Digital IXUS 60

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Canon's IXUS 60 is a competant compact camera. It has all the elements you'd expect from such a product, including above average image quality, a decent set of features and a slim design. While you won't be blown away by its performance, colour reproduction is excellent and if you're looking for a basic point and shoot then this model should be a consideration.

Pros

  • Small, Brilliant colour performance

Cons

  • Poor performance at high ISO levels

Bottom Line

Performed well across a broad range of tests and is only really let down by its high ISO performance.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 579.00 (AUD)

Imatest revealed that the IXUS 60 was a good all round performer. It achieved a sharpness result of 1263 which is about average for a six megapixel model in this category. We generally found our shots were crisp and quite detailed; certainly more than adequate for day to day photography. The test also revealed medium levels of chromatic aberration with the IXUS 60 netting a score of .111%. This is slightly above average, but not by much, and the impact it has on the shots is minimal.

It was in our colourchecker test that the IXUS 60 really amazed us, scoring an excellent and extremely low 5.52. Most compacts struggle to get below 10, and we've only seen one unit in the past that has dropped below the six barrier. Our test shots corroborated this result with rich colours that brought the pictures to life. Red was the only colour the camera struggled a little with, but this is a common theme amongst pretty much all compacts.

The IXUS 60's image noise performance, while not quite as impressive as its colour result, was fairly solid. With a score of .57%, there was no visible noise on our shots at lower ISOs. However, it doesn't scale as well as most other compacts, and at the higher ISO levels like ISO 800, the score shot up to 2.24%, which is quite a bit bigger than average. This indicates the IXUS 60 is not the best choice for shooting at night, or in fast paced situations.

When we fired up the IXUS 60's menu we were greeted by a standard array of features. Having ISO setting all the way up to 800 is impressive, but the camera didn't perform at these higher settings adequately. We liked the burst mode, which captured shots at three frames a second until the buffer filled up. The feature set was rounded out by the exposure, whitebalance and focus options, but there were only four scene modes.

Its performance in our speed testing was of a similar standard; a little above average but not exceptional. The .1 second shutter lag was about what we expected, and the 1.5 second shot to shot time is in line with competing models. The only standout was its 1.7 second powerup time, which was pretty speedy by compact standards.

We were quite pleased with the design of this camera. It feels sturdy, and is quite compact, measuring 86mm x 21.7mm x 53.5mm, so it will comfortably fit in your pocket or a small bag. The entirely metal chassis is painted in a chrome/silver combination which looks pretty good, if a little basic.

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