electronics Canon Digital IXUS i opinions and reviews

Canon Digital IXUS i

Another in the series of Canon’s IXUS category, the Canon Digital IXUS i is a stylish, compact camera minus an optical zoom.

Available in four different colours, it’s very simple to use and is primary targeted at those looking for a camera that gives out good quality pictures more than anything else.

The placing of the controls in IXUS i is very much satisfactory. And the menu arrangement is identical to the IXUS cameras.

A 4-megapixel camera, IXUS i may be termed as a point-and-shoot camera which has most of the basic features required.

Among the various shooting modes you will find the three metering modes (multi, center-weighted, spot), exposure compensation, and white balance controls. An assist lamp feature helps when shooting is to be done in dark surroundings.

A new entrant among the features is Canon's Quick Shot mode. This feature is extremely useful for novices as the camera becomes a fixed-focus model with infinity focus, which brings down the shutter lag to quite an extent.

To focus subjects which are not centered you can make use of the 5-point AiAF (Artificial intelligence Auto Focus).

Images captured can be saved in the JPEG format at four resolutions and three compression settings.
IXUS i also facilitates shooting AVI video clips at resolution of 320 x 420 pixels, albeit for a minimal duration of 3 minutes.

IXUS i also ships with a 32MB SD card.

Performance of IXUS i was quite satisfactory with a start up time of 2 seconds and recycling also of a similar duration in natural light while with the flash on it took up to 4 seconds. Overall, using the 4-megapixel camera, IXUS i delivered good picture quality.

The autofocusing (AF) system delivered excellent results with only a solitary second required in bright light. Even in dark conditions, it took a reasonably acceptable 2 to 3 seconds.

Battery used is also satisfactory. You can take approximately 350 shots inclusive of quite a few flash shots.

The ISO range of IXUS i is between 50 to 400 but noise is pretty evident at ISO 200 itself. The camera's automatic white balance system was among the few disappointments. The 39mm focal length is another as it is too small to capture large size pictures effectively.

With no optical zoom and a couple of unsatisfactory features, IXUS i will cater more to the beginner photographers.