Canon Digital IXUS 950 IS Review

The curvaceous Canon Digital IXUS 950 IS (also known as the Canon SD850 IS) is currently Canon’s flagship point and shoot compact digital camera. An image-stabilized, 4x zoom lens equivalent to 35-140mm, 2.5 inch LCD screen and fast Digic III image processor are just a few of the features offered by the IXUS 950 IS. Notable changes from its predecessor, the IXUS 800 IS, include an extended ISO range of 80-1600, time lapse movies and new creative light effects. With a recommended price tag of £329, can the Canon 950 IS remain competitive? Gavin Stoker finds out…

Website: Canon Digital IXUS 950 IS Review

Published: Saturday, August 18, 2007

Reader Comments

1. Definitely a full, clear, and concise review. Great price by the way.
   
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   Camera Repair at 06:33pm on Thursday, August 16, 2007

2. As you say,the Canon Digital IXUS 950 is good, and i agree with you.
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   Aane at 02:40am on Friday, August 17, 2007

3. Great review for readers who loves photography and digital camera

   Andri Sitepu at 02:53pm on Friday, August 17, 2007

4. Worst camera I've ever owned! No control over aperture or shutter speed. I think it has corrupted my iPhoto. Anybody want an Ixus 950 going cheap?

   John Yates-Smith at 08:03pm on Sunday, September 02, 2007

5. I also have a ixus 950 IS and cannot get it to work with iphoto. the imports do not go into iphoto library but into a folder called imports. This is driving me crazy!
   Help!

   Bob Swick at 05:21pm on Friday, September 28, 2007

6. Hi, I could not get the IS to work or at least there seems to be no different to my old IXUS 55 camera. Am I missing something here?

   John at 01:04pm on Monday, October 08, 2007

7. John, what do you mean exactly by not working? You'll only really see the difference when the camera uses a slow shutter speed, for example in low lighting conditions.

   Mark Goldstein at 05:09pm on Monday, October 08, 2007

8. And you won't know whether the surprisingly sharp image is because you have a steady hand or because the IS was working.
   
   Trouble is, because Canon reckoned they had cured camera shake, they forgot there are other reasons for wanting to choose shutter speed, such as stopping moving subjects or controlling depth of field.

   John Yates-Smith at 05:21pm on Monday, October 08, 2007

9. hi guys,
   
   i was out on a holiday so i could not reply earlier. w.r.t. my issue, i would like to take some photos in house and thus the lighting will not be as good as outside. for example, i would like to take photos of paintings in an exhibition, fishes in an aquarium ... i though with the IS feature enabled, the resulting photos will be better than those taken by my old ixus 55 but they are not. the end photos are often blurry. normally, i chose iso 100, manual mode, no flash. i do not really want to choose high iso since the details will be lost. do you have any advice for my cases, like what mode, what settings to choose?
   
   thanks very much guys

   john at 09:56am on Monday, October 22, 2007

10. I haven't found a way to get sharp photos yet. I have Canon A1, T90, 10D and 30V cameras, and am about to buy a 5D. But it doesn't exactly fill you with confidence when Canon can screw up a pocket camera quite so badly...

    John Yates-Smith at 11:12am on Monday, October 22, 2007

11. Large bright color display, nice and solid building, extra small size, nice menu system, SDHC. That's what I like in it.
    Pictures are good... ...but how much good?
    In full auto mode pictures are great on lcd, but on the computer screen looks soft, low contrast, sometimes too vivid/innatural colors (picture of a mixed fruit basket) and sometimes fading color COMPARED to my 7-aged Coolpix 880. That's NOT the camera I was expecting to replace my old and glorious Nikon! But maybe ALL small cameras could not make great pictures at all (Too small lens). Am I wrong?

    Cristiano CAVESE at 07:34pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2007

12. Is there any way at all to control depth of field, particularly when shooting flowers so the flower itself is in focus but the leaves behind are blurred? I noticed one of the sample pictures has this effect but I can't work out how to do it :(

    stacey at 04:42pm on Wednesday, October 31, 2007

13. One of my shots got the narrow depth of field, blurred background effect. So it was a rapid shutter speed with a large aperture. I think it was pure fluke. I have just come home with some great photos of a racing car. How did I do it? Simple: I got the car to stop in the middle of the circuit, knelt on the track and asked the driver to lean his head to one side!

    John Yates-Smith at 07:46pm on Wednesday, October 31, 2007

14. I've tried sooo many ways but I can't. I'm so annoyed with it that I'm actually thinking of changing the camera :( If you manage it again and know how you did it let me know

    stacey at 08:37pm on Wednesday, October 31, 2007

15. A Sport mode would do it, instead of all this foliage and aquarium rubbish! The actual quality of the pictures is extraordinarily good, and when the camera decides to take a fast shot the result is great. It's just that more often than not it goes for depth of field rather than stop-action. It ruined a series of pictures of my kids jumping off a boat: the foreground looks good, the background looks good, but the kids are just kid-coloured blurs. I will never forgive the Ixus for that! I'm going to give it to my mother and buy a Fuji or Panasonic.

    John Yates-Smith at 08:18am on Thursday, November 01, 2007

16. Hi, I just got the IXUS 950 but can not get the date printed on the photos. I did go to the print setting and have the "Date" set to'on'but it's still not working. I tried both copy the image to my laptop then print and connect the camera to the PC then print...both are not print the date on the photo. Please help! Thanks!

    Cindy at 12:40pm on Thursday, November 01, 2007

17. Yeah I have to agree the picture quality is amazing and the colours are really great. I am also thinking of changing it but I'm finding it hard to part with as the images are so good. I've been thinking of changing it for the canon powershot A720 as the picture quality is supposed to be good and it has full manual controls as well as the auto and scene modes. Its pretty cheap too but I don't know if I couldnt handle the AA battery malarky. I'ts the only thing that's putting me off

    stacey at 01:15pm on Thursday, November 01, 2007

18. Hello, I like the review but it didn't help me to actually clarify one thing...
    which Canon model to buy : Ixus 860 or Ixus 950? I guess they have minor differences but which one gives a bettter image quality (at low light as well)? Naturally 860 is quite more stylish, therefore the price difference I guess, but I don't mind it, as long is it produces better images. And which one is the latest one?
    I'd be obliged if you could give me an honest advice which one is better to buy. I read many users reviews but both are very praised, and the reviews are good, so I can't really decide. Thanks!

    Holy at 02:02pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2007

19. I wouldn't buy the 950. I'm giving mine to my mother for Christmas!

    John Yates-Smith at 02:12pm on Tuesday, December 18, 2007

20. this is one of the most "complete" review i came accross but one thing i would like to see is a comparision with 1 or 2 cameras of different brands in the same category.

    sidh at 01:18pm on Wednesday, May 07, 2008