Canon IXUS 75 review

A promising compact on paper but will it match up to its reputation?

It’s seven years since Canon produced the original Digital IXUS, which at the time was the smallest 2-megapixel camera available. It wowed with its tiny size and was an instant hit, despite the eye-watering price tag of around £450.

Since then, many have copied and improved upon the original formula and now we have the latest Canon compact with the IXUS badge – the IXUS 75. First impressions count for a lot and the IXUS seems to have the perfect blend of style and substance. We hope that whoever is responsible for this design will have a hand in the design process of future incarnations of this legendary camera – it really does look that good! Turning the camera to view the rear and the brilliant design work continues, with an excellent 3-inch LCD that works perfectly even in bright sunlight conditions.

Canon should be applauded for not using misleading marketing statements, as it makes no claims of image stabilisation on the new IXUS 75, despite the camera offering ISO 1600 as part of its sensitivity range. It would have been very easy for Canon to jump on the marketing bandwagon and say that the IXUS had some form of ‘electronic stabilisation device’. However, it obviously decided (and rightly so) that this is just simply wrong and make no such claims in any of its marketing.

Canon has incorporated the very latest version of its Digic III processor, which results in almost instant start-up times. It’s difficult not to overstate just how impressive the responsiveness of the camera actually is. If you compare the IXUS against what many will regard as its main rival, the Nikon S50c, the Nikon makes you feel like you’re stirring treacle. The Canon, in comparison, feels nimble and decisive and using the camera is both pleasurable and rewarding.

The IXUS 75 is also one of the few cameras on test to offer a manual mode, even though in reality it’s more of a program mode with a few options covering exposure compensation, WB and metering. The camera also has a Face Detection mode and we’re now seeing this feature appearing across the whole compact camera spectrum as the current trend of higher specs and lower prices continues.

In our tests, the Canon’s 7.1-megapixel sensor seemed to offer the greatest dynamic range and managed to capture sky detail in some of our images, where the others displayed none. Colours straight from the camera were also excellent and equally the camera’s high ISO performance from 400-800 was acceptable for a compact. Even ISO 1600 is probably usable as a last resort; just don’t expect images that can be printed at A4 size.

With the IXUS 75, we feel that Canon has recaptured some of the charm that left us with fond memories of the original all those years ago. It’s really well made, creates excellent photographs and has the best LCD screen of the bunch. But has it done enough to regain its crown, or has one of the young contenders knocked it from the top spot?