Canon Powershot SX110IS 9MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)
by Canon
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon Powershot SX110IS 9MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)
Customer Review: Point and Shoot With Extras
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm basically a point and shoot guy, but I have enjoyed changing camera settings and dabbling a little bit in taking pictures of individual tropical fish in my aquarium, which is somewhat of a chore. Last year I bought a Sony H7 to replace my Canon A85. Though I could get good fish pictures after much reading and fiddling around, I was terribly disappointed and frustrated by the Sony's inability to take good indoor pictures using the automatic settings. I always had to go through the long process of editing the brightness and color of my pictures and even then was not always happy. I now have the Canon SX110 and am very happy with it. Here's my take on a comparison of it to my old camera.
Things I really like about my Canon SX110 compared to my Sony H7 and others . . .
1. Blur check feature on playback setting
2. The mode dial doesn't get accidentally turned as easy and mess up my pictures!!!!
3. The auto setting puts out better picture color in florescent light than the Sony did!!!
4. The auto setting chooses a lower ISO (200 vs 400) in low light giving less grainy pictures than the Sony!!
5. The view screen is bigger and has more pixels making it easier to tell if my printed results will be satisfactory!!
6. Image stabilization seems to work better than with the Sony
7. This camera is small enough to carry on my belt, in my coat pocket, or in my wife's purse
8. The cheaper price (counting a case, batteries, and cards, I spent $220 versus around $300
9. The lense cover is automatic instead of having to remember to take it off and put it on.
10. The manual settings are more easily navigated- e.g.the 2 click process to change ISO or face detection
11. Ability to erase a picture with two button pushes rather than three
12. The Program mode will hold it's settings even if you have changed the ISO, aperature, or shutter speed while in Manual mode (I missed good pictures because the Sony changed settings across the board)
The few things I don't like about my Canon SX110 compared to my Sony H7 and others . . .
1. The flash does not pop up automatically
2. The flash does not recharge as quickly
3. The zoom is shorter
4. There is no neck strap, but instead just a wrist strap
5. The memory card is inside the battery compartment so batteries can easily fall out while removing the card.
Concerning the flash, I just have to get in the habit of putting it up like I had to get in the habit of taking off the lens cap with the Sony. If I forget, the camera does tell me. Concerning the recharge time, I have to live with that, but you can take a non flash picture while waiting and there is some benefit to being able to use AA Alkalines in a pinch and cheap rechargeables the rest of the time. Concerning the zoom, I have yet to miss it and can always cut and crop. When I did zoom the full 15x on my Sony it seemed I always had color output and exposure problems anyway. Concerning the lack of a neck strap, a good camera bag will have one and you can add one to your camera too if you can find one like I had from a Sandisk flash drive. Concerning the battery compartment, I've found it easiest to hook the camera to the computer using the USB cord that I just leave attached to the computer, and that's a small price to pay for the ease of getting good picture output. On the same note, it would have been nice if the cord attached to the camera on the side opposite the grip of the camera.
A few other features some may dislike or miss with the Canon vs the Sony
1. The battery life is shorter
2. There is no viewfinder to use in bright light or to help conserve battery power
3. The flash is not as powerful
But none of the above bother me in the least. It's easy to carry extra Nimh AA batteries and I never used the viewfinder with my Sony to begin with nor on the other digital camera I had before it. As for the flash, even though I envision that I would use the extra power occasionally and did try it a few times with the Sony, that occasion is too rare to worry about. I was never happy with Sony's "green" and grainy output in such circumstances, so that makes it easier not to miss. Besides, Canon does sell an add on flash that one can use with this camera if he sees a need for it.
A few other features some may like about the Canon versus the Sony
1. On the fly red eye removal
2. The well chosen scene setting selections available with the twist of the dial and others easily accessible
3. The more popular and universal SD memory card versus Sony's propriety MS Pro Duo card
4. The easy setting that requires no camera know how except to pop up the flash, point, and shoot
That does it for a review from the perspective of a simple point and shoot guy. I hope it can help someone make the choice that will best meet their needs on the first try, instead of having to buy two cameras like I did. Happy shooting!
Customer Review: The most camera you can get for this price.
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Great "grab and go" camera for mom. - but you can easily ruin your videos. Please read.
Summary: 5 Stars
Update -- 07/29/2009 --
This is not a good camera for videos. One reason is the inability to focus while zooming during a video. The other reason is much more subtle. Some brilliant enginner put a "compact" video mode that one can easily switch to -- from hi res - just by turning the thumbwheel one quarter turn while in video shooting mode. This is very easy to do by accident and without noticing. The display resolution doesn't change much if you do this. You only see it after you upload your videos to your computer and find they are all fuzzy until you reduce the video window to a little tiny box. I ran off several videos and found later they were in ultra-low res and viewable only as a tiny box.
Now my wife returns from taking our kids camping, and I find that all but one of the videos she shot were in low res because she accidentally in haste bonked the thumwheel -- which surrounds the "set" button that is frequently used. The only indicator is a little envelope in the corner of the screen, which is not self explanatory and often not visible in the sun anyway when you're outside. What a stupid design.
The camera meets a specific need in our family, and that is as a simple and rapidly deployable "grab and go" camera for recording cute stuff the kids do at school and on field trips.
I already owned a Canon S3/IS camera (currently the S10/IS) which is well over $300 and vastly superior in several ways, but it has one major flaw and that is its thick profile. It's a bulky camera. You can't just stuff it into any pocket or purse or in a jacket.
I figured that I was missing a good amount of recordable cuteness because my wife wouldn't grab the big fat S3/IS and take it with her, so I bought her this slim and not quite so capable camera with essentially the same menus and controls as its bigger brother.
Now my wife grabs it and takes it places and I get more pictures and movies of the kids for our archives. What a great age to be a parent.
Here's what I particularly like.
1. The big screen on the back.
2. Face detection.
3. 30 fps DVD resolution movie capability.
4. Just plain takes good pictures.
5. High Capacity SD chip compatibility.
6. Skinny even with the AA batteries.
7. AA batteries! I really hate having to remember to charge proprietary little batteries. You have to have at least two so you can use one while the other is charging, and they eventually become useless and you have to replace them. I love buying AA batteries in bulk, using them, and throwing them away. Bwa ha ha ha ha!
Now the stuff I don't like
1. It can't auto focus while zooming and shooting a movie. I don't know that any camera at this price point does. The big brother S10/IS probably excels at this because my S3/IS sure does. I miss that capability in this camera.
2. Can't shoot around corners or hold the camera at weird angles because the LCD is in the back of the camera and does not flip out and swivel. I can't hold this thing over my head and shoot down.
3. Chews up the batteries faster than the larger Canon, understandably, and takes longer to ready the flash than the larger Canon does.
4. And, a nitpick that really bugs me. The SD card and the battery compartment are behind the same little door, which is on there really tight and it's a pain to have to open the battery compartment just to pop out the SD card, which I do way more often than swapping batteries because my PC has a card drive built in and transfers several GIG in a few seconds when I plug a card into it.
So, if you want a LCD on a pivot, or you really want your digital camera to double as a camcorder, by all means spend the extra money to get the higher end camera. If you want a "grab and go" camera that's a cut above many of the little tiny silver things that so many people seem to be in love with, try this one.
Customer Review: Would give it more stars if possible!
Summary: 5 Stars
I researched for a long time on the different brands out there. I have had Canon products for many years (was a professional) and decided to stick with them.
This camera is absolutley amazing. The PQ is outstanding as is the video quality. I was blown away by that.
We recently had a snow storm and I took night photos (tripod) and the photos were excellent. I then took more photos the next morning and they were outstanding. The photos were of trees with heavy snow on one side. Great contrast between the snow and the bark. The trees were about 30 - 200 feet away. And all photos were taken through a window! They almost appeared to be HD quality. If anyone doubts this, I will gladly email you some samples.
The camera is feature packed and some have complained about this (too many settings). My advice would be to get a cheaper digital that you may feel is easier. But for a novice it is still a great camera since you can put it on full 'auto' and get exceptional photos. Then you can learn at your pace. But I would recommend this camera just for the PQ alone.
A friend of mine had a new Olympus and after seeing this camera and it's PQ, they returned the Olympus and bought this one.
Pros: - Everything
Cons: - None
Let me address some other users "cons".
* Poor battery life - This camera has excellent battery life. I had an older HP digital and the batteries kept dying after about 30 shots, then 20, then 10 then nothing. I thought it was the camera. Turns out it was the batteries. I was using a fast charger (30') and that killed them. I educated myself about batteries and found that you need a good charger that is capable of charging at different rates. The fast chargers are harmful and will prematurely end the batteries life.
My friend who had the Olympus had the same problem. New batteries and was only getting about 30 photos. She thought it was the camera. I took her batteries and charged them in the Maha C9000 charger and after the first charge, she got over 180 photos (test) with the same batteries.
GET A GOOD BATTERY CHARGER AND YOU WILL SEE A MAJOR DIFFERANCE WITH ANY DEVICE.
Another 'con' mentioned was about poor indoor shooting quality. The camera has an 'indoor' mode that takes away the tungsten lighting effect and gives great PQ. Of course you still need the flash. I took photos of Grandchildren moving indoors and the PQ was great again. Even without the "indoor" setting the PQ was great.
As mentioned, I was blown away about the PQ of video. It was THAT good. Granted, if you put the setting on "320" which is the setting for emailing, then you will see some PQ degradation. But on the upper quality settings it is outstanding. With a 2GB memory card, you can get about 18' of video on the highest quality setting. About 45' on the lowest setting.
Of course, the camera, will have features you will never use, but it's merits are the PQ and overall features. The macro setting is excellent also. You can get within a 1/2" of the object. The detail it shows is terrific also.
As you can see, I can't rave enough about this camera. I do NOT work for Canon or have any affiliation with them. It's just that I am that pleased with this camera.
A word on their customer support. Great!
I emailed them with a question AFTER I bought the camera (locally). Their Web site says they will get back to you within 24 hours. I was skeptical. Were talking CANON, not Mom & Pop.
They answered me in 12 hours!
Great camera... just remember to educate yourself on batteries. This is important. It's the batteries that are failing BUT it's the CHARGER thats making them fail, prematurely.
Go to a site like "Thomas Distributing" and you can get a lot of information there. STAY AWAY FROM THE CHEAP FAST CHARGERS.
Customer Review: Go with Nikon.
Summary: 5 Stars
Too bad it won't let me change the star rating. The camera was well taken care of, kept in a case, wrist strap always used, never left out for little hands to grab. Went on vacation and was in the process of putting the camera back into it's case when it dropped to the floor (maybe a 2 foot drop). Immediately the flash stopped working, even when it was raised I got the 'raise flash' error. It still took pictures, but you had to have perfect artificial lighting for the camera not to need the flash to focus. I kept it throughout the summer and sent it off to the repair facility. For all purposes of this review, I will skip 99% of this story. Just make a mental note that if you crap from Canon breaks and it 'might not' be under warranty DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THE SERVICE CENTER. They are by far the worst customer service center I've ever had to deal with. After keeping my camera for a month, (and failing to email me status updates, as they had promised) I find out the camera is being shipped back to me because it's 'beyond economical repair'. For a camera that was as well taken care of as this one was, and dropped ONCE, 5 months old and cost a few hundred dollars. It should be a little more durable than that. I went from a 'buy nothing BUT canon' to a 'never buy Canon (or allow my family to buy) canon ever again.' It's pitiful that one customer service department cost this company hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of business from screwing over my family alone. We will be upgrading to Nikon and participating in the extended and accidental warranties. Surprisingly all of the photographers I personally know recommend Nikon anyway. Now why didn't I just listen to them in the first place?
^ EDIT ^
I put a lot of work into picking out this camera. I wanted a better quality camera for a great price. The more professional cameras started at $400 it seemed, so I stuck with the bargains. I had the Powershot A630 with a flip out screen previously. My daughter found it on my desk and started to play with it, dropped it and the shutter broke and the auto focus seems to be off too. (For Christmas she got her own durable kid's camera, lesson learned!) So the first brand I started reading about was Canon Powershot. I saw an ad for this camera by chance while browsing another Powershot and immediately I loved it. It looked like a great balance between the SLR's and the pocket cameras. It's exactly what I wanted.
Pros: Very large LCD screen, large viewing range, 9MP, Great auto focus and a great pop up flash. It's a 'meaty' camera. It makes me feel like it's durable-although I'm not going to let my 3 year old test that theory.
It takes AA batteries. I guess that could be a pro or a con, depending on your preference. I prefer AA's because if I get in a bind I can just run into any store and pick up some cheap batteries to last a few hours.
Cons: No eye hole (sorry, don't know the correct term for that thing!). It's a little slow recovering from a busy picture. If there is a lot going on in the background it takes a few seconds to write the picture and be ready for another one. It's also large for a pocket camera. That doesn't bother me, but if you're looking for an Elph size, this isn't for you.