Here we have another sleek, sturdy, brushed-aluminium, cigarette packet-sized digital camera up for review. But does Canon's IXUS V2 stand out from the crowd?

Well, the top resolution here is a respectable but unspectacular 1600 x 1200, or around two megapixels, though this can be down-sized to 1024 x 768 or 640 x 480 to squeeze more snaps onto the measly 8MB CompactFlash card supplied.

Three levels of file compression can also be brought into play so that, with a bit of juggling, the card can store anywhere between seven high-res and 87 low-res pictures.

The zoom is a mere 2x but that's acceptable in a compact camera of this ilk. Digital trickery extends the zoom to 5x but inevitably the results look rather blocky and indistinct when examined up close.

We were pleased with the crispness and colours of photographs taken in all but the dullest conditions, with outdoors pictures noticeably superior to those taken in artificial lighting.

The camera's integrated 4cm screen is crisp and clear and a much truer guide to framing a shot than the offset and inaccurate optical viewfinder. Sensibly, the lens retracts fully when not in use.

The IXUS is also capable of taking short video clips at 20 frames per second with sound, but we do mean short: in our tests, it stopped recording after just a few seconds, even with an empty 96Mb memory card on board.

The camera connects to a PC or Mac via a supplied USB cable and you get all the image-editing software you need to make the most of your efforts in the field, including a nice PhotoStitch feature that joins a succession of overlapping pictures into a seamless panorama.

Other more or less expected features include built-in flash, red-eye reduction and a timer for taking self-portraits.

The control menus are a little fiddly but this is a fair exchange for a welcome range of configuration options spanning focus, light metering and white balance adjustment.

DETAILS
Price: £400

Contact: Canon 0800 616417
www.canon.co.uk