Canon's new high-end compact, the IXUS 300HS, does two things well: shoots in low-light, and shoots at high-speed. The stainless-steel bodied camera will take pictures at up to ISO 3200 (or ISO 6400 if you drop to a lower resolution) and capture video at either 720p, or switch down the resolution to 320x240 for movies at a ridiculous 240fps.
There's more. The lens, a 28-105mm equivalent zoom, will open up to a nice, bright ƒ2.0 when used at the wide-angle end (falling to ƒ5.3 at the telephoto end) and the 3-inch LCD has a wide, 16:9 aspect ratio (a little weird for stills, but great for video). Finally, the sensor is a sensible 10MP.
The IXUS 300HS, which is priced at £380 (and which will doubtless be less than the $560 direct conversion when it gets a US price) looks to come somewhere below the excellent Canon S90 in terms of image quality (the sensor is smaller in the IXUS, for example) but above other compacts in the range, with both the neat slo-mo mode and the manual controls (program, shutter priority, aperture priority and manual are all choices). In fact, as a take anywhere, slide-in-the-pocket digicam, it looks ideal.
Canon IXUS 300 HS [Canon UK]
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