CANON IXY 30S

Not square! The curved body of the IXY

A review and photo examples of the Canon compact digital camera IXY 30S.

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Review

Camera overview
Usage
Comparison with competitors

1．Camera overview

The Canon IXY 30S is a compact digital camera released by Canon in May 2010.

It is equipped with a 10-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor and a zoom lens equivalent to 28-105mm in 35mm format.

The camera has a fast startup time and shutter response, and the lens pops out when you press the power button, which is standard Canon style.

The battery is an NB-6L with specifications of 3.7V, 1000mAh, 3.5Wh.

The minimum shooting distance is 3cm from the tip of the lens at the wide end of macro mode.

The body is available in five colors: silver, yellow, white, red, and black.

2．Usage

The AF performance is not that good, and the rear LCD is low quality at 230,000 dots, so it is difficult to tell if the image is out of focus or blurred when previewing the results.

It is quite common to be disappointed with the results of shooting dark scenes when viewing them on a PC. Also, the F-number at the telephoto end is dark at 5.3, so you need to be especially careful about camera shake.

It has a lens-shift type IS, but it doesn’t seem to be very effective. You need to hold the camera firmly to prevent it from shaking. You can increase the ISO up to 3200, but perhaps due to the small sensor, I personally think that ISO 400 is the limit for what you can see as a result of shooting.

The tolerance for high sensitivity varies from person to person, so I will note that this is merely my personal opinion.

This camera can only record JPG, but depending on the shooting distance, there are quite a few images with noticeable barrel distortion. It seems that cameras from the 2010s do not actively apply correction processing to recorded images.

The white balance and color reproduction are good, and even when shooting in auto mode, it records images that are satisfactory.

The top of the camera has a slide switch for switching between video and photos, a power switch, a zoom lever, and a shutter button, while the back of the camera has buttons for image playback, menus, and functions, and a select dial, and basic operations can be performed with the buttons and dials. Functions are assigned to the four directions of the dial, and since the functions are displayed on the LCD screen when the power is turned on, there are no printed instructions on the surface of the body. The following functions are assigned to the dials.

Top: Exposure compensation
Bottom: Display change
Right: Flash settings
Left: Shooting mode (macro, landscape)

A fully charged battery is said to take 250 shots according to CIPA standards, but if the battery is a little worn, it will run out of power in about half that amount.

The paint coating is weak and the paint peels off from the corners. It seems that if you handle it a little roughly, the base will become more and more exposed.

3．Comparison with competitors

Canon was relatively early in making the wide-angle end of its compact digital cameras 28mm, starting with the 900IS in 2006. Other companies have released cameras with 28mm lenses, with Fujifilm releasing cameras with 28mm lenses in 2008 (FinePix F100fd), Sony releasing cameras with 28mm lenses in 2008 (DSC-W170), and Panasonic releasing cameras with 28mm lenses in 2005 (DMC-LX1).

Panasonic’s DMC-LX1 is the base camera for Leica’s D-LUX1, and the popular model was the DMC-FX01 released in 2006. I have not looked into Pentax, Casio, Sanyo, etc.

Also, there seems to have been some uncertainty about the design of the IXY around 2010 when this camera was released, and there are several body patterns.

This camera has a strongly rounded front, with surfaces cut at short distances around the periphery, and these surfaces are connected by curved surfaces to create an organic form. This design underwent minor changes twice before disappearing. Although not exactly the same, designs with a similar concept, such as the IXY Digital 90, also did not last.
I personally prefer the rectangular designs with strong edges like the old IXY Digital 200, IXY1, and IXY3, but that design also did not become mainstream.
In the end, designs like the IXY 420F, which is square overall with rounded corners, remained mainstream.

Specification

Items	IXY Digital-20IS	IXY 30S	IXY 100F	IXY 210
Focal length(35mm equivalent)	38-114	28-105	28-224	24-240
Number of pixels	8 megapixels	10 megapixels	16 megapixels	20 megapixels
Sensor type	CCD	CMOS	CCD	CCD
Sensor size	1/2.5	1/2.3	←	←
Lens	6.2-18.6 F2.8-F4.9	4.8-18.6 F2-F5.3	5-40 f3.2 – f6.9	4.3-43 f3.0 – f6.9
Distance(Auto mode)	30cm～∞ Wide-angle macro: 3cm	3cm～∞ / 30cm～∞	1 cm – ∞ / 1.3 m – ∞	1 cm – ∞ / 1.0 m – ∞
Image Stabilization	–	Lens shift method	←	←
View Finder	Real image zoom finder	–	–	–
LCD size	2.5(TFT)	3.0(TFT)	2.7(TFT)	←
LCD resolution	23万ドット	←	←	←
Battery	NB-4L	NB-6L NB-6LH *1	←	NB-11L
Recorded media	SD memory card SDHC memory card Multimedia card MMCplus card HC MMCplus card	SD memory card SDHC memory card Multimedia card MMCplus card HC MMCplus card	SD memory card SDHC memory card SDXC memory card	SD memory card SDHC memory card SDXC memory card
WIFI	none	none	Exist	Exist
Size W x H x D	86.8×54.8×22.0	100×54.1×23.6	92.9×52.4×21.6	95.3×56.8×23.6
Weight(g) 1:body only 2:Battery +Media	125 *1	150 1 175 2	118 1 134 2	122 1 137 2
Release date	2008.3	2010.5	2013.8	2017.2
Body Color	Silver, pink, camel, brown, white	Silver, Red, White, Yellow, Black	Silver, Blue, Pink	Silver, Black