Canon Ixus V2

I had a pleasant time when I owned the Canon Ixus V2 digital camera. Friends and relatives invited me to specially capture their pictures. I also felt happy to be able to show nice pictures after transferring the pictures from the digital camera to the PC. I could easily transfer the pictures to others via email, and in that case it didn't take much time at all. It was very easy to carry and handle.

I am however having a very worrying situation because it now doesn't respond at all, and I don't know how to fix it, where to go, or how to get the solution via the internet, because I don't believe local vendors.

It looks very sleek and rather expensive and the weight is perfect: not too heavy, not too flimsically light. Everything feels just right. The pictures are of irreproachable quality: sharpness, warmth of colour and contrast. You may think 2.0 megapixels delivers quality far inferior to its 4.0 and 5.0 million colleagues out there in Photoland, but unless you want to print your pics on unwieldy, impractical paper sizes, you couldn't be more wrong. You can get a picture on normal size photo paper (10x15) or even larger with stunning quality! It hasn't surprised me one bit that this little gem sweeps the board in nearly all reviews and comparative tests. I've had it for two years now, and I'm not even thinking of going for a more powerful one! Impressive shot by Canon!

The Cannon IXUS v2 is a "horses-for-courses" camera. It is not -- and never should be -- an Industrial Strength, professional photographer's camera.

For what it is, though, it is by far and away the best value-for-money I've seen. Its core features are very impressive and extensive, all packed neatly into a stainless-steel case the size of a packet of cigarettes. It easily fits into a shirt pocket or a purse.

The battery fully charges in about 2 hours from dead-flat: not bad at all. And it does not need to fully discharge before being recharged. Convenient!

An evening -- say 4 leisurely hours -- is enough to learn all that you need to know about this camera, in fine detail. The menus are sufficiently intuitive that you can start plunking away, taking quite good pictures, within 5 minutes of the batteries being charged.

I had great fun exploring all its capabilities, and when I was done it was dead-simple to reset to Factory Defaults, which I found to be very good. Someone designed this camera intelligently.

The documentation is very well written, in superb, easy-to-understand English. It is well set-out, and even comes with a Table of Contents AND an Index AND a Quick Start!!! Yet, it is an easy read: you don't even need the camera to be in front of you to understand from the manual what you need to do to run the IXUS v2. Try doing *that* with your VCR or DVD!

Don't expect all the gizmos or resolution of an Industrial Strength camera ("only" 200 megapixels), and be satisfied with the (very nice) lens (you can't change it), and you won't be at all disappointed by this beauty.

Speaking of which, it is a truly "beautiful" looking camera. Aesthetically pleasing, a classic example of pleasant Industrial design. It is the Swiss Army knife of digital cameras, good looking to boot!

The Canon Ixus V2 was my first venture into a digital camera and with hindsight I made a good choice the only down side is the length of video you can shoot. I recently took the camera along to an indoor event and with a small amount of tweeking ie turning flash off the pictures and movies are crystal clear.

Well worth the outlay

CANON IXUS V2:

This is a small and attractive camera. Day light pictures are quite good but night pictures are distorted.

The Two Megapixel resolution is more than adequate for normal use but the 2x optical zoom is not enough for long distance shots. The battery comes with a charger. This is a useful arrangement. But the batteries are non-standard, so cannot be easily replaced when on the move.

The most noticed drawbacks are:

1. Night shots are distorted

2. The supplied battery is not a regular AA or AAA battery. So cannot be replaced when on the move.

3. Date Printing Feature seems to be missing. I could not find this feature under the standard settings. I am not quite sure if this feature is available in this camera.

The Canon Ixus V2 digital camera has some very nice points and is a dramatic improvement over the previous model. The controls are far easier to use and are in a more logical combination. The quality of both stills and movie images is very good for a 2 mega pixel camera.

The option of a Waterproof case is a very good addition while the cost is very reasonable. The images that are produced under water are exceptional and rival some film cameras. The waterproof case allows all the funtions of the camera to be used without hinderance, even past the 30 metres it is quoted as working to. Build quality also shines through in the construction of the waterproof case and gives every confidence that the product will last even in harsh conditions.

Overall this camera has all the functions that are required by the average photographer and it gives a good argument against needing anything higher in resolution terms.

Professionals will always require higher quality but the average user may not. Try the camera and be pleasantly surprised.