Round & edge IXY CANON IXY 30S

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

Gallery
Review
Specification and more
Reference links

Gallery

Review

Overview
Usability
Summary

1．Overview

The Canon IXY 30S is a compact digital camera manufactured by Canon and released 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 good startup time and shutter response, and adopts Canon’s standard style in which the lens pops out when the power button is pressed. The battery is an NB-6L with specifications of 3.7V, 1000mAh, 3.5Wh, and the nominal number of shots taken when fully charged is 250. The shortest shooting distance is 3cm from the tip of the lens at the wide end in macro mode. The body is available in five colors: silver, yellow, white, red, and black.

The top of the camera has a slide switch to switch between video and photo, a power switch, a zoom lever, and a shutter button, and the back of the camera has buttons for image playback, menus, and functions, as well as 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 dial:

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

2．Usability

Canon IXY 30S is a camera released in 2010, and Canon alone released 14 models that year. The following year, 2011, also saw the release of 15 models, so it’s safe to say that this was the golden age of compact digital cameras.

Canon’s compact digital cameras are difficult to distinguish with just the six-sided shape that is characteristic of the original IXY, so they have gone through a process of trial and error, making the camera round overall and adding edges in parts. This camera has a strongly rounded front and sharp edges as if the corners have been cut off, with an organic form that connects these with small R’s. There is also no plating on the periphery of the lens, and the overall design of the camera is subdued.

The IXY 30S is a general-purpose, popular model among compact digital cameras, with no outstanding features, so-so AF performance, and a low-quality 230,000-dot LCD on the back, making it difficult to distinguish out-of-focus and camera shake when previewing the results. In particular, when taking photos of dark scenes, the results are often disappointing when displayed on a PC, and the telephoto end’s F-number is dark at 5.3, making it a camera that is prone to camera shake. It is equipped with a lens-shift type image stabilization mechanism to prevent camera shake, but to be honest, I don’t feel that it has much effect. It is necessary to hold the camera firmly to prevent camera shake, which is the basic principle of camera photography. Another way to prevent camera shake is to increase the ISO sensitivity, which can be increased up to 3200, but the image quality at ISO 3200 is unacceptable due to the small sensor.

Personally, I can tolerate up to ISO 400 as a result. Since the tolerance for high sensitivity varies from person to person, please understand that this is only a 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 with satisfactory colors.

It is said that it can take 250 shots on a full battery according to CIPA standards, but if the battery is a little worn, it will run out of power in about half that amount. It has a beautiful appearance when new, but the paint film is poor and the paint peels off from the corners, so it seems that if you handle it a little roughly, the base will become increasingly exposed. The base is plastic so it looks unsightly when it peels off.

3．Summary

In conclusion, to sum up the Canon IXY 30S, it is a compact digital camera with beautiful exterior paint, typical of Canon, and flawless shooting functions.
The focal length of the lens is 28mm on the wide-angle side; successor cameras have a wider angle of 24mm as standard, but even this 28mm is rarely inconvenient. The battery life is also satisfactory for normal use.

Its biggest weakness is that the beautiful exterior will peel off with even the slightest bumps or scratches.

Specification and Competitor

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.

The design features are as mentioned in the usability section, and this design concept disappeared after two minor changes.

Personally, I prefer the rectangular design 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.

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

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Options

Battery charger CB-2LY
AC adapter kit ACK-DC40
DC coupler DR-40
Compact power adapter CA-DC10
Soft case IXC-400
Leather neck strap IXS-300
IXC chain neck strap
Neck strap IXS-100
High power flash HF-DC1
HDMI cable HTC-100
Interface cable IFC-400PCU
AV cable AVC-DC400ST

Reference links

Update history

2025.6.17
2024.06.21

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