Canon PowerShot ELPH · 2012 · a retrospective

The Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS (IXUS 125 HS): the slim 24 mm zoom with a short battery

Also sold as the Digital IXUS 125 HS and the IXY 220F.

In spring 2012 Canon launched a metal-bodied pocket camera with a 16-megapixel back-illuminated sensor and a lens that started at 24 mm, for a suggested $249.99. Reviewers liked the daylight pictures and complained about the battery.

Compiled from Canon's museum entry, PhotographyBLOG, Cameralabs and Reviewed.com, all from 2012 · we have not tested a unit yet · we found no free-licence photo of the camera itself, so the lead picture is a sample photograph

Release date and launch price: launched March 2012; launch price US$249.99⁴.

Meet the camera

It is a slim compact with an aluminium body that PhotographyBLOG found solid yet light; it measures about 93 by 57 by 20 millimetres and weighs about 135 grams with battery and card.²³ The screen is a 3.0-inch panel of about 461,000 dots.²¹ It came in silver, black, pink, red, green and blue.²⁴

Canon's museum lists the camera as marketed in March 2012 under three names: PowerShot ELPH 110 HS in the Americas, IXUS 125 HS in Europe, Asia and Oceania, and IXY 220F in Japan.¹ PhotographyBLOG gave the suggested prices as £229, €259 and $249;² Reviewed.com gave a US list price of $249.99 and said it was already selling for $179 at the time of its review.⁴

Why this one was interesting

Not a CCD

If you are hunting for the look of a CCD camera, this is not one: Canon's museum lists a CMOS sensor, and PhotographyBLOG and Reviewed.com both call it back-illuminated.¹²⁴ Cameralabs called its image quality a step up from the CCD-based PowerShot A-series.³ See our glossary entry on CCD sensors, and our ELPH 180, which does use one.

A wider lens than most of Canon's range

The lens runs from 4.3 to 21.5 millimetres, equal to 24–120 mm.¹ Cameralabs pointed out that only this model and the more expensive touchscreen ELPH 320 HS offered 24 mm in the range, and that the range's other longer-zoom models start at 28 mm.³ It has an f/2.7 maximum aperture at wide angle that narrows to f/5.9 at full zoom.²

A newer processor than its predecessor

Cameralabs said the DIGIC 5 processor recognises 58 scene types against 32 on the DIGIC 4 of the ELPH 100 HS, and that the older model has a 12-megapixel sensor and a 4x zoom that cannot be used while filming, and lacks DIGIC 5 features such as Face ID and Intelligent IS.³ Face ID can register up to 12 people.³ Intelligent IS, said Cameralabs, gave a sharp handheld shot at 120 mm and 1/8 second, bearing out Canon's four-stop claim.³

The dark: its weak point

Reviewed.com was the harshest: it called low-light performance virtually nonexistent, with shadows blacking out and video smeared with ghosting.⁴ Cameralabs was gentler and more specific. At ISO 100 noise was visible but unobtrusive, at 200 it rose slightly but stayed acceptable for large prints, and at 400 it rose a little more with a grainy look to detail; it called ISO 800 "a bit of a watershed", with softness and smearing of small text, and said ISO 1600 and 3200 looked poor at 100 per cent, though usable for important shots and better at smaller sizes.³ PhotographyBLOG put the limit slightly higher: usable to ISO 1600, and at 3200 with visible grain.²

Cameralabs also tried the camera's handheld night mode, which stacks three frames: at ISO 1600 it gave markedly cleaner results than a single frame at the same ISO.³ Below are four evening and interior photographs taken with this camera; the ISO comes from each file's own metadata.

On eBay right now

Live listings for this camera, supplied by eBay and updated automatically. We earn a commission if you buy through them.

The little wins

How it drew the picture

PhotographyBLOG scored image quality 3.5 out of 5: good in bright light, natural colours, some softness at the default sharpening, and purple fringing in high-contrast areas.² Cameralabs found exposure and white balance accurate and colours bright and saturated, with sharp, detailed results at the centre of the frame, a softer edge with slight colour fringing, and noise visible even at base ISO that did not hide fine detail.³ In one bright-sun shot at f/10 it noted that diffraction softened edges, since the camera has two apertures and uses the smaller one in bright light.³

Reviewed.com measured the same camera more harshly. It judged the images oversharpened and soft, with the centre of the frame 53 per cent over-sharpened at full wide angle, a lens that was sharpest by far at wide angle and dropped off as you zoomed, and a left side that was consistently softer because of decentering in its sample.⁴ Its measured noise was 1.01 per cent at ISO 100, under 2 per cent through ISO 800, 2.07 at ISO 1600 and 2.21 at ISO 3200, and said noise reduction was applied more intelligently than on some other compacts.⁴

Photos taken with this camera, from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each picture.

Where it let you down

The battery is the complaint every reviewer shares: a rating of about 170 shots, which PhotographyBLOG called fairly miserly and Reviewed.com called exceptionally awful.³²⁴ The battery is charged outside the camera.³ Handling drew criticism too. Cameralabs said the rear four-way controller is flush and hard to press with a thumb, that the battery and card door hinge feels flimsy, and that burst shooting at 4 megapixels sustained about 4.9 frames per second in its test against a quoted 5.8 to 5.9 (its page gives both figures), with full resolution at 2.³ PhotographyBLOG found the body slippery with no grip, and the port flap flimsy.² There is no manual exposure: Reviewed.com said exposure can only be adjusted by plus or minus 2 stops.⁴ Cameralabs also missed a panorama mode, and noted the mono microphone is susceptible to wind noise and that no HDMI cable is supplied.³

What the reviewers said

The three reviewers disagree on value and image quality, so read the quotes above as a range, not a verdict.

The timeline

• March 2012Canon's museum lists the camera as marketed; PhotographyBLOG publishes its review on 22 March.¹²
• 2 August 2012Cameralabs publishes its review.³

Should you buy one now?

Buy one if you want a pocketable, metal-bodied camera with a 24 mm wide end and good daylight pictures, and you will carry a spare battery. It launched at US$249.99;⁴ what it sells for now is a question for the sold listings, not for us. Before you bid, check these:

• The name. Search the ELPH 110 HS, the IXUS 125 HS and the IXY 220F.¹ Do not confuse it with the ELPH 100 HS, which has a 12-megapixel sensor and a 4x zoom.³
• The sensor. It is CMOS, not CCD.¹
• The battery. It uses an NB-11L, rated about 170 shots;²³ a fresh one is on Amazon ↗.
• The card. It takes SD, SDHC and SDXC cards.² See our memory card guide.
• The door and port cover. Reviewers called the battery door hinge and the port flap flimsy; open and close both.³²
• The lens. Check that it extends and retracts cleanly and that both sides of a test photo are equally sharp.⁴

For why people want cameras like this, we tell the story once, in Pictures that never left the card.

See recent sold prices on eBay ↗Shop on eBay ↗NB-11L battery ↗

Sources

1. Canon Camera Museum: PowerShot ELPH 110 HS / IXUS 125 HS / IXY 220F (names, March 2012, specifications)
2. PhotographyBLOG, Canon IXUS 125 HS review by Gavin Stoker (22 Mar 2012)
3. Cameralabs, Canon ELPH 110 HS / IXUS 125 HS review by Ken McMahon (2 Aug 2012; pages 1, 2 and 4)
4. Reviewed.com, Canon PowerShot ELPH 110 HS review by Ben Keough (undated page; lab measurements)

Photographs are credited under each one, all via Wikimedia Commons. Links to eBay and Amazon are affiliate links.