Canon Ixus Digital Cameras Reviews
Personal experience for Canon Ixus 800is,Canon A640,Canon A570is,Casio EX Z850.??

I am willing to buy one of the above digital cameras,I have done my work with reviews,manuals etc and I need personal experiences for these cameras.What was impressive and what was a complete disappointment.
Thanks in advance,I am looking forward for your answers…
Dromeas(Greece)

I just bought the IXUS 800-IS (which is the Powershot SD700-IS in the USA) for my daughter and I got to play with it fro a few shots. I have had the IXUS 900 Ti for a couple of months now and I really love the camera. To tell you the truth, I may like the IXUS 800-IS better than the 900, but I’m not really sure. That image stabilization really does make a difference. I know that my camera has 10 MP, but the 6 MP 800 appears to have equally sharp images in my very limited testing. In other words, I am indeed very impressed with the “IS” feature.

I have used my son’s A620 and played with my brother’s A630 a bit, so I have an idea what the A640 would be like. It does have a larger sensor (almost double the size) than the IXUS 800 does, so you would expect better image quality, especially in lower light. (This is where I am hoping that my 900 actually beats the 800, since it also has the larger sensor.) I like the tilt-out monitor, as I have used that extensively on my Nikon Coolpix 5400. It adds a new dimension to your photography. You can use the camera over head, at waist level, at sidewalk level, or even “around corners” aiming to the side as you appear to be looking straight ahead. It’s very helpful for desktop macro photos.

I really like the pocket-size of my 900 (which is almost identical in size to the 800 you are looking at) and the A640 is quite a bit bigger. You can’t put the A640 in a pocket at all. I have taken about 200 pictures with the 900 Ti and I have not had to charge the battery yet, so I am quite satisfied with battery life. I expect the 800 to do about as well, although the “IS” might drain the batteries faster. You have the option of using “IS” in a continuous mode or only for the instant you are pressingthe shutter, which is how I set up my daughter’s camera. (Of course, you can turn off the “IS,” but I am not sure why you would…) I assume that continuous “IS” would drain the battery faster.

The use of “AA” batteries in the A640 is handy in case your rechargeable batteries die at an inconvenient time. You can just pick up a set in almost any store at all. My son gets amazing life out of the Energizer e2 Lithium batteries, though. He doesn’t bother with rechargeable batteries, because he says he’d just loose the charger if he took it out of the box.

I don’t have personal experience with the other two cameras, so I can’t comment on them.

Based on my experience with various Canon cameras, I will say that the A640 might give you techincally better images under some circumstances and it will definitely allow more cropping due to the 10 MP image size, but the “IS” on the 800 is an amazing thing. The A640 will also allow shutter or aperture priority shooting, which is a handy thing for near-total control, but the IXUS series does allow EV corrections, so you can effect some degre of exposure control.

I have handled several examples of the A5xx series, but not the A570-IS. It could squeeze into a pocket. It seems like it’s a bridge between the A640 and IXUS 800-IS with some features from either end. It only has 2 “AA” batteries and I have heard that they run down faster than the cameras with 4 “AA” batteries. It is a bit cheaper than the other two cameras.

Among the three Canon’s, I’d give the IXUS 800-IS the nod because the ultra-coolness factor. I like the “IS” and I like the smaller size of the IXUS better than the A570-IS. You mostly have to decide if you can live without aperture and shutter priority. I have my dSLR to use when I really care about creative control, so I don’t miss it at all on the 900 Ti.

Plus, TomTom and Petra both like their 800′s. (SD700)

Canon Ixus Digital Cameras Reviews

Beginners Guide to Digital SLR Cameras

There comes a time in everyone’s life when he or she wonders if there is more to photography than a palm-sized block of aluminum that is the point and shoot camera stowed away in their pocket.
The compact point and shoot camera has come so far in the last ten years that it’s tempting to write off Digital SLR’s as somewhat irrelevant to a lot of people’s lives, not offering enough utility to offset their quite bulky size and hefty price tag.
Folks get by now with just a Mobile phone camera, they don’t even have a point and shoot!
As soon as I bought my first compact camera, a few years ago, the Canon Ixus, I was in this boat. I asked myself “what more could one possibly need?”
I told myself I would never need a Digital SLR.
For many months I even used a Phone camera with the Sony image stabiliser and at 3.2 Mega pixels this was a great little camera that almost fulfilled my needs.
How could I posibly need a Digital SLR?
Well, some time ago, I owned a Canon 35mm SLR, I used it for some years in fact, I believe the model number was A1.
The shots I took with this were very good, the drawback was obviously the film developement, or lack of the facility to perform this myself, after all, at this time you had to set up your own Dark Room, (if you had the space) which I didn’t.
I was very interested in improving the pictures I took in a sort of artistic way, (not in a technical way). The point and shoot cameras at 10 Mega pixels are adequate even the most tech’ people and produce excellent graphic results if you know how to operate the relevant software.
No, what I wanted was to improve the atmospheric quality of the Pic’s….
After a great deal of umming and arring I dove in and bought my first Digital SLR, a Canon 1000D, not the most expensive by any means, but hey, I was just dipping my toe in the water.
How things have changed.
Digital Slr’s need no such requirements as a dark room and all the gubbins that you need to print the pictures you want.
The requirements are.

• A computer.
• A quality printer.
• A reasonable knowledge of the software provided with the camera.

If you have your own software that you are pretty familiar with you can even use this.
My pictures have improved a lot, due mainly to the manual settings I can achieve with the camera and the functions available in the software, if you can’t achieve the shots you want with the camera, you can certainly get what you need with the software.
When you take a good picture and learn how to use the software the limits are endless.
The conclusion then:
If you are interested in improving the pic’s you take and preserving them for posterity, get yourself a Digital SLR now. Don’t pay the earth, we all have fads and if this turns out to be one you won’t have spent the earth.
If you aren’t interested in improving your photo’s, stick with your point and shoot.
For more info’ and reviews on Digital SLR’s visit.
The Best Digital Camera Store
Keep smiling.
Ken Trueman.

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