Introduction

Ease of Use

The IXUS 160 is identical to the IXUS 165, except it does without image stabilisation, saving you around £30. Predictably the existing IXUS 155 costs even less, but weirdly it does sport a stabilised lens and its 10x optical zoom range beats the IXUS 160’s 8x optic. Confused? So are we.

Putting aside its dubious value for money, the IXUS 160 still has plenty going for it, starting with that IXUS trademark style. It’s sleek 95.2 x 54.3 x 22.1mm dimensions make it comfortably small enough to slip into a jeans pocket, whilst a 127g ready-to-shoot weight means it won’t weigh you down either.

Part of the lightness is down to the plastic casing, but this is well screwed together and doesn’t flex. You do get a metal tripod mount which is a nice treat, even if a camera like this is unlikely to spend much time tied down. It’s a pity the glossy plastic casing won’t wear so well though, as it picks up scratches very easily, which are especially obvious on the red version. The shininess also makes the IXUS 160 pretty slippery to hang on to, with no gripping points on the front or back of the camera, apart from the raised lip around the LCD screen.

Front of the Canon IXUS 160

The screen itself is bright enough to see under direct sunlight, and colour accuracy is pretty good too, but only if you’re facing the monitor square-on. Tip the camera up or down and the screen’s restricted viewing angles cause colour and contrast to vary massively. The problem isn’t too bad when viewing from the side, but the overall experience is disappointing if you’re expecting an improvement over using a smartphone camera. An average smartphone screen also shames the pitiful 230k-dot resolution of the IXUS 160’s monitor, though this and the other screen complaints are typical of many compact cameras at this price.

Alongside the screen are several good-sized buttons that don’t require you to sharpen your finger nails to use. There’s the usual playback, video record and menu controls, but also an intriguing button labelled with a question mark. This accesses the camera’s Help menu, where in shooting mode you’ll be given a description of the type of scene that Auto mode has detected you’re about to capture. You’re probably going to want to get on and shoot rather than worry about what the camera is doing behind the scenes, but the Help system is more useful in Playback mode. Here it gives you information like how to navigate, magnify and rotate images, plus plenty more useful tips that make learning the IXUS 160 a little more intuitive. It’s certainly easier than getting bogged down with a traditional manual, especially as the IXUS 160 uses Canon’s tried and tested menu design that’s clear and simple.

Central to the IXUS 160’s controls is a normal 4-way directional dial, and within this is the Func/Set button. This is your gateway to the camera’s main shooting options which have been separated from the rest of the lesser-used settings contained in the main menu. In Auto mode, the Func/Set button stores options for the self-timer (including a custom mode that lets you pre-set your own time delay and also the number of shots to automatically fire), single vs. continuous shooting (at 0.8 frames per second), image size and video resolution (HD 720p or VGA 640x480).

Rear of the Canon IXUS 160

But, press the 4-way dial up and the IXUS 160 switches from Auto to the last-used alternative shooting mode. Now the Func/Set menu includes additional options for controlling light metering (evaluative, centre-weighted or spot metering), white balance (including a custom setting), ISO sensitivity, exposure compensation and focus range. The Func/Set menu also stores the various shooting modes other than Auto, including Live View Control that lets you alter the tone of images and FaceSelf-Timer which starts the self-timer automatically when a face is detected. Low Light mode limits image capture to 5MP to help minimise image noise in photos taken at high ISO sensitivities. Finally, there’s the Long Shutter mode if you’d prefer to take night-time shots at low ISO sensitivities and have a tripod to hand.

It’s a pity Canon has opted to hide away most of the shooting modes and creative effects in the Func/Set menu, where many similar cameras provide a dedicated mode button. However, it’s great that the IXUS 160 does include options to delve in and tweak shooting settings, letting you get the most out of the camera as your photography skills develop.

Other settings controlled by the 4-way dial include the flash, as well as playback and shooting overlays, which include a histogram display. Finally, the IXUS 160 gets Canon’s Eco system that helps extend battery life using power-saving measures like switching off the screen faster than usual. This helps boost battery life from a fairly average 220-shot lifespan up to a respectable 300 shots-per-charge.

Top of the Canon IXUS 160

 

The Canon IXUS 160 In-hand

When it’s time to start shooting, the IXUS 160 powers up and fires a shot in a spritely 1.7 seconds. This is partly thanks to the camera’s quick focussing speed, which manages to be almost instantaneous in good light and doesn’t get too bogged down in dimmer conditions. The autofocus system can come a cropper when you zoom in on a dimly-lit subject though, hunting for a focus point and sometimes failing.

However, the autofocussing is most annoying when trying to shoot a close-up. Sure, the camera has a minimum focus distance of 5cm, but that’s only when the lens is set to maximum wide angle. Zoom in just a fraction and you’ll have to back up around a foot from your subject before the camera will focus, and a little more zoom requires much more distance. This is a typical trait of compact camera lenses, but the IXUS 160 seems more reluctant than its rivals to focus on close subjects when zoomed in. It’s especially annoying when you’re trying to avoid casting a shadow over your subject by holding the camera too close to it, but it’s also a pain when attempting to use a longer focal length to create an attractive background blur with a shallower depth of field.

Image Quality

In good light the IXUS 160’s 20MP CCD sensor manages to resolve a decent level of detail and reproduces colours with accuracy and vibrancy. Zoom in to 100% images size and you’ll see some grain noise even in shots taken in bright conditions, but this is normal for small-sensor compact cameras. What’s good is that Canon hasn’t chosen to apply more aggressive noise reduction processing to hide this, as that means more distant detail in shots like landscape stays relatively crisp and isn’t smoothed to the point of looking painterly.

But it’s not all good news, as in dimmer conditions grain noise is much more evident. Even at sensor sensitivities below ISO400, colour speckling is visible in areas of neutral tones, and you don’t have to look that hard to spot it. Detail also starts to get smudged at around ISO400, and inevitably things get softer at ISO800. This is really the cut-off point for acceptable image quality, as at the top-most ISO1600 sensitivity images look so soft that they could have been captured at 5MP and crudely enlarged to 20MP dimensions.

Part of the problem is actually down to the IXUS 160’s lack of image stabilisation. Without it, the only way the camera can maintain sharp shots is to use faster shutter speeds, but that in turn requires higher ISO sensitivities in order to produce bright images, resulting in shots with more grain and colour speckling.

At least the lens produces fairly low levels of chromatic aberration (purple fringing) in high contrast areas, whilst sharpness is also quite consistent with only minor drop-off towards the corners of frame. Distortion is minimal too, both at the wide angle and telephoto ends of the zoom range.

Noise

The IXUS 160 has a sensitivity range of ISO100 to ISO1600. That’s a relatively low maximum sensitivity and some similar cameras will go higher, but often excessive image noise at such settings make them almost unusable.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The camera’s 8x optical zoom lens gives you a focal range of 28-224mm (in 35mm-camera terms). Canon’s ZoomPlus feature can double this to 16x without considerable detail loss, whilst an additional 2x conventional digital zoom will give a combined maximum 32x zoom, albeit at the expense of image quality.

28mm	224mm

Macro

A 5cm minimum focussing distance means you can capture a decent close-up shot, but this figure only applies when the lens is set to maximum wide angle. Zoom in just a fraction and you’ll need to pull back to around 30cm from your subject, and any extra zoom requires you to be at least a metre away.

Macro	Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The camera’s built-in flash includes four modes: Auto, On, Slow Synchro and Off. There’s no conventional red-eye reduction where the flash fires multiple times, so instead you get a red-eye correction feature which needs to be activated via the camera’s main menu. This digitally removes red pupils, and in our testing it did a fairly good job, though minor amounts of red-eye can go undetected.  Shooting a white surface from a distance of 1.5m revealed that the flash can produce noticeable wide-angle vignetting.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (224mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (224mm)

We did get some red-eye when taking portraits. Using the red-eye correction function does reduce it, but a correction system suggests it removes it. However, it does this digitally, so will be programmed to look for certain colours and it's quite possible that this was outside of the gamut.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red-eye Correction	Red-eye Correction (100% Crop)

Night

Activate the IXUS 160’s Long Shutter mode and the camera will lower the ISO sensitivity and record using a longer shutter speed; in this instance it was one second. You’ll need to use a tripod to hold things steady, or you can try and wing it like this shot, balance the camera on some railings and end up making a mess of it!

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Effects

Six filter effects are hidden away in the IXUS 160’s functions menu. These are: Fish-eye, Miniature, Toy Camera, Monochrome, Super Vivid and Poster. All are previewed live and recorded at full resolution.

Fish-eye	Miniature
Toy Camera	Monochrome
Super Vivid	Poster

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Canon IXUS 160 camera, which were all taken using the 20 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Canon IXUS 160

Front of the Canon IXUS 160 / Turned On

Side of the Canon IXUS 160

Side of the Canon IXUS 160

Rear of the Canon IXUS 160

Rear of the Canon IXUS 160 / Image Displayed

Rear of the Canon IXUS 160 / Main Menu

Top of the Canon IXUS 160

Bottom of the Canon IXUS 160

Side of the Canon IXUS 160

Side of the Canon IXUS 160

Front of the Canon IXUS 160

Front of the Canon IXUS 160

Memory Card Slot / Battery Compartment

Conclusion

Budget compact cameras rarely set the world alight with exceptional performance or innovative features, but the IXUS 160 is even more lacklustre than the norm. Aside from including a respectable amount of manual shooting options and a few nifty features, it’s an unremarkable camera.

Image quality is average at best, with reasonable performance in good light, but disappointing indoor and low light results. The lack of proper image stabilisation only compounds the problem, and focussing can be a pain when shooting close-ups.

The IXUS 160 isn’t especially enjoyable to use either. It’s got some good-sized buttons and a logical menu structure, but you’ll have to put up with slippery ergonomics and a thoroughly average LCD screen.

But the camera’s biggest problem is value. Sure, at £100/$130 it’s keenly priced, but remember the older IXUS 155 can be had for similar money but comes with a 10x zoom range and image stabilisation. Nikon’s direct rival, the Coolpix S3700, also has a stabilised lens, plus you get features like Wi-Fi image sharing with NFC pairing.

All in all, the IXUS 160 performs fairly well and is easy to use, but that’s not enough to make it a compelling buy when compared to its direct rivals and also slightly older, better-specced cameras reduced to the same price.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	3.5
Features	3
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	3
Value for money	2.5

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Canon IXUS 160.

Specifications

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