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Canon Ixus 1000 HS review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £260
inc VAT

It’s not perfect, but with the best photo and video quality we’ve seen from a pocket-sized ultra-zoom camera, it’s an obvious Best Buy.

Specifications

1/2.3in 10.0-megapixel sensor, 10.0x zoom (36-360mm equivalent), 190g

http://www.amazon.co.uk

It’s 10 years since the first Digital Ixus camera, and Canon has marked the occasion with the launch of the 1000 HS. The number 10 is a running theme, defining the megapixel rating and the zoom range. Even the video mode records at 1080p (pronounced ten-eighty-p, in case you’re wondering).

We’ve got little time for marketing gimmicks, but in this case, the 10 theme makes a lot of practical sense. 10 megapixels strikes a sensible balance between detail and noise levels, and the back-illuminated sensor design (where the electronic circuits don’t get in the way of the light path) bodes particularly well for noise. Meanwhile, the 10x zoom lens nudges this camera into ultra-zoom territory – perfect for sightseeing, sports and nature photography, as well as capturing candid portraits. It’s not the brightest of lenses, with an f/3.5-5.6 aperture, but that’s par for the course for this type of camera. More disappointingly, the lens is lacking when it comes to wide-angle photography, starting at 36mm. Rival cameras manage anything from 30mm to 24mm, capturing a much wider field of view.

Ixus 1000 2

The design is up to the usual high standards of the Ixus brand. There’s a choice of silver, brown or pink finishes, and the plastic body looks and feels remarkably like metal. It’s also astonishingly petite for a 10x zoom camera, and will slip into a small pocket. There’s a well-proportioned 3in screen but its widescreen shape means 4:3-shaped photos appear quite small, and its 230,000-pixel resolution is nothing to get excited about either. Battery life is the biggest let down, surviving for just 150 shots. Additional batteries cost an extortionate £40. The HDMI output is welcome, though, providing 1080i playback on an HD TV.

The four-way pad doubles as a wheel for quickly adjusting settings, although there aren’t very many to adjust. Photographic options are limited, with no manual exposure or focus and a basic selection of other controls. There are some fun scene modes, though. Smart Shutter captures a photo when the camera detects a smile, a wink or a new person entering the scene. It’s unreliable and silly, but lots of fun. Handheld Night Scene mode is more useful, capturing four exposures in quick succession and aligning and combining them to reduce noise. It only works for static subjects but in the right situations it’s highly effective.

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Basic Specifications

Rating *****
CCD effective megapixels 10.0 megapixels
CCD size 1/2.3in
Viewfinder none
Viewfinder magnification, coverage N/A
LCD screen size 3.0in
LCD screen resolution 230,000 pixels
Articulated screen No
Live view Yes
Optical zoom 10.0x
Zoom 35mm equivalent 36-360mm
Image stabilisation optical, lens based
Maximum image resolution 3,648×2,736
Maximum movie resolution 1920×1080
Movie frame rate at max quality 24fps
File formats JPEG; QuickTime (AVC)

Physical

Memory slot SDXC
Mermory supplied none supplied
Battery type Li-ion
Battery Life (tested) 150 shots
Connectivity USB, AV, mini HDMI
HDMI output resolution 1080i
Body material plastic
Lens mount N/A
Focal length multiplier N/A
Kit lens model name N/A
Accessories USB and AV cables
Weight 190g
Size 59x101x22mm

Buying Information

Warranty one-year RTB
Price £260
Supplier http://www.amazon.co.uk
Details www.canon.co.uk

Camera Controls

Exposure modes auto
Shutter speed auto
Aperture range f/3.4 (wide), f/5.6 (tele)
ISO range (at full resolution) 125 to 3200
Exposure compensation +/- 2EV
White balance auto, 5 presets, manual
Additional image controls dyanamic range, contrast, saturation, sharpness, skin tone, red, green, blue
Manual focus Yes
Closest macro focus 1cm
Auto-focus modes centre, spot, face detect
Metering modes multi, centre-weighted, centre, face detect
Flash auto, forced, suppressed, slow synchro, red-eye reduction
Drive modes single, continuous, self-timer, smile detect, wink detect