Canon Digital Ixus 95 Views

General Goods

Canon's PowerShot A and S line of the time were being made as small as contemporary technology allowed,[1] and demonstrated the demand for a small digital camera of good quality. Canon used its experience with small film cameras, particularly the APS IXUS, to mass-produce good digital cameras smaller than anyone else had managed up to the time (the first Digital IXUS was the smallest 2MP then available[2]) and reused the popular IXUS/IXY/ELPH brand name with the tag line The DIGITAL IXUS blends Canon's award-winning IXUS design with PowerShot digital technology. [3]

Announced in February 2009, the Canon Digital IXUS 95, also known as the PowerShot SD1200 IS Digital ELPH in North America, is a 10 Megapixel compact with a 3x image stabilised optical zoom, 2.5in LCD display and an optical viewfinder. It replaces the Digital IXUS 80 (PowerShot SD1100 IS), adding extra resolution and Canon's new scene recognition technology. Since launch it's become one of the best-selling compacts of 2009, and in our review we'll find out if it lives up to its popularity.

In Auto mode the IXUS 95 IS / SD1200 IS features Canon's automatic scene detection which refines exposure calculations on the basis of the subject. It determines whether there are people in the scene, whether it includes blue skies, whether the subject is backlit, how close the subject is and whether it's day or night. An icon appears in the top left of the screen to tell you what that camera thinks it's looking at. This is quite an advance on conventional auto exposure and works very well in most circumstances (though it can be fooled by large areas of colour), and results in much better results, particularly for backlit and night shots.

Like its predecessor, the IXUS 95 IS / SD1200 IS can shoot movies at two sizes, 640 x 480 pixels and 320 x 240 pixels, both at 30fps. There's also a 640 x 480 long play setting which reduces the bit-rate to effectively double the recording time. You sadly can't use the optical zoom whilst recording a movie, but a 4x digital zoom is available. With a starting size of 640 x 480 pixels, the quality of 4x digitally zoomed footage leaves a lot to be desired though.