Canon Digital IXUS 95 IS review: Canon Digital IXUS 95 IS

The Digital IXUS 95 may be pretty, and it may be a Canon, but if you've got around £180 to spend and all you ask is a 10-megapixel sensor and a 3x zoom, it'd take you a week just to read through the list of candidates. So should the IXUS 95 be anywhere near the top?

6.5

Canon Digital IXUS 95 IS

The Good

Design and finish; simple operation; inclusion of an optical viewfinder.

The Bad

Zoom range; mediocre lens quality; expensive compared to rivals.

The Bottom Line

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about the IXUS 95 IS is that it's a competent range-filler -- a routine but worthwhile update to a popular, lower-priced strand in the IXUS range. It's a lovely thing to look at and use, but despite the sheen of technology the results are average

Positives
You can't argue with the looks. Canon's designers are near the top of their game with this one. It's not flashy, necessarily, but it does look beautiful, whichever colour you choose. It feels good too, and round the back there's a conventional set of directional controllers rather than the spinning dial used on more upmarket models. It's one bit of cost-cutting that's more than welcome, since the controls are much easier to use as a result.

And look, there's even an optical viewfinder. Admittedly, it's tiny and slightly distorted, but it's worth having on days so bright you can't see the LCD properly, and it's a useful feature to have on a camera that might be used by digital first-timers. Let's face it, this is not a camera for photo experts. It's a classy little compact for people who want to grab snaps of all the important little moments in their lives without having to swallow a dictionary.

It's only a 3x zoom and it's not even at its widest setting, so where did all this barrel distortion come from? The 95's lens is weak in specs and performance (click image to enlarge)

It talks the part, too, with better-than-ever face-detection, a face self-timer which waits for you to get in the shot and then takes the picture, and automatic scene-mode detection, which works out what the camera's pointed at and adjusts the settings automatically.

Negatives
But while all this tech-talk might convince buyers to ditch last year's camera in favour of this one, it doesn't necessarily stand up to close examination. Sure, Canon's face detection can now pick out as many as 35 different people in a scene, according to the blurb, and they can be further away, in profile, not looking at the camera and so on.

The definition in the centre of the frame is good. It's well up to the standards of other 10-megapixel cameras, and 12-megapixel models won't necessarily give you much more

Okay, so it can 'see' 35 people, but it's still got to pick one to set the focus and exposure, and who's to say it's the one you want? There doesn't seem to be any way to change it. It's not the IXUS 95's fault, it's face-detection in general.

We're supposed to buy into this stuff because it sounds clever (hell, it is clever), without any clear sense of how the camera applies it, how to override it or whether it even makes any difference. The sort of difference that, say, a better lens might make.

Because this camera needs one. It's only a 3x zoom, it's not rocket science. It's not a wideangle, it's not a 20x superzoom, it's not a crunched-up 'folded' lens that doesn't extend from the body. It's got no excuse for the mushy edges and barrel distortion we got in our test shots. It's all right, for a snapper, but at this price you might reasonably be expecting something better.

Conclusion
The IXUS 95 IS would be a great camera for someone who didn't have to pay for it and had little to compare it to. It's pretty, smart and easy to use, and produces decent quality pictures that few casual users could find fault with. But the froth of new tech can't hide the desperately ordinary camera underneath.

Edited by Nick Hide