Canon Ixus 800-IS
Canon isn’t the type of company that is in a rush. They have on the one hand successful product lines that almost sell themselves, and on the other hand a very productive research branch in Japan that takes its time. The engineers develop a technology or take a good idea, and improve it until the market is ready to accept it from their point of view.
Image Stabilization
Two years ago it was already obvious that optical stabilization showed very promising opportunities for compacts. However, it was too early for it. They let Panasonic and Konica Minolta prepare the market to later release its own technology and benefit from their work. This is what they do with the Ixus 800-IS and it is a success. This camera is far from being the first stabilized compact camera, as there are now dozens of them. However, if one camera was awaited like the messiah in 2006, this is it! The old saying goes that there is no need to run if you start at the right time.
Why are so many people waiting for this camera? First, because the Ixus without stabilization is already the most successful camera. They are preferred for their design, finishing touches (they are very nice), and color rendering. Recently they also became very fast. The entire product line switches on in less than 1 second.
Without focussing on the 800-IS, we expected mainly two things in terms of improvements on the current Ixus series. First of all there is stabilization (and in this area the 800-IS responds to the expectations of many users). We also expected a better management of increased noise levels. Even if progress was made with the release of the latest Digic processors, parasite pixels were still visible and really problematic starting at 400 ISO. And indeed, Canon has just introduced a new 800 ISO mode with the latest compacts. Is this real progress or just marketing? Is this sensitivity really usable or does it just produce pictures with higher noise levels? The second answer is true as Canon has only unlocked a new level without correcting the problems of the previous ones. This is unfortunate even if there is now stabilization. The result indoors without a flash at 200 ISO (we were at 400 ISO, or even 800 ISO with the latest Ixus without stabilization) is much better.
To be honest it isn’t possible to be always at 200 ISO. The camera jumps from a shutter speed of 1/10 s to 1/5 s without intermediate steps. At 1/10s, photos are sharp. At 1/5s only one out of four is sharp. Nevertheless, here is the result of this camera at 400 ISO compared to last year’s high end model:
 Canon Ixus 800-IS (2006) |  Canon Ixus 750(2005) |
The noise level between the two cameras is unchanged. However, the picture on the left is sharp and the one on the right isn’t, because of involuntary movement due to an excessively long shutter speed and the lack of stabilization on the Ixus 750. Pictures without a flash and slower response time will be much improved with the new camera.
As we said above, you can adjust sensitivity manually to 200 ISO. In our case, the camera almost systematically chose a very short shutter speed of 1/5 s. So in order to compensate for the large number of missed pictures you always have to work in burst mode. It’s as good. We measured a rate of 2.6 images per second with our SanDisk Extrem III card. Once out of four we obtained:
 Canon Ixus 800-IS | Canon Ixus 800-IS |
You have to admit that the result is very nice! To reduce blurry pictures, hold your breath, use both hands and shoot. If possible use a wall to lean against, which we didn’t do in this test.
Increased noise levels
Noise remains moderate up until 200 ISO before strongly increasing at 400 and 800 ISO. The 800 ISO mode appeared with the latest Ixus series as the previous ones were restricted to 400. Noise is overwhelming and you will rarely have the opportunity to take a “good picture“ at such a high sensitivity.
Verdict
With the latest Ixus series and because of stabilization, the 800-IS is really the one that we prefer (we also tested the Ixus 60 and 65). We would like to see this component on other products starting with the economical PowerShot. Finding it on these compact cameras with manual functions would be great but for now it doesn’t seem to be on the agenda.
