Canon SX200IS Digital Camera Review
May 22, 2009 by Eastmon Admin
Filed under Canon Digital Cameras, Digital Camera Reviews, Featured Review
Great camera except for the pop up flash
When you know you are heading off to a country like New Zealand one of your firsts thoughts are beautiful scenery, don’t forget the camera. And there is the conundrum! Should I pack the SLR or try out one of the ever growing array of compact big zoom travel cameras? Then I spotted the new Canon SX200IS and my mind was made up.
First Impression
The Canon SX200IS is Canon’s real first attempt to produce a compact camera with a 12x big zoom with 28mm wide angle lens that you may carry in your pocket. Cameras of this type our becoming increasingly popular with travellers because they are slim with a large zoom range.
When you first hold the camera the slighly curved body and rounded edges feel very comfortable to hold onto. The large mode dial on the top is easy to rotate and select different modes, while the buttons on the back are few and easily understood.
Smooth curved body and slightly thicker at handgrip for easy holding
Camera Controls and Features
Pushing the power on button at the top of the camera and the 12 megapixel camera springs to life. The 12x zoom lens pops out the front and the giant 3″ wide viewing angle LCD is so bright and clear that it fills you with confidence that the pictures you take will be brilliant as well.
Most people will shoot on Auto which all seems fairly simple, but underneath the hood there is quite a lot happening to help you take better photographs. When you press the button the camera will automatically be analysing the scene you are shooting and choosing the best mode from macro to portrait, scenery right through to sunset. As well as that it will be detecting faces, incorporating image stabilisation, correcting red eye and checking to see if anyone blinked when taking the photo.
You can still select any mode you want though if you feel you want to control your result rather than be dictated to by the camera, which I must admit I did a fair bit of.
Face detection self timer, a really handy tool
The SX200IS also shoots HD movie and has a HDMI output so you can watch your stills and movies directly from the camera in High Definition.
Using the camera
One of the first mistakes I made was holding the camera in my left hand while turning the camera on with my right. I found that I was always holding the pop up flash down when I was taking my shots and sometimes wondering why the flash didn’t work.
Once I mastered the art of letting the flash pop up when I turned it on we had the opportunity to use the self timer with face detection. There are the usual choices of 10sec self timer etc but the new option allows you to activate the self timer, however the camera will not fire the shutter until it detects faces, then it shoots off 3 images in quick succession. This was quite successful and we used it several times.
Sometimes a big zoom is handy to get back from the danger
The Intelligent Auto mode works extremely well under most conditions, although there were several times when manually choosing the mode from the mode dial did provide a better picture.
Other modes and functions that are not on the mode dial are found by pressing the function button and rotating the selection wheel on the back. This can be a little bit fiddly until you get used to, but it does have some fun functions hidden away there such as the colour selection mode which lets you isolate one colour and turn the remaining parts of the scene to black & white.
The optical image stabilisation was exceptional, which resulted in lots of sharp, tremor free images.
Conclusion
Canon's unique colour selection tool isolates one colour
I enjoyed using the Canon SX200IS while we were away. The compact size and big zoom made it a delight to carry and use. I certainly didn’t miss carrying a DSLR around, although I suspect I would have got better images from it.
How did the camera perform?
I was very impressed with the image quality. The lens performs very well with crisp sharp images. Colour rendition and image resolution from the images was very pleasing and performed in the way I would have expected a Canon to perform.
The 3″LCD is a standout for me as it was easy to use under all light conditions and the 28mm Wide Angle lens is just fantastic for travel images.
The face detection and red eye correction did not fail once, and the face detection self timer is a useful tool that works well.
Who is it suitable for?
Zoomed up 12x, Beautiful colour and sharp clear images
It is the ideal travellers camera, small enough to go out with you for a night out, yet the big zoom is ideal for those distant scenes or animals. While it is happy enough to be used as a point and shoot camera, it would appeal to anyone who like to experiment with their photography to get unique photographs
How would I rate it?
I must admit compact digital cameras are not my preferred choice of camera, but on this occasion the Canon Powershot SX200IS filled our requirements. My only complaint is the pop up built in flash so I have to knock a point off for that. I Loved the images but hated the flash design.
My Rating, 7 stars out of 10
Handheld in low light
Great snapshots, really easily
Related posts:
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!