Canon IXUS 220 HS Black

Product Information

The low cost also part excuses the fact that the back plate 4:3 aspect ratio LCD, utilized for composition and review in the absence of any separate viewfinder, is a relatively modest 2. The crops above are from shots taken at 1/5 with the IS turned off (left) and on Continuous (right). While the 220 HS isn't going to replace the quality results delivered by a digital SLR when shooting at night or with long exposures, it certainly produces some of the best low-light images that we've seen from a compact.

The Digic 4 processor’s approach to scene detection is a sophisticated one, first determining whether there are people in the frame and if they are moving, then what the lighting conditions are and finally whether the camera is mounted on a tripod. Whilst finding Full HD on a budget model is both surprising and welcome, so too is the fact that stereo sound is offered, via two microphones lurking beneath adjacent pin pricks on the camera's top plate. There’s also the Movie Digest mode that captures up to 4 seconds of footage at a time before joining your clips together.Movie shooting employs Dynamic IS which provides extra stabilisation to iron out wobbles caused, for example by walking and shooting a the same time. Flick the two-way exposure mode switch to the alternate position and you enter Program mode or one of the 24 scene modes listed on the exposure mode flyout of the Func menu. In summing up, whilst the Canon IXUS 220 HS is not the most innovative model of recent months to land on our test slab, all things considered it's another Recommended award from the Photographyblog team of testers for anyone looking for an undemanding good value pocket camera that will deliver decent image quality with the minimum of fuss. A press of the ‘func/set’ button in Smart Auto mode brings up a toolbar on the left side of the screen with a very limited array of options: self timer, the ability to control image aspect ratio, plus a choice of JPEG image size (Large, two Medium options, Small) and compression level (Fine or Normal) depending on how many shots you want to squeeze on to your SD, SDHC or SXHC memory card – there’s no internal memory supplied with the camera. The audio was also surprising - I was dubious the sound may be less than adequate considering the small two pin-prick holes for the microphone on top of the camera.

I brought this camera so I had something to use on evenings out - light and small enough to carry around. For extra creativity there is a variety of filters to choose from, such as: Fish-eye, Miniature, Toy Camera, Monochrome, Colour Accent and Colour Swap. I’m not going to produce noise and colour tests for the camera, nor am I going to list the various functions and features of the camera. This feature of the IXUS 220 HS may appeal to travel snappers wanting to record a bit more of their surroundings, but the camera doesn’t feature the latest must-haves of GPS, nor is it moisture resistant.Though the ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS doesn’t have a hotshoe it can be used with Canon’s HF-DC1 and HF-DC2 external slave flash units. Viewing these test images highlights some chromatic aberrations in places, particularly with contrasting colours. Its low-light shooting credentials are suggested by the ‘HS’ suffix, standing for ‘high sensitivity’, delivered here by a back-lit sensor and Digic 4 image processor. The buttons are easy to press and fairly typical for a compact camera, there is a dedicated button for recording movies and also one which switches to Smart Auto mode.

I`m sorry for a long post, but I believe it can be of use to people, probably for some other camera models, too, where users experience similar problems, at least to help them understand what`s going and and how to get the best possible results with their camera.The Canon IXUS 220 HS’s power switch is slightly recessed into the top plate to prevent accidental activation when handling the camera.