The IXUS 240 HS arrived in February 2012 as one of the first IXUS models to ship with built-in Wi-Fi — a feature that felt genuinely novel at the time and pointed unmistakably toward where cameras were heading. The body was aluminum, the back was almost entirely touchscreen, the sensor was a back-illuminated CMOS with ISO headroom up to 3200, and the whole package measured just 20.8mm deep. It was Canon's attempt to make a compact that could still compete with a smartphone on every dimension except image quality — and image quality, it won.
NO FILTER: SHOT ON IXUS 240 HS
THE LOOKS
In silver, the IXUS 240 HS has a cool, brushed-aluminum presence — satin rather than mirror, understated rather than loud. The body is 93.5 × 56.8 × 20.8mm with softly rounded corners and almost no visible hardware on the back beyond the 3.2-inch touchscreen. The front face is clean: circular lens housing, subtle Canon logo, nothing else. Also available in black, purple, blue, and pink.
THE SPECS
16.1-megapixel 1/2.3-inch back-illuminated CMOS, ISO 100–3200. 5× optical zoom, 24–120mm equivalent, f/2.7–5.9. Intelligent IS. DIGIC 5 processor. 3.2-inch touchscreen LCD (460k dots). Full HD 1080p video with stereo sound. Built-in Wi-Fi. Smart Auto (58 scenes). Movie Digest mode. SD/SDHC/SDXC. 93.5 × 56.8 × 20.8mm, 145g.
DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS
- Aluminum body with a near-buttonless rear: The 3.2-inch touchscreen fills the entire back of the camera — the only physical controls are on the top edge. In 2012 this was a deliberate statement about where camera interfaces were going, and it still reads as clean rather than gimmicky.
- Back-illuminated CMOS at 24mm wide with f/2.7: The BSI sensor collects more light per pixel than a conventional CMOS, paired with a fast wide-angle opening and DIGIC 5 processing — the HS system's whole argument is that a compact can handle low light without flash at this size.
- Built-in Wi-Fi as a design decision, not an afterthought: The IXUS 240 HS shipped with wireless transfer to smartphones, computers, and Canon's image gateway in 2012 — clunky in execution by today's standards, but historically significant as one of the first mainstream compacts to treat connectivity as a core spec rather than a bonus.
THE VERDICT
The IXUS 240 HS is the IXUS line at a turning point — still a dedicated compact camera, still aluminum and considered in its proportions, but now with a back-illuminated sensor, a full touchscreen interface, and Wi-Fi baked in. The silver finish is exactly right for the brief: cool, professional, not trying too hard. A well-made early-2010s compact that captures the precise moment when Canon's most elegant point-and-shoot line started looking over its shoulder at the smartphone.