Canon IXUS 400 accessories

[DT]

A friend of mine has kindly agreed to buy for me either the 400 or 430 when he visits NY in a couple of weeks.

I've started looking at CF cards and camera cases and was hoping someone could recommend said items

With regards to CF, I notice you can buy different speed cards. Does higher necessarily mean better?

Thanks

[IAmATeaf]

I would get a nice Canon case to protect your new shiney silver toy. A spare battery, on that Canon camera the battery is charged by a supplied external charger so you can have one in use whilst the other is charging.

As far as the CF card speed is concerned, any improvements will depend entirely on the camera and the max speed that it can process and store the images. With the Canons people have said that there are slight speed improvements in shot to shot times with a faster card. Another area where a faster card will be more beneficial is when you come to download the images to your PC, so make sure your friend gets a decent high speed CF card too, either 2 x 256mb or a single 512mb card will be good for around 300+ pics at the highest resolution.

[DT]

Thanks IAmATeaf, 256 is probably sufficient for my needs. I've just seen that you can get type I and type II CF cards. What's the difference?

Good call about the spare battery.

[cluderi]

This might help (http://www.compactflash.org/faqs/faq.htm)

[IAmATeaf]

Originally posted by DT
Thanks IAmATeaf, 256 is probably sufficient for my needs. I've just seen that you can get type I and type II CF cards. What's the difference?

Good call about the spare battery.

CF II is a thicker card than CF I, normally microdrives are based on the CF II thicker card specification.

As far as I know most point and shot type digi-cams including the 400/430 will only accept the CF I variety.

[ic]

If you can afford it, get the 512MB card. I recently went to London in one day alone took 200 pictures! Had I less memory I would have spent all day wasting battery power deleting pictures. Instead I was able to do that when I got home on the PC.

Ian

[DT]

Can't see myself taking that many pictures. Probably get 256 now and another 256 if I need it.

Is there any place online that I can buy cases from?

[ic]

When I was shopping before Christmas, I found Amazon were the cheapest for official batteries and a case. Flash cards will be cheaper in America - you should get your friend to pick one up there.

[JiBeRjAbEr]

Then Uniross bateries are a good buy, they are a larger capacity battery than the original Canon ones and 5 quid cheaper as well in Jessops (this was Summer last year whne I bough my 400).

HTH :thumbs:

[DT]

ic- you're probably right about them being cheaper. I'll get my mate to sort it out.

Will the canon charger cope with the larger capacity batteries?

[Andrew70]

I've got the Ixus v3 and I can't quite fill a 256mb card before the battery runs out, so I personally wouldn't go for a larger card than that if you're not planning to get a second battery.

A.

[tomw]

I ordered a Canon Ixus 430 this week and it arrived today. I got it from www.cameras2u.com and also ordered a case and a spare battery from them too. (spare battery was recommended by friends who have digi cameras and said it's a "must have" really).

I ordered a 512mb CF card from www.expansys.com (this arrived today too - the camera came with a 32mb one). It's just their kinda standard/own brand one. I am sure it's not the fastest, but it seems fine to me (taking pictures and transferring to PC). This 512mb was about 72 quid I think. If you look around you might find it cheaper, but I had ordered from expansys before and like the 'next day delivery if ordered before 4pm'-ish deal.

The wee thing looks cool as hell and I am gobsmacked by the quality of the images (have taken a few practice ones and ashort 'movie' roudn the office). Its my first digital camera and I've yet to start tinkering with all the different settings and learning how to take photos :)

HTH

Tom

[Maureenp]

I got a hard metal case from ebay - very highly recommended.

[Paul Bennison]

Gonna get an IXUS 500. Is there any way of protecting the LCD screen?

I currently have an IXUS 400 that has a smashed LCD screen rendering it nigh on unusable. I'd hate the same thing to happen to the 500.

[kohoutec]

I got a spare battery for my Ixus 400 from ebay, it came from Hong Kong - higher capacity than the official one, and it came to less than a tenner delivered :)

[Kartikp]

What's the difference between the IXUS 430 and the IXUS 400?

[ic]

Originally posted by Kartikp
What's the difference between the IXUS 430 and the IXUS 400?
I was wondering the same :thinking:

[Ratman]

The Ixus 430 has an extra button on the back than the 400.when linked to a pictbridge compatible printer,if you press it it prints your selected picture immediately.By the way,i got a 'Sandisk Ultra 2 256' card from ebay brand new for £35!:clap:

[Paul Bennison]

The 430 is replacing the 400. As Ratman says, you get the extra button on the back plus, IIRC, the camera can now handle 512MB+ memory cards.

[highisland1]

I've got the Ixus 400. When I download photos to my pc and then modify them using the software that came with the camera, it won't let me upload them to the cf card. I get an error msg that I think says 'this card is incompatible' or something along those lines.

Can anybody advise me on how to get round this?

[Paul Bennison]

Does this help...

When inserting a CF card, with images from a digital camera on it, in a CF card reader. Upon opening and changing an image, it is not possible to view this image on the digital camera's TFT display again.

Above issue is neither a defect from the camera, nor a bug from the CF card reader. It is in fact a consequence of the variations possible within the standard of JPEG images.

Each JPEG image contains what is referred to as Exif or Meta data. This Exif or Meta data contains image specific information. Additionally for digital cameras it contains information on shutterspeed, ISO setting, focal length, camera mode, camera manufacturer, etc. This data, and how it is added in the image, differs from manufacturer to manufacturer.

When the CF card is inserted in a CF card reader, it is accessible in all supported operating systems as an additional drive. As such each and every write operation performed to an image on that drive, is a direct change of the original image made by the digital camera on that CF card.

Consequences of above are that Exif or Meta data contained in the original image is lost. This is even more apparent when using programs, which save changes made in an image to disk without asking the users permission to do this. Amongst others, such an application is Windows XP explorer. This application saves changes without asking the users permission.

To enable a Canon digital camera to display images contained on the CF card, the images must comply with a certain Exif or Meta data layout contained in them. During saving of the image by an application, it is exactly this layout which is changed. As such the Canon digital camera does not recognize the image and is unable to display it on the TFT display.


(extracted from http://www.canon-europe.com/patches/notice_dig_cam_users/notices_dig_cam_users.html)

[DT]

I've had no luck trying to find the official Canon case (SPC300?) on the net. Anyone know where I can find one?

Also interested in the tripod for long exposure night shots. Apparently the official one is weighted/balanced? correctly

[Radiohead]

I've never found one to buy either - but I actually have one that came with my APS Ixus (noi longer used).

You can have that for £15.

[DT]

Originally posted by Radiohead
I've never found one to buy either - but I actually have one that came with my APS Ixus (noi longer used).

You can have that for £15.

Thanks for the offer Radiohead, I'll keep it in mind if I get no joy

[highisland1]

Paul, Belated thanks for the info.

I might give Canon a ring though, because I don't use a card reader. I just use the cable that came with the camera.

[IAmATeaf]

Originally posted by highisland1
Paul, Belated thanks for the info.

I might give Canon a ring though, because I don't use a card reader. I just use the cable that came with the camera.

The CF card reader is incidental, it's to do with the fact that when you modify an image regardless of how you got that image onto the PC the extra information that the camera recorded with the image is lost or overwritten therefore the camera no longer recognises the image as being one that it created.

[Radiohead]

Originally posted by DT
Thanks for the offer Radiohead, I'll keep it in mind if I get no joy

:thumbs:

[Alto]

TAgging on to this, has anyone tried the waterproof case for the canon 400. Will be spending 2 weeks in cornwall in summer, surfing, kayaking etc and would like to get some "action" shots.

[DSG]

Another one interested in underwater cases here! This one for the A80 though (same manufacturer so it's still on topic :) ). Are they any good? Is it worth getting the expensive waterproof casing or do those aquapac "ziplock" bags work just as well?

We're going to Tobago in a few weeks and have the new snorkelling gear all ready and waiting. Just need to decide whether it's worth trying to get pics at a depth of ~1m out there...

[ac]

Originally posted by DT
I've had no luck trying to find the official Canon case (SPC300?) on the net. Anyone know where I can find one?

Also interested in the tripod for long exposure night shots. Apparently the official one is weighted/balanced? correctly

Is this (http://www.digital-cameras.com/Camera_Accessories-6_sc/Cases-33/Canon_Digital_Ixus_Soft_Case_SCPS300-1088.html) the one?

Picked up the official case for my Ixus v3 from these guys as they were the only ones that seemed to have them (at the time).

Take a look through the rest of their selection too as it appears there are a few official Canon cases that are compatible, I have a leather one for the v3 which is extremely well made. Very rigid stitching and a nice snug fit for the camera.