Takes Very Good Photographs, 12 April 2010

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Mr. Martin Houlton (Hull, United Kingdom) – See all my reviews

  

I too have only had this camera for a few days, but I think it’s brilliant. Its main selling point is of course that 14x zoom lens, which starts at 28mm so at the long end you get 392mm! The Image Stabilization ensures sharp pictures even at that length. I haven’t tried any digital zoom. I find that setting image stabilization to “Shoot Only” works best.

The camera’s second selling point is the Aperture priority, Shutter priority and Manual modes. It is well designed in that it has a proper dial to select the aperture and shutter settings. Unfortunately it is a dual-purpose dial and pressing down on it often selects another function. I have sometimes done this accidentally while trying to select aperture or shutter speed. I expect I will get used to it. The dial can also be used when selecting menu items.

The camera has a Wide mode which records/plays back images in 16:9 format, great for people who like to show photos on their HD TVs. I have this option selected all the time. Please note that despite the heading it’s a 3.5 inch display on the back. I haven’t yet found it difficult to see the display, though we have had some sunny days.

I used up a fully charged battery pack in two days, but I was playing with the camera quite a lot! I think it would last for about a week in normal use. I have ordered a spare battery pack because it’s boring not to be able to get your photos for two hours while the battery charges.

I find that if I take a photo in low light, like indoors, the camera takes a couple of seconds to store an image, but generally it is fine. I have ordered a fast memory card to see if this helps because after all it’s got to store 14 megapixels.

About the problem with the flash popping up, I find that when I pick the camera up, my left index finger usually rests on top of the flash cover, so when I turn the camera on, the flash can’t pop up.

I have added some pictures to the customer images which give a better idea of what the camera is like because they weren’t taken in the dark!

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Superb ‘point & shoot’ digital camera, 5 May 2010

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Lumpster (Yorkshire, UK) – See all my reviews

  

I have used a 7.1mp Olympus Mju compact digital camera for the past 2-3 years as a compact alternative to my main camera, Canon digital SLR. Results were fairly patchy and so I have been looking around for an upgrade for a few months. I was on the point of buying the Powershot SX200 but then saw that the SX210 was imminent, so held off until the camera was launched and the price came down from its fairly toppy launch level of £300+. As expected, as stocks improved, the price has fallen sharply plus Canon has now introduced its cashback offer, bringing the price of the camera down materially.

I went for the Powershot over an Ixus equivalent as a) its hugely powerful 14x optical zoom appealed, b) I am more concerned with picture quality than size and c) the Powershot isn’t actually that big anyway. So far, I have probably taken around 200 photos using the camera in a variety of conditions and am really pleased with the results. Build quality is top-notch, the zoom lens produces fantastic results and battery life doesn’t seem to be an issue (although I have bought a spare Canon battery from Amazon just in case). The menus are intuitive and very much in line with other cameras produced by Canon. As for the flash popping up automatically, I haven’t found this to be an issue (in fact, I think handling is very good) but you can keep your finger on the flash and it stays down. There are different auto settings (e.g. ‘portrait’, ‘landscape’, ‘indoors’ etc.), all of which seem to work well plus movie mode (which I haven’t tried) along with manual settings. I even used the digital zoom (which goes to 56x) with fairly decent results due to the image stabilsation.

I am using a standard 4GB SD Sandisk Ultra card and a Lowepro Apex 30 AW case, which fits well and leaves space for extra memory cards, batteries etc. If you can afford the extra for a really high speed SD card, I’d say it’s probably worth it as with 14.1mp, files are pretty big and there can be some lag evident between shots.

I’m a big fan of Canon photography gear and the Powershot SX210is doesn’t disappoint – you can safely buy this knowing that you are getting a great camera for your money.

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Versatility in your pocket!, 29 April 2010

Had this camera a couple of weeks now and pretty impressed. Great zoom for the money and being a compact. Really good selection of programme functions for getting more creative (fish eye, ‘model/miniature’, and ‘foliage’ – increases vibrancy of plant shots). I’ve taken some good panoramic shots with the stitch assist function, and the stitch software it comes with is very easy to use. Also, the wide format option gives a different perspective and more scope for taking landscape shots.

Really happy with this purchase – as an SLR user myself, I’ve found you can do a lot with this camera without all the SLR paraphernalia. Also – really good macro shots, fully tested at Kew Gardens!

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