Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon Digital Ixus V [2.1MP 2xOptical]

I bought this back in August soon after it became available. Quite simply, it is the best point and shoot digital camera available at the moment.

It is tiny, the build quality is excellent, and it takes damn fine pictures. Combined with a bigger CompactFlash card (the included 8Mb won't get you far), it will take loads of high resolution pictures.

The quality of the video clips also has to be seen to be believed - perfectly good for display on a website.

The only snags are the limited battery life - you deffo should buy a spare, and the lack of manual exposure control.

At the end of the day though - I bought this to replace my point and shoot 35mm Olympus Mju II - not my SLR. It's proved the perfect replacement - as 170 pictures from a friends wedding day testify.

Buy it - you won't be disappointed!

Being totally new to digital cameras, I wasn't sure exactly what to look for, I knew that the higher the pixel value the better, but wasn't exactly sure what it meant in the level of picture quality. All I required was a portable camera, which would produce good quality images and had the ability to connect to a TV/video. The IXUS V exceeded all expectations and I'm really pleased with it.

I wasn't intending to spend more than 250 but I'm glad I paid the bit extra as it has excellent build quality, a rechargeable battery pack and the ability to charge it from either a standard wall socket or a shaver socket, useful for travelling I thought.

The sharpness of the screen is incredible and shows up well even in sunlight, it obviously hits the batteries hard, but the option to turn it off helps prolong the battery life. Even though charging only takes a couple of hours.

The optical zoom is good and there are some built in effects for taking pictures, such as black and white images.

The auto picture setting is usually good enough and saves alot of fiddling although the ability to teak the picture a bit is there if you want it.

The ability to take video wasn't a major deciding factor but I'm glad it has it, as the quality is really impressive with a very good frame rate. When connected to a TV you can slide show all the images stored on the camera and play back video, which is a nice touch and the quality is again excellent.

The IXUS V comes with a lot of software, and installing on WIn98 caused a bit of a driver problem, although it is explained in the manual, it just requires you to point windows to a driver file. After which no problems, on Windows XP and 2000 it works fine apparently with no problems.

When you switch on the camera the software detects it and images are downloaded in seconds via the USB.

From the box I had an image taken and saved within 15 minutes without even reading the manuals. Although be prepared to use at least one battery charge to familiarize yourself with all menus and features.

All in all I'd recommend this camera to anyone, based on looks, size, image quality and connect ability. All the necessary cables are included and the extra memory of 64MB is really useful along with the case to protect the screen.

I was given one as a gift and have never looked back! As an earlier reviewer mentioned - I did buy a case and a 32mb memory card and it works really well. To preserve battery life - turn off the LCD screen and it lasts a long time. The small size means I take it everywhere and always get good shots. If you upload the pictures to a printing company you get remarkable results snail mailed back to you. Friends of mine have bought other more featured models from other companies and their pictures never seem to look as good - thats that icing on the cake.

Having previously used an Olympus(a nightmare of unneccesary complication, with a battery life measured in minutes), the Ixus is fantastic as a point-and-shoot camera. Great pix, ease of use and excellent built quality are its outstanding features and it's so small, I carry it in my pocket all the time now. For maximum versatility, get a spare battery, a 64M or 128M memory card, and the super Canon carrying case.

I purchased the Ixus V just before xmas and it has provide to be an excellent camera all ready. Small and easy to carry around. Enough features to keep you busy but not too complicated and so far the quality has been excellent. My only minor negative comment is that there is not battery life display so i will be investing in a spare battery. Now the price has dropped slightly too, i would definatley recommend the camera to anybody intrested in a digital camera.