 good purchase, 2010-08-18
i bought this camera a month ago and i found it very good specially its picture quality among other features.
 small and beautifully formed - but needs to eat more carrots, 2010-08-26
my main camera is a canon G10. it's a brilliant camera but just a shade on the big side for carrying with me all the time. so, having used ixuses since way back with the ixus 400, i bought myself one of these as my "carry-it about-in-your-pocket. have-it-on-you-all-the-time. isnae-the-end-of-the-world-if-you-break-it" backup camera. mainly i was attracted by the low price [i got it on offer for £[]-odd], my previous experiences with the ixus range [i got 6 years and 8000+ photos out of my original ixus 400 - and it was still going strong, til' i stood on it and broke the screen], and the small size [think "credit card as fat as a matchbox"].
well, like i say, i've had it a few months now, so that's long enough to have formed some opinions:
THE GOOD
* durable construction - the ixus 100IS has a metal body, not a crappy plastic shell. this makes it pretty durable. clumsy eejit that i am, i inadvertently put this durability to the test, within about two weeks of getting the camera; i was checking out a rattle from the exhaust on my van and lay down on the ground to take a look. as i did so, the ixus slid out of my pocket and wedged up against my pert young buttock. thinking i'd lain down on a stone, i reached down without looking and hauled the offending article out from underneath me, thus dragging it across the tarmac. as a result, the front of the casing now has some nice deep gouges scraped across it. the camera however still functions absolutely perfectly. i dinnae think i would have been so lucky with a flimsier plastic-cased model.
* size - i've not got exceptionally big hands, but i did worry a bit before the ixus arrived as to whether or not it would be a bit fiddly to operate, what with being so small. but i've had no trouble at all. you might not want to try and use it on a cold winter's day with a pair of gloves on but, for day-to-day use, it's fine, in spite of its diminutive size. the tiny size is one of the ixus's best features. it really is the camera that you can carry with you all the times, without even thinking about it.
* HD video - the ability to shoot video on a digital camera has long been one of those features [like building an FM radio into a frying pan] which add another bullet point to the list of spec's, but are pretty useless in the real world. lately however this has been changing with people even making commercial movies using the video capabilities of top-end DSLRs, rather than using 'real' film cameras. this technology is now trickling down to the cheaper end of the market, so that you can now shoot near broadcast quality video on this tiny camera. there's almost nothing in the way of control [focus is fixed at the start of filming and can't be changed as you shoot], but you can use the zoom and, at the end of the day, it's HD video from a camera the size of a creditcard!
THE BAD
* sensitivity - as well as the 'auto' setting, the ixus 100IS has manual ISO settings from 80-1600. in theory this should be more than enough for photography in very low light conditions. however, in practice i find that, even shooting indoors in well lit, big windowed rooms, i'm regularly having to push the ISO settings right up to 800 and 1600, just to get a shutter speed above 1/30th second, so i can hand-hold the camera. and this is on one of the medium settings -not even fullsize resolution. i've no numerical evidence to back this up, but i've used several canon digital cameras over the years and the ixus 100IS is the first one where it feels like i've so often had to manually select an ISO setting because on 'auto' the shutter speed was just going to be far too slow.
i think canon have been sucked into the 'megapixel wars' a bit here. even my G10 [which is a high-end 'pro' compact] has a resolution of 'only' 10MP. unless you're planning to regularly print out your photographs at A3 or A2 size -in which case you'd be unlikely to be using a tiny point'n'shoot compact like this, in the first place- you simply don't need 12MP [4000px X 3000px] resolution on this type of camera. canon would have been far better off using a lower resolution [6 or 8MP], higher sensitivity sensor in the 100IS.
THE UGLY
* i've mentioned above the 'idiot-inflicted wounds', which caused me to scratch the front of the casing. however, even ignoring them, my ixus would still be looking a bit less-than-new, only a few months after purchase. it's great to have a metal casing and the camera looks slinky in black, but unfortunately the black coating tends to wear off quite quickly and easily. my ixus already has the silver metal showing through on a couple of its corners, just from day to day use and being slid into and out of my pocket. i reckon in a year's time it will look decidedly the worse for wear. personally this doesn't bother me. i like my possessions to have a bit of a patina as i think it gives them character but, if you're the kind of person who obsesses about keeping their gadgets in showroom condition, you'd probably be better off going for the silver version.
SUMMARY
* a great, solid wee camera which takes excellent photos and shoots HD video. let down slightly by the poor lower-light sensitivity of the image sensor.
Great compact, 2010-08-15
I wanted to replace my Fuji camera which, despite great quality pics, was too big for a compact and did not have any particularly special features. The Canon is great - pocket sized but gives great quality pics, excellent resolution and higher quality HD videos than I expected. There are better cameras around but to get one this small and for a reaonsable price would be tricky in my opinion.
Simply Brilliant, 2010-08-02
IXUS 100 is simply a brilliant compact, takes amazing clear pictures, fantastic colours, and very good image stabilizer. There are quite few options to play with, but even the smart auto mode is surprisingly good. The sleek body has a great finish, very light and extremely pocketable. The added view finder comes in quite handy when its low on battery life, which by the way is good too. Yes I know it does not have a wide-lens, or more zoom, but for the price and the size it delivers more than enough, and you can always go for IXUS 120 or 130 if those specs what you after, or if you can stretch your budget a bit more then maybe the SX210 or (if budget can still stretch) the superb S90. Overall, this camera will never disappoint, and it takes better pics than my TZ7. Highly recommended.
Ixus 100, 2010-07-12
As with all the other positive reviews I don't have anything extra to add EXCEPT CHOOSING THE CORRECT SD CARD for this and any other quality camera using HD video recording. If you wish to make video recordings of a longer duration than 25/35 seconds, make sure you choose an SD card that is a MINIMUM CLASS 4. I recently bought this camera, a case and an 8 gb SD card as advertised by Amazon stating that most people purchased it 'when buying this camera' (which happens to be a CLASS 2). However, when my recordings were being cut short to less than half a minute, I scoured the internet to see if anybody else had this problem-and yes they had-but no answers as to why. After scrolling through the Canon literature, in the small print it tells you quite nonchalantly "don't use an SD card of a lower value than Class 4 or your recording could stop at any given time.." - this quote isn't verbatim but is the general crux. I am not casting any blame on Amazon or Canon-both admiral companies-but I think that there should be a recommendation of a minimum value SD card and what would happen if you ignored the advice.
Of course, should you wish to make 'mini recordings' of just a few seconds then the standard Class 2 is for you. Needless to say, there is a jump in price for the higher Class 4. I hope this review is of help to anyone about to choose this or maybe any other quality camera that has the fabulous HD feature.
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