Canon Digital Ixus 110 IS

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Performance And Image Quality

If you're the type to get impatient waiting between shots, the 110 IS might disappoint you with its 2.6-second shot-to-shot time. Turning on the flash drags that out to nearly 4 seconds. Also, there's no burst mode on this model, only continuous unlimited shooting capable of just less than one frame per second. Startup time is decent, however, at 1.4 seconds. Shutter lag measured 0.4 second in well-lit conditions and 0.6 in dim light. In most cases, photo quality from the Canon camera was very good, thanks to remarkable color, exposure and white balance. As with most point-and-shoots, photos turned out best at ISO sensitivities below ISO 200. At ISO 400, fine details started to degrade and shots turned less sharp. The majority of our testing was conducted in the Smart Auto mode which was really reliable at picking the correct scenes and settings.

Purple fringing is something we've learned to expect from point-and-shoot cameras, but it's generally at the sides of images where lens distortion is more profound. The 110 IS has above-average amounts of fringing and this can be found throughout the frame. That was what dragged the photo quality for this camera down from excellent to very good. The Ixus camera also struggled occasionally with complex scenes resulting in shots that looked a bit overprocessed.

The Movie mode is capable of recording at HD quality (1,280 x 720 pixels) and the results are very good. For quick connection to an HDTV, there's a mini-HDMI output behind a small door on the right side of the body. Unfortunately, the 4x optical zoom doesn't function while recording.

Conclusion

Had Canon decided to upgrade the 870 IS just by raising the resolution to 12 megapixels and adding HD movie capture, this review probably would've been stamped with an Editors' Choice award. Instead, the company shrank the screen, took away some features, made a seemingly unnecessary control change, and then decided to bump the price up by US$30. The Canon Digital Ixus 110 IS is a solid option, but if you want more control and a smaller price tag, get the 870 IS instead.

Tags: Resolution, TV, disc, Pixel, computer monitor

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