Customer Reviews

Canon Digital IXUS 100 IS Digital Camera - Black (12.1 MP, 3.0x Optical Zoom) 2.5 inch LCD

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I already own a Nikon DSLR, which is a fine camera, but it can be a bit heavy to carry for long distances (plus I sometimes feel a bit nervous carrying it around my neck in inner city areas)

I decided to buy something small & light, but that also took reasonably good photos, for a budget of approx £200. After reading various reviews, I opted for the IXUS 100.

With it's matt black case & rounded corners, it looks very smart. But that thing that really strikes you, is how tiny it is!!!

This camera is the same width/height as a credit card & approx the same thickness as a small matchbox. It will easily fit in your shirt pocket, or back jeans pocket.

But is it too small? No, it's fine. I have largish hands & have had no real problems (the buttons are small, but no too small & they are well spaced out, so you don't accidentally click the wrong one)

The image quality is also very good (clear, sharp, with rich colours & very little noise)

I was worried that the flash looked puny. But I took a test shot, just before dusk, with the curtains drawn & no lights on. I could barely see the subject through the view finder, but the final photograph was fine (it had a slight yellow hue, which is common for flash photos, but no discernable noise, with all the detail very clear, even though I was 7-8 feet from the subject)

The view finder is very tiny (you have to move you eye right up to the camera & squint) But at least it has a view finder (a lot of compacts don't)

As with all compacts the view finder doesn't give an exact likeness of your photo (you need an SLR for that) But the final photo has slightly more content around the side (which I prefer to framing a subject in my view finder, only to find it's been cropped off in the final photo)

The camera comes with a wrist strap, battery, charger, manuals & software, but does NOT include a memory card (though I have seen other reviewers saying they did get a memory card, so perhaps only later editions have it missing) OK, these are cheap, but it does mean you can't use the camera "straight out of the box".

A 2Gb card will probably be sufficient, I have an 8Gb and it will hold 2471 photos.

Battery life is quoted as just over 200 photos (with the LCD screen on) but if you use flash, take videos etc then I suspect you will get nearer 150 shots (and therefore may want to buy a second battery, if you're planning a long photo session)

The LCD screen is also reasonably large (given the size of the camera) and with brightness set at 40%, I could just about see it on a very sunny day.

The image stabilisation also seems to work well, & I've yet to take a blurry photo, even when taking photos in low light.

In summary, this is a tiny, lightweight camera, that takes good photos (probably as good as can be expected for a camera of this cost/type) Only, a couple of very minor niggles, prevent me from giving it five stars.

I recently purchased this camera along with an 8gb memory card which allows you to save 2500 photos on the highest quality settings. I have a proffessional SLR camera which shares many of the features of this camera and you can also manualy control iso speeds white balance etc as well as having fantastic auto and macro modes.I have taken some great pictures in the dark and in brilliant sunlight. The screen is very large for the tiny size of the camera body taking up most of the rear, the controls are well laid out and intuative to use. I have large fingers and hands and do not have any problems operating as suggested by a previous reviewer. The real gem of this camera is the HD video it records I was absolutely blown away with the quality of the playback on my Sony Bravia and also on my HD PC monitor while the sound playback from the camera speaker isnt great it is more than adequate when played back through PC or TV speaker systems. Man, Woman or older child I would recommend for anyone who wants a small compact top quality camera.

This my 4th Canon digital camera, I'm still using an old Powershot G2 (still fantastic results) and a Powershot G6 (a fantastic camera in every respect) but my old Ixus 400 just gave up the ghost and, needing a true pocket camera, the Ixus 100 IS seemed the perfect choice. Most of the good reviews don't come close to describing the ease of use and great results from this camera. The stills are fabulous from a camera/lens combination of this size and the video facility shows great quality when replayed. The camera (mine is black) is also unobtrusive which can be a boon if taking pictures at a party etc. All in all a fantastic camera and by today's standards, excellent value for money.

I bought this little camera for my wife to use. The pictures from it are wonderful, the battery lasts a pretty long time, and the 1280x720P video is simply amazing. How it does it with sich a tiny lens is beyond me. I recently went to a family wedding, they had nobody videoing - so I shot as much as I could using this camera. When I got home, and loaded it to DVD ... my wife was as pleased as I was. I also have the EOS5D MkII which is the most amazing camera in the World .. but this little Ixus camera does an incredibly good job at a fraction of the price and size.
Wish the optical zoom was more - but hey - at THIS price!!??

I bought this camera with bundled 4GB memory card, spare battery and case. I tried a number of compact cameras but was won over by the size of the unit. Startup is fast as is shutter speed. The auto focus can be a little bit slow at times compared to my previous camera (a sony DCS-V1) but I have no complaints about the image quality. Pictures are sharp and natural looking. Picture mode has enough editable parameters to play around with photo settings and the higher ISO levels are not noticeably noisy. One slight fly in the ointment is the lack of optical zoom during filming, but the quality of the video is amazing for such a small camera.
The separate charger is a nice feature as it enables you to use the camera whilst charging the spare battery (if you buy one). The black finish does attract dirt and finger marks much more than a silver one would, but it is undeniably small and attractive.

I bought this to replace my ixus 880 which doesn't have HD recording facility, I was extremely happy with it and have some great family photos.
As I said, it was so I could have the HD recording facility that I opted for this camera, however after using it for a week in Spain I have mixed reviews.
Firstly the video quality is great, just what I'd hoped for and the annoying 'wind noise' that the old one suffered from even in moderate breezes seems to have been rectified.
However, as mentioned in other reviews, many of my photos seem to be out of focus (or rather I suspect that what I think i'm focusing on is not what the camera thinks is in focus) despite the focus boxes. Even in bright sunlight, some seem to be just slightly off, and 6 out of ten taken inside at night under tungston light are very poor indeed.
To give you an example, I took two pictures of my daughter who was stood 2 feet way from me within seconds of each other (as on the first had her eyes partially closed), the first was perfect and the second was not, despite neither her nor me moving.
I must say that I feel a bit disappointed with many of the pics, it may be that the focus settings are not set correctly, I will play with it further and report back, however I feel with the exception of the video, I have taken a step backwards.
On the plus side when the focus is correct, the pictures are stunning from such a small camera.
As mentioned in other reviews, it almost feels like it is faulty, but I hope I can sort it out as it's great looking camera.
Also I didn't see the problem with poor battery life experienced by others, in fact I never had to charge it for the whole week, and it was still showing full battery when I got home.
One big plus is the startup time, which is nothing short of amazing, by the time you have pressed the power button it's ready to go, great when you need to take a quick snap.
The buttons on the back are a little on the small side, and you do occasionally press the wrong one, but I soon got used to it and I guess this is to be expected from a camera this small.
I really don't want to be too negative as I'm a real Ixus fan, but I think the 'out of box' focus settings really leave a lot to be desired, and whilst I may be able to work around it, I fear that people who just want a point and shoot camera may be disappointed.
**Update 26/2/10**
After playing with the camera and it's settings I have got to the root of the problem.
When using the 'auto mode' the flash will often not fire in situations where it is required. There is a warning on screen too tell you of impending camera shake, but despite the flash set to auto it doesn't always go off.
Set the camera to manual (the slider should be in the middle), and go into the menu (page 80 of the manual)and set 'AF Frame' to 'centre', then set 'AF Frame Size' to normal, the result is a box that appears in the centre of your screen when you press the shutter half way down, which when set on the item or person you want in focus gives you a superb picture every time and complete control over the camera, plus the fill in flash goes off every time.
Since using it this way I have not has a single bad picture and I'm happy again.
I have emailed Canon to see what can be done about it, watch this space......
Hope this helps people
**Update September 2011**
As is is still for sale I thought I would add a long term review to it.
The camera has been fantastic, after the focus problems were fixed (Canon never replied to me), I have had nearly 2 years of trouble free photography. The battery life is still awsome, a week of use on holiday taking video and lots of photo's I can still easily get a week out of it.
I noticed some comments about it's fragility, all I can say to that is mine had been dropped (whilst turned on) and slid 20 feet on the ground when threw it to my daughter who missed it and it still fires up every time, even if it looks 'well used'. The size of the camera allows you to slip it in your trouser pocket and carry it everywhere which means you always have it on hand when needed.
What I would say is that I have noticed that it still sometimes suffers from annoying 'wind noise' which is difficult to predict in advance as even a mild breeze that's hardly noticable will cause it, not sure if this is just a compact camera 'feature', but overall I'm very pleased with my purchase.

my main camera is a canon G10. it's a brilliant camera but just a shade on the big side for carrying with me all the time. so, having used ixuses since way back with the ixus 400, i bought myself one of these as my "carry-it about-in-your-pocket. have-it-on-you-all-the-time. isnae-the-end-of-the-world-if-you-break-it" backup camera. mainly i was attracted by the low price [i got it on offer for £[]-odd], my previous experiences with the ixus range [i got 6 years and 8000+ photos out of my original ixus 400 - and it was still going strong, til' i stood on it and broke the screen], and the small size [think "credit card as fat as a matchbox"].

well, like i say, i've had it a few months now, so that's long enough to have formed some opinions:

THE GOOD
* durable construction - the ixus 100IS has a metal body, not a crappy plastic shell. this makes it pretty durable. clumsy eejit that i am, i inadvertently put this durability to the test, within about two weeks of getting the camera; i was checking out a rattle from the exhaust on my van and lay down on the ground to take a look. as i did so, the ixus slid out of my pocket and wedged up against my pert young buttock. thinking i'd lain down on a stone, i reached down without looking and hauled the offending article out from underneath me, thus dragging it across the tarmac. as a result, the front of the casing now has some nice deep gouges scraped across it. the camera however still functions absolutely perfectly. i dinnae think i would have been so lucky with a flimsier plastic-cased model.

* size - i've not got exceptionally big hands, but i did worry a bit before the ixus arrived as to whether or not it would be a bit fiddly to operate, what with being so small. but i've had no trouble at all. you might not want to try and use it on a cold winter's day with a pair of gloves on but, for day-to-day use, it's fine, in spite of its diminutive size. the tiny size is one of the ixus's best features. it really is the camera that you can carry with you all the times, without even thinking about it.

* HD video - the ability to shoot video on a digital camera has long been one of those features [like building an FM radio into a frying pan] which add another bullet point to the list of spec's, but are pretty useless in the real world. lately however this has been changing with people even making commercial movies using the video capabilities of top-end DSLRs, rather than using 'real' film cameras. this technology is now trickling down to the cheaper end of the market, so that you can now shoot near broadcast quality video on this tiny camera. there's almost nothing in the way of control [focus is fixed at the start of filming and can't be changed as you shoot], but you can use the zoom and, at the end of the day, it's HD video from a camera the size of a creditcard!

THE BAD
* sensitivity - as well as the 'auto' setting, the ixus 100IS has manual ISO settings from 80-1600. in theory this should be more than enough for photography in very low light conditions. however, in practice i find that, even shooting indoors in well lit, big windowed rooms, i'm regularly having to push the ISO settings right up to 800 and 1600, just to get a shutter speed above 1/30th second, so i can hand-hold the camera. and this is on one of the medium settings -not even fullsize resolution. i've no numerical evidence to back this up, but i've used several canon digital cameras over the years and the ixus 100IS is the first one where it feels like i've so often had to manually select an ISO setting because on 'auto' the shutter speed was just going to be far too slow.

i think canon have been sucked into the 'megapixel wars' a bit here. even my G10 [which is a high-end 'pro' compact] has a resolution of 'only' 10MP. unless you're planning to regularly print out your photographs at A3 or A2 size -in which case you'd be unlikely to be using a tiny point'n'shoot compact like this, in the first place- you simply don't need 12MP [4000px X 3000px] resolution on this type of camera. canon would have been far better off using a lower resolution [6 or 8MP], higher sensitivity sensor in the 100IS.

THE UGLY
* i've mentioned above the 'idiot-inflicted wounds', which caused me to scratch the front of the casing. however, even ignoring them, my ixus would still be looking a bit less-than-new, only a few months after purchase. it's great to have a metal casing and the camera looks slinky in black, but unfortunately the black coating tends to wear off quite quickly and easily. my ixus already has the silver metal showing through on a couple of its corners, just from day to day use and being slid into and out of my pocket. i reckon in a year's time it will look decidedly the worse for wear. personally this doesn't bother me. i like my possessions to have a bit of a patina as i think it gives them character but, if you're the kind of person who obsesses about keeping their gadgets in showroom condition, you'd probably be better off going for the silver version.

SUMMARY
* a great, solid wee camera which takes excellent photos and shoots HD video. let down slightly by the poor lower-light sensitivity of the image sensor.

I just bought this camera because the good reviews I saw, and I have to say that I am really surprise with the quality of all of it in general, but above all...the macro in manual mode, I love macro and I was in doubt if buying a big camera or this one, thinking that I wouldn't be able to take good macros, but my goodness!!! It gets so close!!! I am really happy with it and I am only started to know it, I think this little thing has more than one surprise hidden as you get to know it. And so small but practical... Really, the money is really worth it.

After having bought this camera with great aspirations of a typical hard wearing Canon, within 5 minutes of it sitting in my pocket next to a mobile phone some of the black coating on the body rubbed away, leaving a silver mark that really detracts from it being a great looking stylish camera. I'm a little annoyed at Canon for producing something that doesn't wear well, as the main objective with a camera this small is so you can put it in a pocket!

That aside, it performs extremely well, and is an excellent 'slip in the pocket' camera for anyone who doesn't want to pull their SLR out of their bag all the time. Focussing is crisp and faster, and shutter response cycles very fast for a compact. Menu system is typical of Canon in recent years, and easy to use. Some people have voiced it is a little small for large hands, but I haven't had a problem yet, and you might not either.

Final conclusion, get the Canon DCC-1200 leather case for it. It's nice and low-profile, will still let you slip the whole package in a pocket, and you'll avoid scratching it the way I have (much to my frustration). Either that, or buy the plain silver one (which doesn't look nearly as nice).

After waiting a week for this camera to arrive due to Royal Mail issues, I am supremely amazed with this camera.
As soon as I excitedly opened the box, there you can see the little elegant black beauty. It looks stylish, it's compact and feels amazing in the hands. It looks much better in real life than it does in the Amazon images.
As soon as I turned it on, within 1 second I was already up and ready to shoot images, MY were they amazing. Every single shot I took stole my breath away. Now I'm not easy to please but my last camera was a low-end Samsung 7MP D75 Camera, and I thought that took good images, but this, this is out of the 5-star rating system, I would rate it 100 stars if I can. See for yourself when you take images. They're vibrant, crystal clear, full of colour and with a bright screen they look stunning.
Now the video. I didn't think the video would be very good but when I tried it indoors it was AMAZING, true HD. Crystal clear image. I watched it on my laptop and it looked fantastic in full screen. The camera is full of features and options.
Now some people did say that the buttons are too small and I slightly agree with them. At first you will feel they are small but you'll get used to them quite quickly.
On that note, I have to say the camera is extremely easy to use. I quickly learned how to shoot in manual mode, how to take Macro shots, how to enable/disable the flash, how to delete images, how to rotate them, etc.
It also has auto-rotate; twist it right and it rotates the image right automatically, twist the camera left and it rotates the image left, just like my C905.

I haven't seen any bad points in the camera and I would DEFINITELY recommend it to ANYONE, even the professional photographers. I am truly stunned and this is the best camera I've had, beating my C905 8MP Phone and my Samsung D75 7MP Camera right out the picture, and for that price, you can't even fault it whatsoever.

A small compact easy-to-use camera boasting amazing true HD images & video.
5-Star, very highly recommended.

Hope you liked my review!