Canon Ixus 1100 HS

A powerful zoom lens usually makes for a relatively bulky camera, but Canon's Ixus 1000 series is something of an exception. After a fist model that still left room for improvement, Canon is back with the Ixus 1100 HS, an updated version that's been treated to the wide-angle lens that was sorely missing in its predecessor, as well as a touchscreen.

Handling

The Ixus 1100 HS hasn't inherited the chiselled edges of the Ixus 1000 HS. However, this new, more classic design doesn't stop the camera from looking a bit chunky, especially next to the likes of the Ixus 230 HS. It's a heavy camera too, as at 200 grammes it's heavier than Canon's S100 expert compact and just 13 grammes lighter than the SX230 HS! The camera's weight is probably the first thing you'll notice about it—even before you spot its giant screen (which seems even bigger since it's stretched out into 16:9 format). Plus, the lack of grip handle, thumb-rest or textured surfaces makes the camera a bit difficult to keep hold of. Thankfully though, build quality is good, even if the memory card compartment door could have a slightly more reassuring lock.


The 3.2-inch LCD displays pleasant pictures with relatively sharp quality, even if light greys tend to be washed out to white and colours are verging on crazy (deltaE = 12). Note that since this is a resistive touchscreen, you do have to make sure you press on it properly for the camera to register your commands. The interface is as straight-forward and as pleasant as in the firm's other recent touchscreen compacts, but it'd be even better if the screen tracked your finger more accurately. For example, while the drop-down menus are certainly very stylish, only three lines can be displayed at any one time, and it isn't particularly easy to stop the menus scrolling on exactly the option you want. In playback mode, zooming in on pictures can be quite laborious too, as the screen doesn't track the movement of your fingers smoothly or accurately enough. All in all, the touchscreen interface is attractive and clear but it's not always that practical. The Ixus 1100 HS is still nowhere near as intuitive to use as a touchscreen smartphone.

On the whole, the Ixus 1100 HS is a nice enough camera, but we have to admit that we weren't bowled over by its interface.

Responsiveness

The Ixus 1100 HS is faster than its predecessor in every respect ... but only by a whisker! The start-up time, in particular, is still over two seconds, which gets tiring when you regularly turn the camera off and on between shots (to save battery life, for example).

The autofocus is nothing out of the ordinary, taking a little over half a second to work in good light, and photo-to-photo turnaround is about average. The burst mode of 2.3 fps is acceptable, but some models have faster continuous shooting modes these days. Note, however, that unlike some other compacts, the Ixus 1100 HS is back in action and ready to use immediately after shooting a burst of photos.

Picture Quality

The Ixus 1100 HS has exactly the same internal electronics as the rest of Canon's 2011 Ixus range, using the same 12-Megapixel BSI CMOS.


It's therefore no surprise to see results that are very, very similar to those of the Ixus 220 HS, for example, with excellent picture quality up to 800 ISO. In fact, smoothing is barely visible on 100% size pictures and isn't at all noticeable on photo prints. Quality drops but is still acceptable at 1600 ISO. Obviously, with a sensor that's 50% bigger, the PowerShot S100 does a better job, but Canon's image processing system still does great things with small-format 1/2.3'' sensors.

We were keen to see what the Ixus 1100 HS lens was made of seeing as it's something of a hybrid—partially telescopic and partially periscopic within the camera body. Thanks to this innovative design, the lens packs a 12x zoom into a camera that's just 23 mm thick. We can only hope that it doesn't struggle with long focal lengths like its predecessor did!


At wide-angle settings, the results are comparable to the 1000 HS lens, with an image that's sharp and precise in the middle, still relatively decent around the edges, and with some visible chromatic aberration. At telephoto settings, however, the Ixus 1100 HS comes into its own, taking very good pictures indeed, with nice, even levels of sharpness across the frame. At long focal lengths, this lens really has nothing to envy of the SX230 HS. Nice work!

Video

Like other recent Canon Ixus cameras, the Ixus 1100 HS films 1080p HD video at 24 frames per second. The image is richly detailed and pleasant to watch, and the optical zoom is both active and relatively discreet (although you can hear it in very quiet scenes). The only slight drawback is a rather limited dynamic range, which means that some detail is lost in very dark and very bright zones.

Sound is good but isn't extraordinary. The stereo effect can clearly be heard but, overall, the sound is a bit more confused than in the S100 or the SX230. That's still not really anything to worry about, though, as the Ixus 1100 HS remains above average.