[Review] Canon IXUS 70 Camera

[Martyn]

Here comes my next review, again one I wrote a few months ago for my blog, but I thought I would also share it with my fellow Neowinians! I bought a camera just before I went away to University, as that was to be it's primary purpose, to capture those moments of my life. Anyway, just like with my other two reviews, you can read this review on my blog if you so wish.

I recently bought a Canon IXUS 70 Digital Camera. A good camera is something I have been after for a while, and I wanted a small and durable good quality camera for a affordable price. The Canon IXUS 70 seemed perfect for me as it did everything I wanted and more!

Photography has always interested me, I could just stare at a photo I love for hours upon hours. However, I have never took my interest further besides snapping shots on my Dad’s old digital camera and my various mobile phones throughout the years. I am starting University in less than a week though, and hopefully it will be one of the most character building and enjoyable times of my life, so why not collect some memorable photographs along the way?

The IXUS 70 arrived at my doorstep last Tuesday, so I have had a good week to play around with it and fall in love with it. The camera itself is so small and slim which is great, I set my sights particularly on finding a camera that I could easily slip into my jeans pocket.

I am more of a point and shoot person, photography is something which interests me but I am not an experienced photographer and hence not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to the technical details of photography and camera technique (but I do know what ISO speed is!). However, hopefully with time I will learn more.

It was a bit disappointing that after spending a lot of money on a camera that Canon decided not to bundle a protective case with it. In the end it did not matter much though as Martyn had an ingenious idea, to use one of my iSocks! I have about five or six iSock’s which I use on my iPod to keep it safe and cosy, they are designed to fit any iPod…and it also fits my camera perfectly and keeps it nice and snug! It is a testament to the camera’s size that it fits in an iSock!

What I also love about the camera is you can turn it on and snap a photo before you can even blink. On my K800i you have time to give your balls a good scratch before it is ready to take a photo! The picture quality is absolutely superb, which was to be expected really, you can tweak the camera settings to your desire in order to get that perfect shot, or you can select a number of presets like portrait, kids and animals, indoor and lots of others. I was particularly impressed with the video quality of the camera, even though it was not one of the reasons I bought the IXUS, it does come in handy when I want to record my budgie Freddie when he is in a crazy mood! I may just be used to the poor video quality of mobile phones, but I think the video quality is excellent.

So we have had the good, and now it is time for me to talk about the few things which disappoint me with the Canon IXUS 70. First of all I really expected there would be a battery indicator in the user interface, but there is not and I have no idea how charged the battery is and how close it is to running out which I would of thought was a vital feature. I also find that without the flash photos tend to blur quite easily, I do not have the steadiest hand in the world so it can be a big problem sometimes…if the camera had an image stabiliser on it then that would go a long way to solve the problem.

Overall the Canon IXUS 70 is a fabulous and slim point and shoot camera, I am hoping it will serve me well throughout it’s lifetime and I am very happy with my purchase!

For those interested, my blog is UnknownLogic.com!

[+Tantawi Subscriber²]

Nice review and congratulations on the new camera! May be it's a good idea to post some images taken by it? it'll make the review even better :)

[Lt-DavidW]

Not bad, but I went the next step up I got a Canon IXUS 950 IS (which has physical image stabilisation).

I can't recommend the 950 IS enough. Well worth the money for the additional features.

[chconline Veteran]

^ Yeah, that camera's awesome for a compact. The SD1000/IXUS 70 is nice too, but not really my type haha. :p

[Martyn]

Not bad, but I went the next step up I got a Canon IXUS 950 IS (which has physical image stabilisation).

I can't recommend the 950 IS enough. Well worth the money for the additional features.

Yeah, I remember giving your thread a read a while back. I liked the IXUS 70 because it was really small, fairly cheap and ideal for my needs. It would be nice to have the image stabilsation on the IXUS 70, but I have found a few ways to compensate for blur without the flash now (ISO shift). One thing is for sure though, Canon camera's are awesome!

[raider360]

Congrats mate! Great camera. (Y) I had IXUS 40 and was very pleased with this camera, but I broke it and got Panasonic LumixFX01. Not bad for outdoor pictures in clear weather.

[acushtikdrumma007]

Yeah, that is a good camera. I just got mine a few days ago. Won it in a Canon contest here in the Philippines. It does have a wide variety of features. So satisfied with it, really. I just hope it had a case included in the pack but i guess that's alright. I'll just use my old digi cam's. The memory card included was only 32mb so I had to buy another one but who's complaining right, I got the whole thing for free!!! :)

Anyway, good luck with the pictures! Nice review, by the way.

P.S. Let me know if you have any tips/ techniques in taking good pictures. Thanks!