Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon Digital IXUS 980 IS Camera - Black (14.7MP, 3.7x Optical Zoom) 2.5 inch PureColor LCD II Viewfinder

This is a brilliant little camera, it combines good looks with great results. We previously had a G9 which was great outdoors but the results indoors with flash were very harsh. This is fantastic, the results are very natural, and the on board software edits out the red eye if required. The manual settings allow a great deal of flexibility, if you believe that you can achieve better results than the auto settings produce! We are extremely pleased.

The first thing I would like to say is that I didn't want to like this camera, why? Well I love my photography and a camera should look and feel like a camera, it should take 2 hands to hold it and say look at me..I'm a camera, I'm a Digital SLR!

Well imagine my joy when I opened the box and saw this Ixus whimpering in the corner, bullied in to submission by its user manual and associated leads, even more so when I switched it on and the `tiny little lens' extruded from its body almost timid and afraid of the big world.

My first couple of shots were compared to identical shots on my slr and yet again I gloried in my slr's ability to obtain fine detail compared to this Ixus..I laughed in its face..untill I noticed I had it set in minimum quality mode...!

From here on in it all went wrong...The images are superb, the detail and colours are natural and clear, it doesn't take time to set up the right light levels, check aperture and shutter speed, in fact you turn on, point and shoot!

My only saving grace would be to test the Ixus in very low light levels as I thrive on getting night shots, surely it would cave in here..but sadly not...not only can you set this into full manual mode and let your artistic side run away, but just in Auto mode the camera was selecting all the right settings that I would have strived for with my slr.

I liken the Ixus 980 to taking the children to the local dog's home, you say all the way there, `we are only going to look!' and yet later that day you find yourself the proud owner of a Labrador puppy !

I have only had the camera a couple of days and yet I am already amazed at how versatile this little thing really is, my 5 year old can take a great little picture, albeit completely off centre, you crop in picture view mode and there you have a superb picture!

In manual mode, you have full control like any camera but just let the camera do its own thing and you will be amazed at just how well it knows itself and what to do next.

This is a truly great camera, I know it is a little bit more expensive than most but you really are getting your monies worth.

Well done Canon, a fine piece of engineering and finally, an Ixus in Black...a proper camera colour.

I love my photography and I have the Canon EOS 50d DSLR camera, but as you need a rucksack just to take everything you need out, I wanted a point and shoot for the times you are not going on expedition! I have been a fan of the Canon ixus range ever since my first 2mp digital camera, with good software and ease of use was always my first choice. So after my DSLR I was worried I would have been spoilt, however this camera has the same number of pixels, uses the same processor and has many of the same functions like IS and lots of other useful functions like face recognition. It also has many of the preset modes that the DSLRs have and even has a semi-manual mode if you feel a bit adventurous! Only small criticism is that it's not the smallest camera on the market so doesn't quite so easily fit into your pocket, but then I think it's worth it for all the functionality you get

I bought this as a replacement for the IXUS 800 IS. Took a long time to choose between the new wide-angle lenses and this one, but was swung over by the waterproof case possibility. The camera is small and light, and I like the black. The menu is slightly less intuitive than the ixus 800 but this is mainly because there are so many more options and lots of manual settings - including flash levels, though the flash is still generally too strong. Found it strange that it doesnt come with a detailed manual, but you can download that for free from Canon. Battery life is good, images are sharp. The on/off button does need a hard press, but thats good if you only have the sock as a case.

This camera is absolutely brilliant. I'm in Oz at the moment and I've just bought one of these to take my travelling photo's and it is the easiest to use and most rewarding camera ever. You can, if you want, change all the settings and go manual, but I've taken 600 pics in the last 3 weeks and haven't felt the need so far..my pics are on facebook and my mates comment on them all the time..the quality of shots is nowt to do with me!

If you want to take a nice picture of your girlfriend (or boyfriend), set it to sepia, shoot, bob's your uncle, she's in love with you - she'll look stunning - don't believe me, try the camera out in a camera shop...

Sunsets and scenery can be done in black and white, or mess around with the colours and see what happens..

I know this review sounds jovial and a bit waffley, but what do you want to hear - I could bore you with explaining how each feature works like they say it does and blah blah blah. Basically, if you're after a compact digital and you've got £250+ to spend, then this is it - I can't imagine that anything else comes close to producing the images that this thing does.

This is my second Ixus (nothing wrong with the previous one, just my stupidity..) the other was a 5 yr old Ixus 50, which was one of the best things I ever owned and this baby is even better..I've had Nikon and Olympus, a Canon A720 (not so good, check my review) and used Sony and while they're all good...this is business.