Photos: Hands-on with the Canon Digital IXUS 100 IS

We've got hold of one of the first Canon IXUS 100 IS cameras to arrive in the UK. There are loads of colours available, but we went for the hot red one. We're funny like that

Richard Trenholm

Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.

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Richard Trenholm

Feb. 19, 2009 9:55 a.m. PT

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Behold the Canon IXUS 100 IS. It's very red, isn't it? We can't decide if we like it or not. On the one hand, colour has been missing from the IXUS camera range for a while. On the other hand, isn't painting the lens ring a bit much? There are other colours, you'll be glad to know.

Canon trumpets the 100 as the slimmest compact camera in the world, or something -- these slimmest whatevers change every ten minutes. No, we jest, it's just the thinnest IXUS ever. Canon has employed Apple's MacBook Air trick of tapering the edges to get the camera's 1cm width at its thinnest point. There's no denying the 100 is very slim, with the tapering edges making it slide into a pocket like a whippet down a drainpipe.

It includes a 1/2.3-inch CCD and packs a 3x optical zoom. Optical image stabilisation is on board, as well as a 15-second long shutter. Face detection is supplemented by blink detection, face-spotting self-timer and auto red-eye correction.

Click through our lovely hands-on pictures to see just what's so special about the IXUS 100.

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The screen is a 64mm (2.5-inch) PureColor LCD II (TFT), packing 230,000-dot resolution.

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There are various scene modes and colour settings, including options to lighten or darken skin tone.

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The USB socket and mini-HDMI connector are placed on the shoulder of the camera.

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The 100 includes an optical viewfinder, but in a camera this size it's something of a compromise and required us to squint. Using the viewfinder doesn't turn off the screen, which is distracting.