Canon Digital Ixus 210, has enormous touchscreen but what about picture quality?

Whether you think a gold-coloured camera is the height of sophistication or the depths of bogan is a matter of opinion.

Fortunately, the Ixus 210 comes in a range of other colours, and the enormous 3.5in touchscreen is positively luxurious.
We've seen more successful touchscreen interfaces, though. Settings have to be prodded twice before the camera accepts them, and various controls, including ISO and white balance, are displayed as a vertical column of values that scroll awkwardly off the screen.

Other than this, the Ixus 210 is a capable point-and-shoot camera. The 5x zoom lens starts at an ultra-wide 24mm focal length, and its f/2.8-f/5.9 aperture isn't as gloomy as that of many rivals.

Videos are recorded in 720p AVC at 21Mbits/sec, more than twice the amount of data we'd expect, which helps keep the picture crisp and detailed. It's a shame optical zoom is locked during recording, though. Low-light clips were noisy, but otherwise video quality was excellent, as was audio. An HDMI output allows connection to a TV or monitor.

Photo quality couldn't match the Canon S90 and G11, which use 1/1.7in sensors, but the Ixus 210's 1/2.3in, 14.1-megapixel effort surpassed our expectations. Unusually for a compact, the lens was able to capture enough detail to justify the massive resolution. Bright conditions revealed Canon's usual flair for sumptuous colours and balanced automatic exposures. Noise was hard to ignore at high ISO, but it didn't ruin photos - except at ISO 1600.

As long as you accept that much of the high price is going on the screen, the Ixus 210 is a decent choice, but we're yet to be convinced by touch controls on a compact camera. If you're considering spending this much, we'd recommend either the Sony TX7 or Panasonic LX3 instead - two very different cameras, but both of them take better photos than this.