Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon Digital IXUS 85 IS Compact Camera - Black (10 MP, 3x Optical Zoom) 2.5 inch High Resolution PureColor LCD II

I had a Casio Exilim before and hated it (the night pictures were awful and the flash was random) and a Sony Cybershot before that (you could make a cup of tea in the time it took to actually take the shot).

I bought this camera about a year ago and it has never disappointed. It takes clean shots everytime I use it, wherever and whenever I take a picture. I am a serious novice at using cameras, setting the flash on and off and maybe the quality of the picture is about as much setting up as I can muster. A great click and point camera. I can't comment on its professional capacity as I wouldn't have a clue. Oh yes, another thing that is great about this camera is that it takes shots very quickly and the face tracking feature is really neat. Its well built, feels solid and looks great too.

I am delighted with this camera. I had been fretting for some time about buying a suitably compact digital camera to replace my Konica Minolta Dimage (only 3 megapixels) which I had thought a great design. This Canon is it. Not only is it beautifully designed, it is easy to use (yet has sufficient features to keep the geeks among us content), produces wonderfully high-definition (10 megapixel) pictures, and is small enough to go comfortably in your pocket.
At the time of writing (September) I'm also impressed with the battery - I bought the camera in August, have been (as you can imagine) playing with it frequently to see what it can do, have taken easily 200 pictures including a fair number with flash, and a little video - but haven't yet had to recharge the battery after its initial charge on the day I received it.

I just got this camera and tried it with some test shots.
This is a pocket camera for point and shoot situations. It is not for pro-photographers, so if you are one of those you will be disappointed. If you are looking for more control you are better off buying something like the Powershot G9.

*It has very quick start-up.
*Build quality is excellent also feels quite heavy so you know you are holding it!
*Image quality is good with flash or ample light. In low-light conditions, performance degrades a bit.
*High ISO performance (above 300) not so good, but you would expect that from a pocket camera.
*Macro mode for close up shots is excellent.
*Image stabilization (IS) is excellent.
*The box comes with everything you will need, just a separate SD card purchase is needed.

The reason I give it 4 stars is that I did not feel it had any extra (special) features in terms of picture quality or zoom over its siblings (IS 80 for eg) which have lower price. So you are mostly paying extra for the fact that it is a cannon and it is very compact and pretty plus the few extra megapixels.

Also low-light performance is poor. The face detection gets messed up in low-light and the flash is so powerful that people come up with red-eyes or closed eyes. Skin tones also come up unusually red and unnatural with flash.

Overall, good for taking pictures when there is plenty of light. With flash though expect not-so-good results.

Recieved this camera as a present. Beautiful tiny size. A delight to put in ones pocket before a day out. Beats carrying my Fuji 6500fd in a large case. Nice big screen so you can compose the image. I've had the Canon A80 and A95 in the past and for user friendly-ness the Ixus is as good. Have put a 4gb SDHC card in and its telling me on the highest resolution I could get 894 photos on the card. Battery life is superb. The biggest drawback of this camera, and it is a huge drawback for me, is the quality of the photos. They are not as sharp as my old A80 4MP, A95 5MP or my Fuji 6500fd (sharpest camera I've ever owned). The Ixus is 10mp so you would think that it would be the best of the lot.... wrong. The problem possibly lies with the lens, although quite sharp in the middle, towards the edges of the frame, expecially corners, I would say that the image quality is terrible, slushy and blurred. Nice camera let down by poor optics/CCD.

I previously had a Nikon S6 which was about 6MP, and I thought I needed an upgrade, and naturally I assumed I would go up in model to the new S7C, or equivalent. I decided rather than buying "blindly" of the Internet - I would instead try my hand at actually going in to a Camera Store and get the opinions of the camera expert. Now I was presented with a Canon IXUS 85 IS, and straight away I played it down, because my heart was set on a Nikon. After weeks of checking out other cameras, I went back in to the store, and I actually tested it : a. Size and b. Quality against the Nikon, and I did not think much of it, until I got home, and checked it out. I gotta say, the Canon grew on me, and I am loving all the features, and messing with the ISO, to give me the best shot. I just can't wait to take it on my African Adventure. A highly desirable camera, both aesthetically and quality.