A brilliant little thing! (Canon Digital Ixus 70)

Member Name: luigi0778

Product:	Canon Digital Ixus 70
Date:	17/03/09 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent photo quality, packed with features, great 2nd hand prices!

Disadvantages: Looks average, possibly questionable build quality!

It is fair to say, that this is probably not the prettiest camera i've, or you've ever likely seen. It's a slimline, palm sized compact, plain looking, with an uninspiring conventional look, which in my opinion is quite drab!

The camera has a relatively small 2.5" (inch) true colour screen on the back! Wow that's small. An looking at the users end, it has the wheels, knobs and buttons found on any camera. It also supports all the usual memory formats, as you would expect from a fairly modern Cannon camera.

I also noted upon using it, that the control wheel on the back and selector mode, felt rather loose. Overall, the thing felt like holding cheap plastic, poor quality, and not robust.

However appearances and build quality can be deceiving, and the Canon Digital Ixus 70 put quite simply, is the best "point an shoot" camera I have EVER owned.

So without further ado, let's talk the details of why, how?!!


---THE PRICE---

This camera rolled in at anywhere between £130-170 new, (launched in 2007 I beleive) but you can snap one up now (like I did) second hand for around £40-60 which is a bargain! Places like ebay or car boots would be a great place to look for one!



---THE FEATURES---

The features are just silly for the price, and i'm sure I won't use half of them, but the ones of note or which stood out for me are:

-7.1 MegaPixel (not that impressive, but enough for most people) Theortically this would allow a poster size photo quality print! In reality A4 in my experience! Then again, how many times have you made photo posters. Photo quality though is outstanding! Be assured of that!

-The DIGIC III processor, which is used in higher end models too. Basically it is just the "exciting" name for Canon's image processor, it amounts to ultra fast processing, and great results with crisp images. It is also the brain behind the intuitive easy to use camera menu features!

-3 X Optical Zoom, Using Canon's Ultra-High Refractive Index Aspherical compact lens system! YES! what nonsense!!! it just means you get a clear picture from a small lens. Why tech folk have to to give such silly names to camera features is beyond me!

- Time Lapse Movie mode, enabling you to do impressive time lapse stuff, like filming clouds drifting past, paint-drying (lol) that kind of stuff! You can then accelerate this to smooth playback clips! Not sure i'd ever use it, but why not have it as an option I say!

- 17 Shooting modes, to enable auto-set pre-determined settings for just about every conceivable scenario. All the usual Landscape modes are bundled in. Quite clever and worth mentioning is the "My Colour" feature which lets you apply colour effects to the images (without the need for 3rd party software). Enjoy Grandma in black an white!

-Face Detection AF/AE/FE, somehow this clever little camera knows when its looking at a face or faces! Basically all this clever little thing does, is optimize the focus, exposure and flash setting to extenuate the features of the face(s) making even ugly subjects look beautiful! (ok maybe not, but it is impressive).



---THE BATTERY LIFE---

The camera came with a lithium-ion rechargeable battery, which lasted for ages (2 days of heavey use) compared to my previous camera! No more faffing about changing the AA batteries. I just plug the thing in, and charge it up! Ideal! I mean who wants to lug around a bunch of AA's.



---SUMMARY OF THE CAMERA ITSELF---

Despite my initial impression of poor build quality, I have been amazed at how tough the little camera has been!

In the short year I have owned it, it has been dropped down the stairs, sat on, left in the blazing sun in Egypt! Left in freezing conditions in my cars glove box this winter (08/09)!!!!

Yes, somehow it still is all in one piece, the functions all work and is still taking great pictures! Canon is seemingly the toyota of the Camera world!

An the end of the day however, forget the bells and whistles, the function packed menu's, the price. The photo quality and ease of use are the most important features of all! I mean that is what cameras are for! Taking pictures!

I would argue that for a happy snappy holiday camera, the price you can find one of these cameras second hand, I doubt you will get a more user friendly, high quality camera from anyone else! Its just brilliant!

Summary: Despite the cheap feel and plain looks, a damm decent camera!

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