In a market awash with models, one range of digital cameras has continued to impress. Sitting at the top of the current range, Canon's latest Digital Ixus 65 boasts a new body design, a larger screen, and adds an extra megapixel to the 5 megapixel sensor of the Ixus 55.
Anyone who is used to the Ixus 50 or 55, though, will be a little surprised to see that the new model adopts a similar body to that of the Ixus Wireless. Much of it is to do with the inclusion of the 3in LCD. Although it pushes the dimensions just 4mm in either direction, to 90 x 57mm, side by side the new model looks a lot larger. But with a body just 20mm thick, it'll still fit larger pockets at a pinch.
One-handed operation is made possible thanks to a new touch-sensitive thumb-pad, which is a welcome replacement for the four-way controller; it works well too, with easy-to-see animated icons.
With such a large screen, controls are kept to the minimum and the optical viewfinder has gone. The thumb-operated shooting mode slider has moved to the top plate, where it's not quite as accessible.
Although the LCD is larger than any on Canon's Digital SLRs, at 173Kpixels it's not as detailed or as sharply focused as smaller rivals, and under lighting extremes the LCD's performance isn't very inspiring. It fades in bright sunlight and the image is almost obscured by noise and banding under low lighting. We would have preferred a smaller screen and to keep the viewfinder.
We like the fast operation, though. It starts up fast and shot-to-shot times are under two seconds. Although there's an extra megapixel, with a high-speed SD card such as a SanDisk Ultra II, the Ixus 65 shoots continuously at around two frames per second. That's good for a compact, and the VGA size 30fps movie mode is well worth having too. But as we've seen 2GB SD cards for around £65, the 1GB recording limit could prove frustrating.
As we've come to expect, picture quality is good. Images are well exposed, nicely saturated and contrasty, although the zoom is a bit soft at the edges. Also, at this level, the 3x zoom range - albeit a handy 35-105mm equivalent - is beginning to lag behind rivals. And, from the maker that popularised the technology in still cameras, image stabilisation is strangely absent. A new high-sensitivity Auto ISO option helps but makes images noisy indoors. Outdoors in good lighting, though, the IXUS 65 excelled.
No one can deny that this camera is well put together and a step up. But considering the overall performance and the marginal improvements over the Ixus 60, the Ixus 65 doesn't look good value next to recent introductions from rivals. Panasonic's svelte FX01 and Nikon's P3 and P4 models offer similar performance for the price but boast extended capability. But if you value quality most of all, the Ixus 65 won't disappoint.
Verdict
Considering the overall performance and the marginal improvements over the Ixus 60, the Ixus 65 doesn't look good value next to recent introductions from rivals.
Author: Kevin Carter
MacUser Online