Canon Ixus 210

UPDATE 07/07/2011: In line with our new, tighter test criteria, the Canon Ixus 210 is now a three-star camera rather than a four-star camera. Its relatively average responsiveness and picture quality are even less impressive compared with cameras released more recently.

Although the Canon Ixus 210 is very similar to the Ixus 200 IS it's designed to replace, the updated model banishes all physical controls from the back of the camera, making this Ixus almost entirely touch-control.

Handling

The Canon Ixus 210 is pretty hefty for a compact camera. With its outsized dimensions and weighing a little over 160 g, it's certainly a far cry from the sleek, slim style of its main rival, the Sony TX7. The overall design of this Ixus remains very classic, and the only mildly surprising feature is the total lack of physical controls on the back of the camera. In fact, the rear face is now entirely given over to the 3.5-inch touchscreen with 460,000 dots. Outdoors and in good lighting conditions the display is smooth and flowing, and viewing angles are wide. In bright sunlight the screen is typically prone to glare, but this isn't totally debilitating. Indoors or in lower light the display becomes much less fluid and is full of noise. Plus, as the screen takes up the whole reverse side of the camera, there's very little room for your fingers. This can prove particularly problematic when using the camera in video mode or in 16:9 photo mode.

The only physical controls are a shutter release button, a zoom control, an on/off button, a playback button and an AutoPhoto/Video/Photo selector. All other controls are located in the graphic user interface, accessible via the touchscreen.

The interface itself is quite good, and keeps the same basic structure as menus found in other Canon cameras. You scroll and select by sliding and tapping the screen with your finger. There's still no sign of multitouch control on digital compacts though, so you can't 'pinch' the image to zoom in, for example. On the whole, the Ixus 210 feels more coherent and self-assured than the previous model (Ixus 200 IS), which couldn't seem to make its mind up between touchscreen and classic controls.



That said, we're pleased that Canon decided to keep physical zoom controls, even if they're not all that precise. The Ixus 210 has an HDMI output and a USB output connector.

Responsiveness

The Ixus 210 is neither fast nor slow. It has fairly typical performances for a compact, with focusing taking around a second and start-up taking under two seconds. The photo-to-photo turnaround time is a bit long, but it's not catastrophic. However, at less than one frame per second, the burst mode is much slower than that of the TX7, which can easily snap 10 pictures in one second.

Picture quality

Thanks to its 14-Megapixel sensor, the Canon Ixus 210 takes pictures that are naturally sharper and more detailed than the Sony TX7 with its 10-Megapixel sensor. On a 4" x 6" photo print you won't notice any real difference in quality between shots taken with the two cameras, but on an 8" x 12" print the sharper detail of the Ixus 210 does become noticeable. The picture is also more contrasted and better accentuated, so your snaps will be ready for printing with no editing or retouching required.

The Ixus handles digital noise relatively well, even if the image does quickly become grainy at 200 ISO in areas of block colour. There's still plenty of detail though, and definition is good enough up to 800 ISO not to be a problem in photo prints. Above that, detail is lost and the picture looks fuzzy. The Sony TX7 handles ISO settings better than this model, keeping granular noise strictly under control. Nevertheless, the Canon Ixus 210 can still hold its own.


The Ixus 210 has a decent lens with image quality remaining consistent across the frame. Pictures hold up pretty well in telephoto too, even if the contrast does suffer a little. The only real downside is the 5 cm macro mode, as it would be nice to get a little closer to the subject.

Chromatic aberration is controlled well and the optical stabilisation system works wonders, giving a razor-sharp Barbie shot at 1/5 sec.

Video

We found the Ixus 210's video mode far from satisfactory. It may well film in 720p resolution with a decent bitrate (24 Mbps, but only one reference picture for H.264 encoding), but it can't record stereo sound and the optical zoom can't be used while filming. On a Full HD TV, the image lacks accuracy and the microphone, located on the top of the camera, picks up the user's breathing noises.