Canon Powershot SX110IS 9MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)

This camera is everything I had hoped for in a mega-zoom, compact digital. Over the past month, I've been able to really test it out, and it hasn't let me down even once. The 10x optical zoom is not a 10x digital zoom, it is true optical zoom with excellent lenses. Some of the other 10x (mega-zoom) camera were reviewed to have poor exposure results through their lenses, surprisingly this included Nikon. The Canon performance is awesome. The effective pixels total 9 mega-pixels, plenty of pixel density on a .28cm sensor. The main sensor is a CCD type that measures 0.28 sq cm. There is a huge LCD on the back and the screen is awesome with lots of detail and a built-in portrait-to-landscape accelerometer (orientation sensor). The flash is manual which means you just flip the flash up if the display says you need it; leave it down if you don't need it--no fumbling for buttons to set the flash preference. I haven't be disappointed by the shots I've taken on auto yet. With face detection, just a light touch on the exposure button, the face detection senses the faces in your shot and focuses perfectly. Then mash the button and get a great shot every time. Easy to learn right out of the box. Nothing complicated about this camera. If you want aperture or shutter priority, you'll have to spend more. This camera is the best value I was able to find for the features and I've been really impressed with the quality of the prints that I've made on top-quality photo paper. The video is awesome, even on a 52" plasma. We're using this camera exclusively and pretty much shelved our Canon DV video camera. The research that informed my choice included Amazon reviews, JR Photo reviews, Consumer Reports, Digital Camera Review, Canon Web site, Nikon Web site and the Sony Web site. In my research, I looked at the most critical things that mattered to me. Sensor size and mega-pixels ratings can be confusing and deceiving. The higher the number doesn't necessarily mean better shots, especially if you're comparing a compact with a subcompact. I used the buying guide at Digital Camera Review extensively to narrow down to the compacts with the best performance features and to make sure I was comparing apples to apples. I compared camera in the Consumer Reports ratings, and though I found that they didn't seem to pay much attention to CCD sensor size in their ratings, as always, the review was very informative and helped narrow down the top brands for features, performance and reliability. Once I had a narrowed down list of a few cameras that looked like they had the best mix of features, performance, usability, price and quality, the clear winner was this Canon. Plus the fact that I have had excellent experiences with other Canon electronics, I chose the SX110. Bottom line, this camera takes great pictures and video. I've photographed and shot video at the max of 60 feet from my subject with excellent results. I've photographed in low light, too, and as long as you're relatively still, great results with minimal blur. I've been amazed at how much I've been able to shoot without the flash. The flash does produce some red-eye, but it is possible to fix it with a feature right on the camera. I use a Mac Book Pro with iPhoto, and the compatibility is ideal. I'm sure the same is true with PCs. The first shot delay is almost not even noticeable; very quick and second shot recovery after using the flash is great. I also recommend getting a 4GB memory card and a Sanyo Eneloop 4 Pack AA NiMH Pre-Charged Rechargable Batteries w/ Charger.

I'm a fairly serious hobby photographer and have used the previous model Canon SX100 in addition to the latest SX110. Everything about it is slightly better than the older model, so all the past reviews on the SX100 and praises still apply. The SX110 is like the cheaper version of the Canon G10 (minus RAW, wide angle, flash hotshoe, and build quality), but the CHDK mod could close the gap even more with advanced features. Here's my summary of likes and dislikes: Likes: - Superb image quality for a compact camera, lens corner to corner sharpness, minimum color fringing, and detail vs noise tradeoff are all better than other cameras in its class. - Manual controls (PASM), exposure compensation, contrast/saturation/sharpness adjustments, custom white balance, flash intensity are all adjustable. - 3" LCD screen with 230k resolution, average specs for new generation cameras today. Viewable from a wide angle, and visible in bright sunny conditions. - 9 Megapixels is good for most large prints, more megapixels would've meant more noise without much improved detail due to physical light diffraction limits. - Good 10x zoom all the way to 360mm equiv. - Macro mode focuses all the way close to 1cm (less than half an inch). - Fast lens, meaning the aperture doesn't get too small as you zoom in so a fast shutter speed can still be used to freeze action far away or in dim conditions. - Optical image stabilization works well giving about 2 stops advantage. - AA batteries are great, get the pre-charged (aka hybrid) NiMH and you can get consistently 400-500 shots per recharge. Also don't have to worry about lost charger on a trip. Better for the environment long-term than proprietary batteries that only fit one camera. Dislikes: - Wide angle not wide enough (28mm would've been better than 36mm) - Minor barrel distortion at the wide angle, only noticeable when there are straight edges in the frame, they look curved. - The zoom setting is not displayed, it only pops up briefly when you change the zoom, and it's not exact. A better solution would've been to always display the 35mm equiv value. Also a zoom resume or preset would be nice, so when camera is powered off and on, it resumes the zoom it was in before. This does happen when the camera powers off to save battery, but not all settings are restored in that situation, such as the drive mode or macro focus settings. - No optical zoom during video recording and HD video, only 640x480 30 fps highest quality. - The software interface is outdated and unintuitive sometimes. Turning auto ISO shift on should AUTOMATICALLY shift the ISO (like older SX100), not requiring the press of the "print" button after half pressing the shutter. Some of the features require a lot of button presses. Also auto-power off mode only has option of off or 3 mins, and lens retract in playback is either immediate or 1 min, there should be values in between. - Image noise is noticeable at ISO 800 & higher, not unexpected for a small sensor camera. Maybe if Canon used a slightly bigger sensor like 1/1.6" instead of 1/2.3"... - No live histogram. For a serious camera with manual controls, live histogram should be an option instead of only available after the image is taken. - The command wheel is only good for scrolling through a long list, but I would've preferred a less finicky button interface. Sometimes it's easy to accidentally scroll a value when you meant to press the button or vice versa. - Flash recycle can take 7-10 seconds after a full power discharge, but not a big deal since I don't use the on-camera flash much (I use natural lighting with higher ISO sensitivities, or an external slave flash triggered by the camera's flash). It's one of the tradeoffs of using AA batteries. I admit the dislikes are very nit-picky, overall this is a great camera, but I'm writing them here so that either Canon or one if its competitors can pick up on these issues and improve on them in future models.

I purchased this camera after a great amount of research. It was my fourth digital camera purchase from Canon. I tested it immediately upon receipt and really liked the controls, zoom, and image quality. One month after receipt I took it on a trip to American Samoa and a number of other Pacific islands. The interior lens surfaces fogged extensively after it's first exposure to outside tropical air. I understand the proper procedures for moving a camera from an air-conditioned room to a hot, humid environment and I thought I had warmed the camera adequately before taking it outside. (I live in S. Florida) I could not get the lenses to clear no matter what I tried. When I got back home, (after being unable to take any usable photographs on my trip) I sent the camera back to Canon. I was told I had water damaged the camera and that it was not repairable and it was not covered under warranty. I spoke to 3 separate people at their service center and was treated rather rudely. After my experience with Canon's customer "Service" department, this will be my last purchase from Canon. I am in the process of shopping for a new DSLR, I will probably go Nikon instead. Long story short, I managed to take about 20 good test shots of my back yard and living room, my once in a lifetime trip to the South Pacific however, totally photo free. Thanks for nothing Canon.