The Canon IXUS i7 also known as the Canon PowerShot SD40 in the United States.
Key Features of the Canon IXUS i7
The IXUS i7 is part of a small group of Canon digital cameras that have a very distinctive and stylish look.
It is a pocket sized model and is available in four different colours. These are Steel Grey, Denim Blue, Sepia and Sizzling Pink.
The camera is likely to appeal to anyone who is looking for a very sleek camera.
It has seven megapixels and a 2.4x optical zoom lens. This is slightly shorter than a standard digital camera lens. There is a feature called safety zoom that is worth taking a few moments to understand. If you take photos at lower resolutions a small amount of extra zoom becomes available. This boosts the zoom up to 4.6x for the smallest of prints. The maximum zoom available in this way is 10x. A very low resolution needs to be used to enable this and any photos will only be of a high enough quality to display on a television or computer screen.
I would describe the IXUS i7 is a simple and easy to use. It is basically a point and shoot model.
A cradle is supplied with the camera. This is used for charging the battery as well as connecting it to a television set, printer and computer.
A rechargeable battery is supplied as standard in the box. A 16mb SD memory card is also normally supplied. Once the battery is charged and the memory card loaded the camera is ready to use.
Also in the box is a remote control unit for when you view photos on a television set.
Standard features such as flash, a self timer, macro mode for close up shooting and a movie mode are all available.
The movie mode is in fact quite advanced. As well as the normal TV quality movies there is a short one minute movie you can capture. This type of movie can be played back in slow motion.
Other features worth knowing about include a set of predefined scene modes. These are: Portrait, Landscape, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pets, Indoor, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Aquarium and Underwater.
You also have a number of colour options with the IXUS i7. These are Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, Black & White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red and a Custom Color setting.
The LCD screen is 1.8" in size. This is smaller than is now standard, but there is not a great deal of room on the back of such a small camera.
Likewise the range of the built in flash unit (2m maximum) is not all that far. You can buy a separate flash unit if you wish to.
Another accessory available from Canon you may wish to consider is an all weather case.
