Canon's Ixus V2 is a true pocket digital camera. Its sleek, credit card-sized, all-metal case is under 30mm thick, making it very easy to take with you. The 2-Mpixel camera is a model of simple design, with power and shutter release buttons on its top surface, together with a centre-sprung, two-way jog-switch to control zoom level. The Canon lens offers 2x optical zoom and there's a further 2.5x digital zoom, giving a total of 5x.
On the back there's a 38mm colour LCD display, which also shows icons for the various camera settings. You navigate the menus with a circle of four buttons and make selections with four further buttons under the display.
One of the key features of the Ixus V2 is AiAF, or intelligent auto-focus. With most digital cameras, in fact almost all cameras offering auto-focus, you have to trick the technology if you want to focus on an object which is not in the centre of the field. The new Canon system uses three points to assess which part of the frame to focus on and normally takes the object closest to the lens. The system works well, but can be turned off if you want to achieve special effects.
Images are captured onto an 8MB CompactFlash card, which slides into the side of the camera. A rechargeable NiMH battery pack slides into the bottom and can be recharged in the supplied charger in a couple of hours.
Picture quality from our test images was very good with a bright, well-focused macro shot and high fidelity colours in the landscape image. A great little camera if you don't require ultra-high resolution.
