Canon IXUS 95 IS review

The Canon Digital IXUS 95 IS is a compact camera. Available in a range of different colours, it has a youthful feel. However, it's built around a stainless steel body with rather nicely curved edges and sits neatly in the hand.

The top of the unit sports power and shoot buttons with a small and rather fiddly zoom ring around the shoot button. While it's great to be able to zoom in on a subject, we found this one of the weaker features of the IXUS.

The buttons on the back of the unit sit flush with the body, so can be awkward for anyone with slightly large thumbs to access easily. They offer the standard array of functions and there is a neat switch allowing you to change modes from Still to Movie or Review on the fly.

One of the things we liked about the IXUS was its ease of use. The menu system is extremely straightforward and getting the best from the device is easy. The 2.5-inch screen is adequate, but we did feel that it isn't very sharp. This was largely due to washed out colours and a grainy look to the screen.

This is a 10-megapixel camera, so delivers images up to 3648 x 2736 pixels in size. After the rather washed out images onscreen, we were surprised with the results this camera delivered, as test images exceeded expectations, with even Macro images proving sharp and detailed.

With no built-in memory you'll need to add an SD or SDHC memory card before you can start shooting. The camera readily supports sizes up to 16GB. To help you remember to add a card, a dialogue box appears on screen whenever you try to take a picture without one loaded.

The Canon Digital IXUS 95 IS is an attractive camera, but we found it a little too compact and awkward to use long-term. That said, while you won't find any real surprises with the device, the image quality it delivers is great, but bear in mind the high price.

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