Canon Digital IXUS 75

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, 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, although the IXUS 75 wasn't quite as impressive as some other unit's we've looked at recently. Sporting a 7.1 megapixel sensor and Canon's awesome Digic III processor, we were looking forward to some extremely sharp, detailed pictures. Unfortunately, while our 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 consumers, but at larger magnifications it may be an issue.

Imatest corroborated this, providing some interesting results. In the sharpness test, the IXUS 75 scored 1429, which is a little below what we normally see from similar sensors, but still a decent score. However, as we usually take multiple shots of our test charts, we ran some others through Imatest quickly, and achieved varying results. Shots that were much closer up scored in the 1200s, which is obviously a relatively poor score. Overall, the pictures could use a little tweaking when it comes to sharpness, but for the most part the problem won't be huge unless you are making sizeable enlargements.

The sharpness of the pictures was aided by the excellent chromatic aberration performance, with the IXUS 75 scoring .068% in this test. Most cameras score around .08% to .1%, so this is a great result. Our shots showed minor haloing in areas of high contrast, but they were clear around the edges for most part.

Similarly, Canon has done an excellent job with colour reproduction. With a score of 6.14 in Imatest's colour check test, this unit is towards the top of the pack. There were only minor inaccuracies in the red and blue spectrums but as the score shows these aren't big enough to be noticeable.

Our final test is for image noise, and once again the IXUS 75 impressed. It's score of .66% is great for a compact camera, and is indicative of excellent performance in this area. Our shots were clean and noise free. Furthermore, they scaled quite well with higher sensitivity, scoring just 1.51% at the highest ISO of ISO 1600. For those regularly shooting in low light or high speed situations (such as children's sporting events) the IXUS 75 is a great choice.

It all excelled in our speed tests, 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.

All the standard Canon features are packed into this unit, including the brilliant face detect focus mode. This picks out human faces in the picture and makes them the focus point. It operates exceptionally well and is a nifty feature for consumers 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 busy and allow a little flexibility with how you take your shots.

The design is also noteworthy. 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. A great feature that will be appreciated by many users, 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. The five-way navigational pad is still present, and the 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. Those after an all purpose compact camera will love how portable and convenient the design is.