Cons Bottom Line Pick This Up If...

Classic Digital ELPH look and feel, Durable metal exterior, Captures pleasing 12-megapixel photos in various shooting conditions, Good shooting performance, Loads of useful exposure options; both in still and video modes, Records nice full 1080p HD video, Good high ISO performance up to 1600, Nice...

Weak flash; Stereo mics pick up slightest breeze and lots of background noise; Poor Battery Life; Smart Auto produces higher noise levels than Program mode; Smart Auto captured warm images with flash indoors

Daniel Bell reviews the Canon IXUS 1100 HS, a compact digital camera with a massive 12x optical zoom.

Produces excellent images; Good noise performance up to ISO 1600; Metal body; 12x zoom lens pack into a small camera; Full 1080p HD video recording; Wide range of creative modes; Responsive touch screen

Quite expensive; Battery life is short

The Canon PowerShot ELPH 510 HS aka IXUS 1100 HS is a compact 12 megapixel camera with lots of optical zoom, much more than your typical pocket camera. The camera has a pretty rare optics system that allows it to pack 12X optical zoom, complete with image stabilization, in a lens that doesn't extend...

Very good image quality, Compact with plenty of optical zoom; optical image stabilization available, Big 3.2 inch touchscreen; decent legibility and touch responsiveness, Straightforward operation with auto and many scene modes, Customizable set of touch icons that also can be arranged to your...

Battery life a tad below average, Camera needs reworked menus optimized for touch; Capacitive (more responsive) touchscreen and some ‘touch' playback editing tools would be nice, No manual controls and no automatic panorama mode, Color fringing level is slightly higher than average, Slow startup...

The HS system built into both this and the IXUS 230HS really pays dividends. Colours are great and the pictures themselves are remarkably clean and free of undesirable noise.

Clean; sharp images; Great image colours; Good video compensation for changing light conditions

Some colour fringing; Touchscreen tricky to use; Wind noise on movies

The Canon IXUS 1100 HS is an all-new touch-screen compact that takes over as the flagship model in Canon's style-driven IXUS range. As such it supersedes the highly-rated Canon IXUS 1000 HS that was launched around this time last year, and which earned itself a TrustedReviews ‘Recommended' award.

Big zoom; compact size; Good image quality; Solid low-light performance

Touch-screen control is slow and fiddly; Lacks semi/fully manual control; Lacks a finger grip

Canon's IXUS range has a reputation for combining both stylish design and excellent performance in a compact body, and the IXUS 1100HS appears to continue this tradition, but how does it perform under the WDC testing?

Full specification; 1080p video capture well suited to 16:9 aspect ratio screen

High price tag; unresponsive touchscreen