Canon IXUS 75

So it’s been almost 3 years since I last bought a new camera, my last being the (at that time) awesomely cool Kodak 3.1 megapixel Easyshare camera, which to be honest I had most interest in the photo dock that allowed me to print immediately photos which I though was the bomb. Sadly I never printed many photos over the years, and since the last year have been looking for a camera I felt comfortable with in sense of size and functionality. Having wanted to take up photography for a while too, I wanted something that had some degree of functionality and adjustment capability, and not something too generic. After much research and testing over and over (annoying countless salespersons), I decided upon the Canon IXUS 75. I would have ideally liked something a little bit smaller, and comparing it to the Casio Exilim EX-S600 that I was originally looking at it is a bit thicker, but I’m very happy with the quality so far. In their IXUS line of compact cameras, Canon consistently provides wonderful point and shoot devices that appeal to a wide variety of people. While not doing anything particularly special, from what I’ve seen they usually combine stylish design with small form factor and great pictures to create a very attractive consumer package. The Digital IXUS 75 continues this trend and is one of the better buys on the market if size is a primary concern.

As usual with Canon's products, image quality is fairly good, and sporting a 7.1 megapixel sensor and Canon's awesome Digic III processor, I was looking forward to some extremely sharp, detailed pictures. Unfortunately, while most of my shots were crisp for the most part, there was some noticeable fringing and haloing in some areas. This wasn't problematic at smaller print sizes, and thus won't impact upon the majority of people I think, but at larger magnifications it may be an issue. In speed it was pretty good, exhibiting a .06 second shutter lag, 1.6 seconds between shots and 1.4 seconds of power up time. The power up time and shutter lag in particular mean you can be up and running in no time with this model, and are great selling points for those who want to quickly capture that perfect moment and move on, where like me most times random things occur that you just have to photograph.

All the standard Canon features are packed into this unit, including the brilliant face detect focus mode. This absolutely kicks ass. This picks out human faces in the picture and makes them the focus point. It operates exceptionally well and is wicked as you can actually see the crosshair following faces as you move the camera around. Other features include manual and preset white balance modes, ISO sensitivities up to 1600, exposure compensation, ten scene modes and a 2.5 frame per second burst mode. There is more than enough here to keep the novice user (like myself) busy and allow a little flexibility with how you take your shots.

The design is also noteworthy from my aesthetic desiring eyes. Departing from the rather traditional plain silver motif seen on past models, Canon has this time decide to go for a more eye catching design, combining silver and gloss black metal, to create one of the most stylish compact cameras on the market. This is well complimented by the enormous 3in screen. Wearing glasses already guides me towards gadgets that are easy to use and read, with this being no exception. A great feature that will be appreciated by a lot of people, is that the screen is not only huge but of great quality, and makes framing shots so much easier. The controls are laid out in a similar way to the previous IXUS models form what I have noticed. There is a five-way navigational pad, kind of a poor man’s iPod scroll wheel, and buttons run in a line from top to bottom around it. They are a little smaller on this model, but everything is still easy to navigate and new users shouldn't have any trouble navigating the interface. Despite having a big screen, the IXUS 75 is a tiny camera. Measuring just 91.6mm x 19.6mm x 56.8mm and weighing 130g, it is the ideal device to throw in your bag or pocket and take out with you. For those of you looking for something small and funky, but with a solid reputation for photo taking, I recommend you pick one of these bad boys up.