Canon IXUS 900Ti Digital Camera

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Canon IXUS 900Ti Digital Camera

Sudeep Naik, Nov 20, 2006 1730 hrs IST

In a bid to improve on their prosumer segment, Canon has launched the IXUS 900 Ti. Read on to know more.

Stylish and compact, 10 Megapixel CCD, DIGIC III, Excellent build quality, Loads of features, Good quality images, Excellent color and skin tone reproduction, Good metering, XGA (1024 x 768) video capture

Loads of noise in high ISO setting, Only 3x optical zoom, No image stabilization

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Analysis

Everything that you've read about the camera being classy and snug is absolutely the way it sounds. The feeling of holding the IXUS 900Ti in your bare hands almost makes you feel like a pro. The clean lines, simple yet elegant design make you wanna take pictures a whole lot of them.

The high res. LCD is clear under any light conditions. The controls are all well-placed and easily accessible. The total 12x zoom under the watchful eyes of the Safety Zoom feature seldom allows your pics to come out hyper pixelated.

The new DIGIC III makes its presence felt big time with the 9-point AiAF system and High ISO setting. The images had less than average noise up to ISO 1600 but at ISO 3200, it grew quite exponentially (not that it renders the image completely useless but you can forget about taking prints of such pics.)

The overall image quality is excellent. Extremely good color and skin tone reproduction are major pros here. With a lot of customization available in the Manual mode, amateurs can really hone up their skills to quite an extent but I'm sure they will miss a higher optical zoom capability.

The Color Accent and Color Swap features give some excellent results for someone who is ready to go beyond clicking party and family function shots. Exposure settings (over and under exposure) can be manipulated to get even more wild on the creative side.

All the scene modes give you great results as long as you are using the correct mode. If you are not too sure about what mode to use, the Auto Mode makes up for it by delivering good settings and image quality.

The Macro modes, both Digital and Manual, give great results. As far as indoor Macro shots are concerned, if you can't get the shot right, try adjusting the lights rather than camera settings.

For low light conditions, the flash works pretty well for a distance of around 4 meters (in Wide end of the lens) and around 2.5 meters (in Telephoto end of the lens) which is a little less than the rated specifications.

Red-eye reduction systems work well though it is quite possible that you may encounter a few shots where it fails. Again, using the shot angle and environment is totally subjective and depends from person-to-person as well as the light conditions and ambience at that point of time.

In case you happen to have a tripod (or a pair of unnaturally steady hands), you can get great panoramic shots using the Stitch Assist mode. A little 'post production' may be needed to touch up the images before you get the final single pan shot.

For Movie recording, the IXUS 900Ti provides many recording resolutions like 1024 x 768 (15 fps), 640 x 480 (30/15 fps), 320 x 240 (30/15 fps), and 160 x 120 (15 fps). The quality of recording is better than most of the other digicams available in the market today. Movies have better clarity and are much sharper; even if the subjects move at higher speed. With Digital zoom being supported while movie recording, you can zoom into subjects for close up videos. Quite useful if you plan to make home videos for friends and family.

Regarding playback of still pictures and movies, the Image Inspection Tool enables a dual image display, allowing you to zoom in and check the focus details of the picture instantly. This function works well with Face Detection AF and normal AiAF.
On-camera picture re-touching is supported using the My Colors options. They can be a great help when shooting under low light conditions. The IXUS 900Ti has an inbuilt Slide Show function that enables you to view your shots directly on the camera's LCD. Special effects and transition effects can be added to spice up things a little.

With the My Category playback menu, you can store images in categories as per your convenience. Categories can be added and existing ones can be changed and erased on the fly. Users can select multiple categories for each shot or recorded movie from seven different categories. When playing in a Slide show, the images from a particular category are played back-to-back.

The Jump feature enhances searches by making them fast and easier. Search keys include Shot date, My Category, Folder, Movie, by 10 images and by 100 images.

The Auto Image Orientation for still pictures and movies changes images/movie orientation (vertical/horizontal) as and when you rotate the camera.

The new resume playback function is another example of simple and efficient use of existing resources to give a much better experience to the user. In the event you need to power off the camera or remove the memory card, the IXUS 900Ti intelligently remembers and enables you to resume playback right where you left off from.

Battery

The Canon IXUS 900Ti uses a proprietary rechargeable NB-5L Li-ion battery that takes around 90-110 mins for a full charge using the ACK-DC30 AC Adapter Kit. It lasts for around 100 shots with minimal reviewing and flash usage and around 80 shots with fair amount of flash shots and reviewing as well.

For the number of shots captured by the average user, the battery is more than sufficient to handle one event on a single charge. But I strongly suggest getting an extra battery pack; firstly, because it's a proprietary battery so you can't use any other type of power source and secondly, the amount of frustration when the battery dies on you during an important event is going to be way too higher than the expense of buying an extra battery pack.

Conclusion

The Canon IXUS 900Ti is available for a street price of Rs. 25,000 with a one-year warranty. With the combination of all these features and a flair for photography, an amateur or enthusiast can definitely do great work. As far as the point-and-shoot enthusiasts are concerned, the camera won't leave scope for complaints for sure. Me off to get me one. Ciao.