time 01/07/06 a camera at this Mega-pixel level can be bought for a bargain. This $300 retail camera cost me $170 US due to it's replacement by larger pixel cameras. Same camera same features just not as many pixels. If you don't need them why pay for them?

It did not come with a camera case, and the large LCD screen will scratch if you're not careful.

A second battery can be expensive if you're store buying. You will want one though.

The software supplied is a little overwhelming, and some features are not necessary, but it is comprehensive.

I can recommend this camera 100% if it proves to be reliable.

I like the design very much, it is small, compact and simply beautiful. You pull it out, and everyone stops to admire it (the camera, girls, the camera). It takes good photos, I've tried all the modes, and I was pleased with the quality. At this point I wouldn't buy another camera.

I recommend the ixus 30 to anyone who wants to buy a digital camera.

Overall the Canon Ixus 30 is an excellent ultra compact camera. Simple but comprehensive camera controls.

Canon supplied PC software is an absolute nightmare to install on Windows 2000 operating system - be prepared for plenty of bulk copying of files from CD to PC and editing file attributes and directory permissions before you can carry out a "simple" install of the software. The software is also non-intuitive in use, it's much better and quicker to download your images directly from a card reader rather than use the camera interface.