The Ixus i5 from Canon is one smart looking snapper. It's slightly smaller than the Ixus 30 and is clad in a smooth, brushed aluminium case available in a choice of four colours.

This is one of the latest additions to Canon's Ixus range and it takes photographs at a maximum resolution of five megapixels. However, shooting at the highest resolution quickly fills the 32Mb SD memory card supplied with the camera, so if you're planning on taking a lot of pictures before transferring them to a PC, you'll either need to buy a larger capacity SD card or use one of the four lower-resolution settings.

These are easily accessible through the camera's menu, from which image quality options can be selected and five automated shooting modes can be chosen for different scenes and compositions, as well as manual shooting settings.

In common with the other Ixus cameras we've seen, the menu system is easy to navigate, offering a versatile range of features and settings to keep both novice and experienced photographers happy.

Image quality is good and the camera copes well with shots in tricky environments, such as dimly lit interiors and outdoors at night.

So far, so good, but the i5 does have one big drawback: it doesn't have an optical zoom. That means you'll have to rely on the digital zoom to take close-ups or crop your pictures afterwards with image editing software.

The i5 can record up to three minutes of video on the supplied memory card. In our tests, the sound was relatively clear even when recorded in noisy environments.

The Ixus i5 connects to a PC via USB and also features PictBridge technology, which means it can be connected directly to a compatible printer.

This camera is easy to use, with a good range of features and is capable of taking great quality shots. It's just a shame that the i5 doesn't feature an optical zoom otherwise this would be a perfect camera.

Contact:
Canon 08705 143723
www.canon.co.uk

Also consider:
Fujifilm FinePix F810