In summary
Effective image stabilisation makes the 4x optical zoom lens usable in indoor lighting.The first Ixus camera with image stabilisation (IS), Canon’s new Ixus 800IS is styled like the Ixus 750 with rounded corners to its sleek metal body. However, it has a smaller 6-megapixel sensor and longer 4x optical zoom lens. The IS system uses vibration sensors to detect and correct slight camera shake by shifting a lens element. Couple this with ISO settings up to 800 and you can shoot at approximately three EV steps lower than with a non-stabilised lens. . . [more]
Full review
The first Ixus camera with image stabilisation (IS), Canon’s new Ixus 800IS is styled like the Ixus 750 with rounded corners to its sleek metal body. However, it has a smaller 6-megapixel sensor and longer 4x optical zoom lens. The IS system uses vibration sensors to detect and correct slight camera shake by shifting a lens element. Couple this with ISO settings up to 800 and you can shoot at approximately three EV steps lower than with a non-stabilised lens.
The image sensor on the 800IS is the same as the Ixus 65 and many of its functions are also identical – or very similar. However, the 800IS has a small optical viewfinder and smaller LCD screen. Its body is also 6.2mm thicker. A small mode dial in the side panel accesses the playback, full auto manual, scene and movie shooting modes. It’s a bit fiddly to use, but less likely to be inadvertently readjusted than the mode dials in some other Canon digicams.
Twelve scene pre-sets are provided and the manual mode lets you adjust exposure, white balance, metering modes, resolution and quality as well as the My Colours settings. These include Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Red, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green and Custom Color, so users can customise colour preferences both before and after shooting.
Six image size settings are provided, including four with 4:3 aspect ratio (Large, Medium 1, Medium 2 and Small) plus a Postcard Date Imprint mode that records 3:2 images with optional date embedding and a 16:9 Widescreen mode.
Three movie resolutions are provided: VGA, QVGA and QQVGA but only with 4:3 aspect ratio, although frame rates of 15 and 30fps are supported for VGA and QQVGA, with 60fps for QVGA movies. With a high-speed card, ‘Standard’ movie clips can be recorded until a 1GB card is full, although ‘Compact’ clips are limited to three minutes, and Fast Frame Rate movies stop at one minute.
The test camera produced bright, punchy images with wider than average dynamic range and slightly elevated saturation. The image stabilisation system effectively reduced possible camera shake in moderately dim indoor lighting. Low light shots were noise-free up to ISO 200 but noisy at ISO 400 with colour mottling evident at ISO 800. White balance performance was good but the camera was unable to fully correct the red cast of incandescent lighting in auto mode, although the manual settings delivered excellent correction.
Flash performance was also good, with sufficient illumination to cover an average room from ISO 100 up. Imatest showed resolution to be adequate and lateral chromatic aberration was negligible. Colour accuracy was also very good. We recorded an average capture lag of 0.5 seconds, which reduced to 0.1 seconds with pre-focusing. In burst mode the camera recorded shots at 0.6 second intervals to memory capacity, at all resolution settings. [28]
Specifications
Image sensor: 5.76 x 4.29mm CCD with 6 million photosites (6.0 megapixels effective)
Lens: 5.8-23.2mm f2.8-5.5 zoom (35-140mm in 35mm format)
Zoom ratio: 4x optical, 4x digital
Dimensions (wxhxd): 90.4 x 26.4 x 56.5mm
Weight: Approx. 165g (without battery and card)
Image formats: Stills – JPEG (Exif 2.2); Movies – Motion JPEG/WAV (VGA, QVGA, QQVGA at 15/30 fps).
Shutter speed range: 15-1/1600 sec.
Focus system/range: TTL AF with 9-point AiAF/1-point AF (fixed: centre); range 45 cm to infinity; macro 2-60 cm.
Exposure metering/control: Evaluative, Centre-weighted average, Spot metering; Program AE plus 11 scene modes and 11 My Colours settings.
White balance: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent (x2), Custom.
Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Auto, On, Off, Slow-synchro; Red-eye Reduction is available; range 50 cm to 3.5 m.
ISO range: Auto, ISO 80, 100, 200, 400, 800.
Sequence shooting: Approx 2.1 frames/sec.
Storage Media: 16 MB SD card; holds
Viewfinder: Real-image optical zoom
LCD monitor: 2.5-inch Low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT display.
Power supply: NB5L rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
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Ted’s Cameras
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Rating
RRP: $799
Rating (out of 10):
- Build: 9
- Ease of use: 8.5
- Image quality: 8
- OVERALL: 8.5