Canon Ixus 130 review

An excellent point-and-shoot compact for beginners, with plenty of features and great image quality

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Canon Ixus 130
Canon's Ixus 130 is light on options, but heavy on usability

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Canon ixus 130

Even if the Ixus 130 was expensive, we'd still like it. For every person who wants to be able to control every facet of taking a picture, there are hundreds who simply want something that will capture a moment without asking all kinds of complicated questions. The Ixus 130 is exactly that camera.

We liked:

The headline has to be the price – if you opt for the Ixus 130 in black you can get it for under £150, which is a bargain in our books. We're big fans of the less is more approach to photography, and we love the design, which is cool and understated without being fussy.

We disliked:

The range of colours won't be to everyone's taste, and there are plenty of cameras around these days with significantly larger screens, even if the Ixus 130's does everything that's asked of it.

The lack of a manual mode means this isn't a great camera for those keen to learn more about photography, and the 30fps movie mode isn't overly interesting.

Verdict:

It's not overly complex, it's easy to use, and it produces excellent quality images without requiring the photographer to understand everything that's going on. The build is slim and feels solid, the screen is good – in short, the 130 only strengthens the Ixus brand.

Dave Stevenson

Dave is a professional photographer whose work has appeared everywhere from National Geographic to the Guardian. Along the way he’s been commissioned to shoot zoo animals, luxury tech, the occasional car, countless headshots and the Northern Lights. As a videographer he’s filmed gorillas, talking heads, corporate events and the occasional penguin. He loves a good gadget but his favourite bit of kit (at the moment) is a Canon EOS T80 35mm film camera he picked up on eBay for £18.