Canon Ixus 400

The Canon Ixus 400 is knocking on now but I feel compelled to review it (and give it good marks) for a possibly strange reason - it's broken! At the age of five, and well beyond the reach of any sensible guarantee, my camera has developed a CCD fault which means any picture I take now is heavily distorted and unusable. BUT, and this is the reason for the good review - despite the age of the camera Canon have agreed to repair it for free! They've recognised this is a common fault relating to a batch of faulty components, so they're paying for a free repair.

You may well say that this is exactly the kind of decent behaviour you have a right to expect from a big company like Canon, and of course you're right, but I think in this day and age they do deserve some credit for it - and it's a good example of why a "brand name" camera like this may be worth the extra over some of the cheaper alternatives.

Apart from the fault above (which will be fixed shortly) this camera's been very reliable and is very well made. The build is extremely solid, it has a great lens, and the 4mp sensor (when it's working) produces great pictures - in this size of camera I really don't believe you need much more, since squeezing more and more pixels into such a confined space inevitably leads to picture noise. You're really better off looking at an SLR, with a physically bigger sensor, if you really feel you need higher quality.

In retrospect, the only thing I'd change on this camera is to add some greater manual control. The automation works very well and takes great pictures, but if I could just set the aperture or shutter myself for that occasional "arty" shot it would round things off nicely. Looking at newer cameras, I've no interest in ridiculous "face detection" or more megapixels for the sake of it, but I find myself envious of some of the "pro" compacts that will allow total control over exposure and focussing, which the IXUS unfortunately won't.

I have had the Canon Ixus 400 for just over 2 years, at first i liked it but now it is very large compared with the new cameras on the market. As much as i think it is a good camera it takes a long time to take the pictures and it is a also very heavy.

Great camera! I've had this Canon Ixus 400 for 3 years and now have a 1MG card so you can take as many pics as you like! Very reliable and good quality pictures. This camera is more than adequate for general use, even if they now have newer models with larger pixels etc. Battery charges quickly and lasts ages. This is the best digital camera I've had. I had Kodak before but far prefer the Canon.

The Canon Ixus 400 really is a superb wee camera. I looked at quite a few compact digitals of similar spec in this price range and ended up opting for the ixus' because of its superior design and build quality and over a year on I haven't been disappointed. the camera takes superb pictures and is small enough to carry anywhere in a coat or jeans pocket. the menus are straightforward and easy to navigate and the provided settings are fine for the novice or amateur.

Compared to an traditional film camera, the ixus [as with most digitals] can easily cope with low light conditions and if, like me, you're comfortable hand-holding at about 1/30 second and hate that "startled rabbit in a car's headlamps" look produced by built-in flash, you'll find you can use the ixus in dingy pubs, dimly lit buildings and nightclubs etc without resorting to flash at all. I keep my ixus on manual exposure all the time and simply switch the film speed between 'auto' when I'm outdoors and '400' when indoors and it produces great results [although you do need a steady hand].

In fact the ixus's tendency to maximise whatever light there is means it often tends to overcompensate and shots taken at night tend to take on the aspect of mid-afternoon by the time the ixus has boosted the gain. Contrary to what another reviewer said, you can get around this by setting the camera to underexpose by the full two stops, whereupon you can get very atmospheric nightshots quite easily.

Photo quality is superb, with a tendency to over saturate colours which might offend the purist but which i, as an aficionado of slide photography in the past, find gives your photos real dramatic impact.

As with all digitals, one of the major annoyances is in the lag between pressing the shutter and the photo being taken. This feels like about half a second on occasions, so if you're trying to capture moving subjects you need to develop the art of anticipating your shots. Apparently this lag can be reduced by turning off the LCD display, but I haven't experimented with this to say whether it works or not.

The only big complaint I have with the ixus is as regards the battery. Life expectancy on a full charge seems lower than the official blurb suggests. Although a full charge will usually last a whole day of pretty intensive shooting and reviewing. However the really irritating problem with the battery is that the battery life display in the LCD goes from 'full' to 'empty' without any intermediate steps. so one minute you're shooting on what the LCD is showing as being a full battery and the next minute the battery empty indicator is showing. at this point you can usually squeeze about another 5 shots out before the camera packs up completely, which isn't too good if you're miles from your nearest charger at the time. let's hope canon introduce a continuous battery charge indicator on future models - like that used on mobile phones, so we can see exactly how much charge remains at any time.

All in all I'd highly recommend this camera. Getting the best from it in all lighting conditions does require a basic knowledge of photography [such as under/over-exposing and film speeds] as the manual settings are not as 'novice-friendly' as they might be. However, it's not exactly brain surgery, and with a bit of practice you can achieve good results in a variety of situations. photographing moving subjects is also tricky but 'doable' with a bit of anticipation and the battery indicator is pretty useless but apart from that this is a fantastic piece of technology that looks and feels as good as it functions.

Canon Ixus 400 - It's my first digital camera and I consider it a good one, even if I expected more...

This Canon Ixus 400 Digital camera is great. Its small and sturdy, and can withstand the knocks and bumps I have subjected it to. Its has a good range of settings, good for all types of user (novice, intermediate, advanced). You can choose the quality and size settings of your pictures before you take them. This can save on memory. Transferring pictures to a computer is really quick and easy to do. The menu is easy to use and it doesn't take long to pick up everything you need to know. The camera is a must have, but make sure you get an extra battery and a carry case/pouch as one isn't provided.

I have seriously considering a compact camera which can produce superb photo quality. Some of my chioce are PENTAX OPTIO S4, CANNON IXUS 400 and CASIO XILIM Z4. I ranked image quality as my first choice thus i forgo the 2 Inch LCD of the casio and the slimness of the PENTAX. The Canon Ixus 400's manual control is quite fun too. U can adjust shutter speed up to 15sec, adjust explosure, white balance too. Furthermore it comes with a free 128 CF card and $50 cheaper then the PENTAX. I would said confidently, go for it!!

I bought this Canon Ixus 400 digital camera before the price drop (£350) and I thought it was good value then! I recently used this camera at my cousins wedding and took over 100 photos on the one battery and the quality of the prints is outstanding. I have read that some people have had problems with the delay of the autofocus, well if you use the focus lock you can take a picture instantly. If you are looking for a small compact camera that takes great pictures this is it

This Canon Ixus 400 camera is awesome, especially at the new low prices just released. The picture quality and vividness of colours is truely amazing. The night shots using manual settings are excellent and this camera is equally well suited to both amateurs and professionals.

Its light and small architecture make this an extremely portable camera. The optical zoom is amazing and the lens used is crystal clear.

I would recommend this camera easily over the Casio Z4 - which is almost the same size but thinner and weighs less, the Casio picture quality is fairly poor and the 2" screen although .5 inch bigger is actually a lot less in resolution. The Casio doesnt have half the manual settings or selections of the Canon and the lens system used isnt as good.

The Sony P10 is the next best thing, it has a 5 mega pixel, higher resolution and a 5x optical zoom! But its slightly more expensive and Sony opted to use a cheaper quality lens in their system. Sonys p10 is also bulkier and heavier than the Canon and the memory works out to be much more expensive. So if you want to take a lot of high res pics but dont want to carry more than 1 card around (in the camera itself) the Canon is the solution and in my opinion easier to use single handed.

Canons menu selector system is also very easy to use and some of the extra features not talked about usually are actually really good, like the personalisation menu/themes and the ability to record to 1gb disks.

I spent a long time researching digital cameras and in the end opted for the Canon due to all the excellent reviews it has had.

Plus I didnt read the manual and managed to work out all the wonderful manual settings very easily. This camera is very intuitive and although there is a manual supplied I dont think most people need to bother with it.

I would recommend this camera to everyone, especially those who like to take snaps simultaneously without the hassle of carrying a bulky camera. Its an extremely well built camera and the parts used are very high quality.

The 4 megapixels is more than enough for most people these days and to be honest even at that resolution you can fit around a 1000 images on a 1gb card!

Out of all the reviews I have seen very few people have had anything to complain about with this camera. A+*

I have an slr (nikon F70) with a 28-200 zoom. I love to take pictures but unfortunatly, I never travel with my camera (so big, turist look, etc). I have bought this ixus 400 and I am very very pleased. I carry it everywere, and the quality is superb (although I miss manual control). It was hard to decide to go for the Casio R-40 (€399) or the Ixus (€540). Finally I've choosen the canon because the Casio has a strong blue "gloom" when taking flash pictures, and that really buther me.

In general I really recommend the camera.