Product Reviews

Canon's latest digital camera is the 7-megapixel Ixus 750. The curvy little camera is designed to be an object of desire. We like the way it looks, but we won't bang on about it - you can see the picture for yourself.

The 750 is very small, about the size of pack of cards, but slightly thicker - perfect for slipping into your pocket. A 2.5in LCD screen takes up most of the back of the camera. This is a big preview screen for a digital compact. It's bright and easily visible even in strong light or at an angle - but don't look too closely, or you'll see that everything looks a bit grainy. This won't affect the quality of your pictures, but once you've noticed it, it's hard to ignore and after a while it starts to niggle.

The Ixus has every shooting mode you'd expect, including portrait mode, various outdoor modes and even underwater mode - Canon sells waterproof 'camera housings' as an optional extra. All of these are accessible through an easy-to-use dial on the back of the camera. The rest of the controls can be accessed using the screen's interactive menu. This is very easy to use; icons pop up on screen without obscuring any image you're previewing.

The 750 is quick to switch on, so you won't miss shots while waiting for it to warm up and once you've taken a photo, it's ready almost instantly

ADVERTISEMENT

to take the next. For the most part, taking pictures is a pleasure. The 7-megapixel CCD captures lots of detail and the auto shooting mode is very reliable - images were sharply focused and well exposed. Colours were slightly more saturated than they should have been, but this actually worked to the camera's advantage - everything looked richer and more vivid than it would otherwise. If you don't like the effect though, you can use a preset shooting mode that more exactly suits your light source.

The AF illuminator, the device the camera uses to focus in low light conditions, worked perfectly, much better than on most compact cameras. No matter how low the light, the shot was still in focus.

There were, however, some things we didn't like so much. Like many compact cameras, the 750 has trouble with scenes in which there is a high range of contrast and details in highlights tend to get 'whited out'.

Shooting at night wasn't that successful either. The preset night mode gave flat, murky looking results and shooting at high ISO speeds - which amplifies the signal from the light sensor - produced images with lots of digital noise.

The zoom only provides 3x optical magnification - poor for a camera that costs this much. Even worse, instead of a smooth motion, the zoom moves in a series of abrupt jumps. At times this made it very difficult to compose and frame a shot.

We were also taken aback by the battery life - enough for about 90 shots if you're using the screen, as most people will be. This isn't dreadful but it's not great either. There is an optical viewfinder that you could use to save battery life, but it's too small to be really useful.

The Ixus is a quality camera that looks great, but it's too expensive for what it is. The Olympus SP-350 we reviewed in the February issue has an 8-megapixel sensor and 5x optical zoom for £234 - far better value.