Canon Digital IXUS 55 Review
Posted on July 8th, 2008
Its automatic features and good image quality make this digital camera 5 megapixels an ideal candidate for taking shots on the fly.
Verdict Canon Digital IXUS 55
Thanks to its good image quality and its full set of features instant, the ultra Canon Digital IXUS 55 is a flagship of the range IXUS today.
Design
Not content to be aesthetic, the Canon Digital IXUS 55 offers a good grip. Weighing only 140 grams for the dimensions of 8.6 x 5.3 x 2.2 cm, it does not deform your pocket so disgraceful. However, it may be difficult to place his fingers around this small box. To shoot without moving, the best solution is to take the camera with both hands, failing which the index is likely to operate not only trigger this on top, but also the zoom around him.
Canon Digital IXUS 55 Review
Canon has been able to accommodate many elements over an area restricted. For example, the facade greets 3x optical zoom (which retracts behind a cache of protection when off), a small microphone, the lamp help to develop an electronic flash and viewfinder window optics. The underside of the aircraft includes a threaded metal (not plastic) for tripod and housing protected by a cover for the battery and memory card (SD or MMC). On one hand, you also find a hinged door that allows access to ports of entry and exit.
Apart from a power button and a recessed green light housed on the top, all other orders are fulfilled at the back, right on the LCD of 6.35 cm. You can change settings that are most frequently used via the navigation pad quadridirectionnel: press the top to switch between spot measurements, weighted central and evaluative or on the button down to choose between shooting mode individual and a gust retardant variable from 2 to 10 seconds. Pressing the left lets you select the mode of normal development, landscape and macro, while pressing on the right, you can activate the various flash modes (auto, forced, red-eye reduction, slow synchronization , Load).
The IXUS 55 is devoid of wheel selection of modes. The shift patterns reading, video and photo, made from a sliding switch at three positions. The different scene modes are in turn activated from a menu that appears when you press the button FUNC. SET in the centre of the navigation pad quadridirectionnel. The menu functions also allows access to essential settings such as exposure compensation (+ / - 2 EV in increments of 1 / 3 EV), sensitivity to light (50 to 400 ISO), level of compression and resolution.
Another button displays three-page menu of options for shooting, configuration and customization. He marked "DISP" allows you to switch between different options preview and display information on the screen. Finally, another dot is used to activate the printing and sharing.
Characteristics
The game features the Canon Digital IXUS 55 is, like the IXUS 50, a mixture of original minimalist basic functions and some interesting bonus. For example, it stipulates that six scene modes, but one of them is dedicated to the shooting submarine, useful when you use a waterproof box Canon (optional). The other modes are all ordinary (Portrait, Night Snapshot, Kids, Interior) as they: a digital macro mode uses the zoom and lets you enlarge a portion of the image so it fills the frame . In addition, the ingenious way "My Colors" you can increase the saturation of red, green and blue, darken or lighten the flesh tones, change color, reduce the saturation of all colors except one, and settle the balance of colors. Unfortunately, no mode dedicated to sports events or action scenes do is proposed. You do not hand over command to change the shutter speed or setting opening, which would have helped optimize the capabilities of this camera in burst mode.
The 3x zoom offers a good compromise between perspective and wide angle to telephoto view through a focal range of 35 to 105 mm (equivalent to a 35 mm camera). However, as the number of notches zoom is limited, the choice of focal length appropriate place so choppy and uncertain. Fortunately, the autofocus to nine points or fixed at the centre is effective up to 3 cm. However, you must use the LCD to frame, because the little optical viewfinder does not make any correction parallax.
You have a choice between modes of evaluative metering, or weighted central spot. On this model, Canon also offers the possibility of involving the extent to spot a point AF. The IXUS 55 automatically sets the shutter speed (between 15 and 1 / 1 500 s) and the setting opening (F2, 8 to F4, 9). The function of automatic noise reduction activates for exposures greater than 1.3 seconds.
As often for ultracompacts cameras with a small battery, Canon saves energy by limiting the power of flash: its scope does not exceed 3.5 m wide angle mode and 2.1 m at maximum telephoto when the ISO sensitivity is set to Auto.
This model range IXUS also offers useful reading options, including the possibility of expanding the image of 2 to 10 times, the rotation automatic or custom image, a histogram and voice annotation of your photos. You can also view photos as a slide show.
Functionality of the original IXUS 55, the video mode high speed of 60 frames per second (fps) can make a film in slow motion (cadence halved) with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and a period of 60 seconds. If you opt for clips with sound (mono) 30 fps and a resolution of 640 x 480 (whose quality approach that of a television), you can shoot until your memory card is full.
Performances
The Canon Digital IXUS 55 operates technology digital signal processing Digic II manufacturer to produce impressive performance. The time of the shutter is only 0.5 seconds in a lighting contrasts and remains very honourable to 1.1 seconds in a low-contrast lighting the lamp with aid in the development. Its time to start is only 2.2 seconds, you will also not need to wait a long time to catch the fateful moment. You can then continue to shoot at intervals of 1.62 seconds (3.01 seconds with the flash).
We have experienced a lot of fun to use burst mode. It allows you to take pictures of full size until all of your finger, we registered 143 photos on our memory card for 110 seconds, a speed shooting at 1.3 fps. When we lowered the resolution to 640 x 480 pixels, the IXUS 55 a machine-gunned to 1.7 fps for 3 full minutes before we n’interrompions the test.
The battery Lithium Ion 760 mAh proved too great. A single charge has enabled us to take 782 shots, half with flash and often alternating shots with the use of zoom, viewing photos and formatting the card, measures energy consumption. A red light began flashing about 50 shots before the battery makes the soul, but no signal has indicated before that the gradual depletion of the battery.
The LCD screen is more readable in darkness in full sun, because the direct lighting tend to lighten it. Even if a ghost effect occurs when the camera or the subject moves, it is nevertheless preferable to fit the screen rather than the optical viewfinder, which lacks precision and shows that 82% the actual image.
Image Quality
The image quality of Canon Digital IXUS 55 is slightly higher than its counterpart of 4 megapixels, the IXUS 40, and identical to that of his predecessor, the IXUS 50. This device has produced more photos sharp as those of the IXUS 40 but other 5-megapixel models in this category are better, especially at maximum telephoto. However, details of the photos were satisfactory in areas dark and light areas, but they were often masked by JPEG compression artifacts. For its part, the color saturation was a little inadequate with the default setting and flesh tones tended to present a dominant yellow.
A chromatic aberration in the form of fringe effect of a purple colour occurred around subjects against a day-and noise (tolerable at 50 or 100 ISO) was quite visible to the sensibilities highest ISO (ISO 400). Even if the flash produced a homogeneous lighting beyond its nominal range, thanks to an automatic increase of ISO, photos and obtained showed excessive noise. In addition, the function of red-eye reduction did not seem very effective.
Filed under Canon, Digital Cameras |
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