INBOX:SOMETIMES YOU don't want a camera that has 300 manual settings and an instruction booklet like the Yellow Pages. Equally though, you don't want a tiny camera which produces shots like they were shot through a piece of cling film.
It would be nice too if the camera looked good, but does such a combination exist?
I have long been impressed by Canon cameras. Canon puts a lot of work not just into the cameras, but also the software controlling them, which is consistent from high-end models to low.
With the arrival of the Canon Digital Ixus 95 IS, we have a camera that could well suit the point-and- click snappers who desire a little quality in their results, not to mention a model with looks.
This metal and plastic camera has a brushed metal and chrome finish wrapping a diminutive body which weighs very little at 140g. As well as a tiny optical viewfinder, you have the usual controls, a 2.5in LCD screen and a USB port for AV out. That screen is not as big as some cameras in this class, so there is a trade-off with camera size. The Ixus 95 IS takes SD, SDHC and MMC cards.
This is a 10Mp camera, with a 3x optical zoom and a lens equivalent to 35-105mm. That’s in a 35mm camera, which takes some doing. Shutter speed goes all the way from 15-1/1500sec and an ISO range of 80-1600, so it’s pretty versatile in various light conditions.
You get all the mod cons: face detection, face self-timer, scene detection and motion detection. Movies are in VGA and QVGA resolution at 30f/s, and it’s useful to be able to zoom while shooting.
Real video fans though will want to get the Ixus 100 IS, which has HD movie recording. The face detection in particular is really quite smart – it can detect up to 35 faces in a shot.
So what’s this face self-timer system? Well, when you switch it on and race to take your place in the group shot – hoping the camera won’t fall off its perched position of course – the Ixus 95 IS won’t take the picture until it detects an additional face in the frame, namely yours.
Ultimately however, although you can get cheaper compacts which have more features (€260 will be a stumbling block for some), few will be as compact or as good-looking as the Canon Digital Ixus 95 IS.
