Canon Digital Ixus 82 IS
| Launch date | January 2008 |
|---|---|
| Camera type | Ultra-compact point&shoot digicam with tunnel type optical viewfinder |
| Camera size | 87 x 55 x 22 mm 165 grams (inc. battery) |
| Sensor type | CCD |
| Sensor size | 1/2.5" (5.7 x 4.3 mm) |
| Resolution | 3264 x 2448 (8 megapixels) |
| Lens | 6.2 - 18.6mm f/2.8-4.9 (35mm equiv. 38 – 114 mm, 3x zoom ratio) |
The Canon Digital Ixus 80 IS (known as the PowerShot SD1100 IS DIGITAL ELPH in the US and the IXY DIGITAL 20 IS in Japan) was launched in March 2008 as an 8 megapixel ultra compact and fully automatic point-and-shoot camera that could compete with the most stylish cameras made by anyone else. At this point you maybe wondering why I'm talking about the Canon Digital Ixus 80 IS when the camera in the pictures above is clearly labelled the Canon Digital Ixus 82 IS. Well, the Canon Digital Ixus 82 IS is a special version that, at least in the UK, was sold exclusively in the U.K. though a photographic retailer called Jessops. It is identical to the Canon Digital Ixus 80 IS in all ways except one: colour. The Canon Digital Ixus 80 IS was available in 5 colours; silver, pink, champagne, brown and white…
…and the Canon Digital Ixus 82 IS added a sixth colour: blue
Back in the days of film Canon used the "Ixus" brand (AKA "Elph" in the US and "Ixy" in Japan) for their compact and stylish APS cameras. So in the digital era is made sense to continue using the same brand name for their most compact and stylish digicams. The Ixus series of cameras proved Canon could go head-to-head in the style stakes with Olympus and their iconic "Mju" cameras. And the Canon Digital Ixus 82 IS is impressively compact. In fact it's exactly the same size as a normal credit card. You can see the Ixus 82 IS here, hiding beneath my credit ard sized RPS membership card.
The Canon Digital Ixus 82 IS in use
The Canon Digital Ixus 82 is a fairly typical ultra compact point-and-shoot that majors on style rather than photographic features. As such there is very little in the way of controls, just the major things like ISO, drive mode, flash mode and macro mode. But having said that I found that everything you needed for everyday easy automatic photography was easily found when you needed it. Before this camera came to me it belonged to my Mum. She was an enthusiastic and knowledgable photographer in her day, but by the time she used this camera she was in her 80s and preferred an easy life… but she never had any problems with it.
The Canon Digital Ixus 82 IS results
The compact size and simple controls of this camera certainly make is an easy to live with companion for everyday snap-shot photography. And there's no doubt that the 8 megapixel files it produces are very high quality. They're bright, colourful, full of detail, and immediately pleasing to the eye with minimal post-processing work… exactly what you want from a camera like this.
It's interesting to compare the results from this camera with those of an earlier period like the 4 megapixel Olympus Camedia C-40 Zoom from 2001. The Olympus may provide lots of the manual controls missing from this camera, but there's no doubt about the improvements in image quality that 7 years have brought.
