Canon Ixus 400 Review

The Canon Ixus 400 is knocking on now but I feel compelled to review it (and give it good marks) for a possibly strange reason - it's broken! At the age of five, and well beyond the reach of any sensible guarantee, my camera has developed a CCD fault which means any picture I take now is heavily distorted and unusable. BUT, and this is the reason for the good review - despite the age of the camera Canon have agreed to repair it for free! They've recognised this is a common fault relating to a batch of faulty components, so they're paying for a free repair.



You may well say that this is exactly the kind of decent behaviour you have a right to expect from a big company like Canon, and of course you're right, but I think in this day and age they do deserve some credit for it - and it's a good example of why a "brand name" camera like this may be worth the extra over some of the cheaper alternatives.



Apart from the fault above (which will be fixed shortly) this camera's been very reliable and is very well made. The build is extremely solid, it has a great lens, and the 4mp sensor (when it's working) produces great pictures - in this size of camera I really don't believe you need much more, since squeezing more and more pixels into such a confined space inevitably leads to picture noise. You're really better off looking at an SLR, with a physically bigger sensor, if you really feel you need higher quality.



In retrospect, the only thing I'd change on this camera is to add some greater manual control. The automation works very well and takes great pictures, but if I could just set the aperture or shutter myself for that occasional "arty" shot it would round things off nicely. Looking at newer cameras, I've no interest in ridiculous "face detection" or more megapixels for the sake of it, but I find myself envious of some of the "pro" compacts that will allow total control over exposure and focussing, which the IXUS unfortunately won't.