The Canon IXUS 70 is a small, neat digital camera. There is nothing especially flashy about this camera, but it looks good and appears to have a decent build quality. At 19mm wide the IXUS 70 is one of the slimmer digital cameras and you should have no real problem slipping it into a pocket. It weighs 125g, so it is quite lightweight as well.
This camera has seven megapixels and a three times optical zoom lens. Although a number of new cameras in 2007 have appeared with more megapixels, seven is roughly standard at this moment in time for this type of camera.
The IXUS 70 is a fairly typical point and shoot camera. It does have a few extra features that other pocket sized digital cameras do not have. These include face detection software and some additional colour options as well as the more standard black and white and sepia options. The face detection software helps the camera to pick out and focus on faces when a portrait shot is being taken. This should work for both single and group portraits.
Canon have added a feature to the IXUS 70 that is becoming less and less common. This is a viewfinder. There are two main benefits to having a viewfinder. The first is that it gives you an extra option on bright sunny days when the sun may be beaming down and obscuring the LCD screen. The second is that by holding a camera up to your eye to take a picture it makes it easier to hold still. This helps to reduce camera shake and can make your photos that bit sharper. This is well worth considering if you suffer from shaky hands. Even though Canon have found room for a viewfinder they haven't skimped on screen size and have included a 2.5" LCD screen.
Power comes from a lithium ion battery. As is normal both a battery and charger are supplied in the box. Canon estimates that around 210 photos can be taken in between charges.
Canon is one of the only manufacturers not to build any memory into the camera, preferring to include a 32mb card in the box. Although this is fairly generous when compared to many other cameras you will still need to include buying a large capacity card in your budget. When you think that the cost price of a card must be minimal to such large companies with their bulk purchasing power, it would not do them much hard to include a 512mb card in the box. All manufacturers are guilty of this, not just Canon.
When you first look at the IXUS 70 you will notice quite a lot of buttons on the back of the camera. Although these buttons may take a little getting used to keep in mind that to take your first shots all you really need to do is charge the battery, load the memory card, turn the camera in and press the shutter button.
The IXUS 70 performed very well in my tests and is one of the best pocket sized digital cameras you can buy.
