Canon Digital Ixus 200 IS review

Two standout features working in concert raise the Ixus 200 IS from luxury gadget to innovative picture-taking tool: subject tracking and a wide 3in touchscreen.

Unlike the Samsung ST550, the touchscreen isn’t the only control method; you can use standard buttons instead. The touch primarily lets you indicate your subject, so the Ixus can set the focus. It’s made better by the subject tracking: tap the subject in the frame, recompose the shot and your chosen subject remains in focus. The only downside is that the camera doesn’t set exposure based on where you tap; only the focus. That’s frustrating since it would be great to be able to tap, say, a person standing in front of a window to ensure they were properly exposed and didn’t end up in silhouette.

When using the touchscreen for controlling playback, you get what’s clearly an iPhone-inspired interface, whereby a swish of the finger scrolls through thumbnails. Unfortunately, it needs some work; it isn’t quite Apple in its smoothness, and selecting images is a little hit-and-miss. The same goes for the motion-based “flick” control.

The touch-your-subject innovation is clearly the future of compacts, but we’d wait until the next generation appears – we think this one is just too pricey.

Author: David Fearon