Canon Ixus i5

Style is a fi ckle mistress.
Today’s iPod is
tomorrow’s MiniDisc, and
no one wants to be stuck with a
gadget that’s neither geek nor chic.
Canon’s Ixus range of cameras
(both 35mm and digital) has a
long pedigree in shoehorning new
technology into ever more slinky
Key camera controls
packages, and the Ixus i5 is its
sexiest model yet.
Weighing just a little over 120
grams with battery, the i5 is a
comfortable handful of metal that
comes in a choice of four colours,
and has an elegant eyelet to let
you dangle it from your neck like
a 3G mobile handset. The corners
are nicely rounded and the controls
(there are just seven) are either
metallic or tough plastic.
Much of the i5’s miniaturisation
must be down to the fact that it
uses a fi xed focal length, fi xed
aperture lens instead of the 3x
optical zoom that’s become
standard, even in lifestyle cameras.
A tiny scrap of glass takes a couple
of seconds to peek out from the
metal lens surround.
Around the back, a modest
1.5-inch LCD saves a little more
space and means that the controls
don’t feel too squashed together.
As there’s no optical viewfi nder
(an increasingly common trend
with smaller ultra-compacts), the
screen provides the only method of
framing and feedback. The 78,000-
pixel display is average, there’s
blurring if you move the camera
quickly, and it has some diffi culties
resolving dark night-time scenes.
But colour rendition is good and the
icons and menus are excellent.
The i5 uses Canon’s superb
nine-point AiAF auto-focus system,
which fl ashes up a green square
on the part of the scene it locks
onto. You can choose spot focusing
instead, or a good macro mode that
can shoot down to 3cm, disabling
the fl ash. Focusing is generally
reliable but there’s a real problem
with the Canon’s fi xed aperture
optics. While a wide-open f2.8 lens
is helpful in dim conditions, it gives
a tiny depth of fi eld. This means
that if you shoot complex macro
scenes or get too close in a portrait,
you’ll fi nd that only the exact point
you focus on is sharp.
However, the real drawback of
this lens is its fi xed focal length,
equivalent to around 39mm on a
fi lm camera. This is fi ne for party
shots and general landscape
photography but it quickly feels
limited if you’re used to even a
modest 2x or 3x zoom lens.

Image quality

Technically, it’s quite sharp but it
suffers from purple fringing and a
loss of detail towards the edges.
For such a simple system, the optics
aren’t even that fast, with a shutter
delay of around a second and a
continuous mode that maxes out at
just under one frame per second.
There’s a digital zoom offering
up to 6.5x magnifi cation, but it’s
probably best to leave this switched
off, as it merely zooms in at the
expense of image quality. Shutter
speeds vary from 1/1,500 to 15
seconds, which is useful (though
mounting such a tiny camera on
a tripod is bound to raise a few
smiles). There are fi ve sensible white
balance presets, plus competent
auto and custom options.

Snap happy

This isn’t a camera that’s aimed
at photo enthusiasts, so most
snappers will be perfectly happy
with its basic scene modes,
exposure compensation and few
digital effects. It’s a bit of surprise
to fi nd evaluative, centre-weighted
and spot metering here – frankly,
they just aren’t needed because
Canon’s DIGIC processor delivers
fl awless exposures time after time.
Colours are confi dent, strong and
natural. The i5 seems to skirt any
noise problems admirably, not least
because that wide aperture and
wide lens mean you can stay at the
bottom end of the ISO 50 to 400
sensitivity scale a lot of the time.
Full resolution 5-megapixel
images lack a touch of sharpness
but, overall, the image quality is
consistently high, especially when
using the fl ash. Flash power and
exposure are very well judged,
whether as a fi ll-in for daylight
shadows, slow synch to add
atmosphere to indoor shots or just
in plain old auto mode. The built-in
unit is right next to the lens, so
consider switching on the red-eye
reduction for party portraits.
The i5 is powered by a lithiumion
rechargeable battery (buy a
back-up as the battery life isn’t
stunning), and it comes with a
32MB Secure Digital card. Movies
are large enough to watch on TV
but they’re jerky at just ten frames
per second. Audio from a tiny frontmounted
microphone is good.
There’s no getting away from
the fact that the i5 is a fashion
accessory fi rst and a camera
second. As an alternative to a
camera phone, it’s easy on the eye,
handles well and takes great party
snaps. Ultimately, however, it lacks
the fl exibility and power that a
serious photographer will demand,
even from a back-up camera