Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS Review
(also known as the Canon Digital ELPH SD950 IS)
Review Date: October 1st 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel SuperFine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 5Mb.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available on the Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS which you can select at any time if the camera is in the normal shooting mode. There is virtually no discernible noise at the slowest settings of ISO 80 and 100, but noise and slight loss of detail is already apparent at the relatively slow speed of ISO 200, particularly in the shadow areas. At ISO 400 image quality has deteriorated quite a lot as the camera blurs detail to try and hide the noise. ISO 800 is even worse, and ISO 1600 should really be avoided at all costs. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting:
ISO 80 (100% Crop) |
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are just a little soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. Alternatively you can change the in-camera sharpening level if you don't like the default results.
Original
(100% Crop)
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Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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File Quality
The Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS has 3 different image quality settings available, with Superfine being the highest quality JPEG option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
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8M
Superfine (6.25Mb) (100% Crop)
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8M
Fine (3.83Mb) (100% Crop)
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8M
Normal (1.78Mb) (100% Crop)
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS handled chromatic aberrations very well during the review, with only small levels of coloured fringing mainly present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.
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Example
1 (100% Crop)
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Example
2 (100% Crop)
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Macro
The Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is 3cms away from the camera. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject in Macro mode (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
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Macro Shot |
100% Crop |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS are Auto, On, Red-eye Reduction, Slow Synchro and Off. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m. There is noticeable vignetting at the wide-angle lens setting.
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Flash Off - Wide Angle (36mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (36mm) |
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Flash Off - Telephoto (133mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (133mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. The Auto setting caused a very small amount of red-eye which was completely removed by turning on the Red-eye reduction mode.
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Auto |
Auto (100% Crop) |
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Red-eye reduction |
Red-eye reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS's maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds, which is good news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 8 seconds, aperture of f/2.8 at ISO 80. I've included a 100% Crop of the image to show what the quality is like, which is excellent.
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Night Shot |
Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the ISO speed set to 100. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.
| Shutter Speed / Focal Length |
Anti Shake Off (100% crop) |
Anti Shake On (100% crop) |
| 1/5th / 133mm |
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| 1/4th / 133mm |  |
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Overall Image Quality
The Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS produced images of good quality during the review period. As expected from previous use of Canon cameras, colours are naturalistic bordering on warm, especially when it comes to skin tones, which is no bad thing. And of course there's the added ability to adjust these in-camera if you don't like the default results. The Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS dealt very well with chromatic aberrations, with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with little red-eye and good overall exposure, although the lens exhibits noticeable vignetting at the wide-angle focal lengths. The night photograph was excellent, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds allowing you to capture enough light in most situations. Macro performance is very good, allowing you to focus as close as 3cms away from the subject and capturing lots of detail. The 12 megapixel images were just a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening setting (which can be changed in-camera). The Canon Digital IXUS 960 IS biggest image quality problem is noise - it produces noise-free images at ISO 80 and 100, but ISO 200 shows some noise and slight blurring of detail. ISO 400 has quite visible noise and the fastest setting of ISO 1600 is best avoided at all costs. Anti-shake is a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. It also partly makes up for the noisy images at relatively slow ISO speeds.
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the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
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