Canon PowerShot SX220 HS Digital Camera - Grey (12.1MP, 14x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD

I recently bought this camera to replace my Powershot SX100 which I've had for three years. Although the previous camera still works like new, I wanted to take advantage of some of the new features of the SX220. I am very impressed with the SX220. It is a relatively small camera (smaller than the SX100) and is easy to take with me when out walking. I have also purchased a Lowepro Apex 20AW Digital Camera Pouch - Black weatherproof case for it, in which it fits very well. The quality of general outdoor photography is very good, with a large choice of frame shapes and sizes but I was particularly impressed the indoor (low light) performance, which is so much better than previous generation compact cameras. The quality of the image stabilised lens is very good and it has a zoom range equivalent to 28mm to 390mm (in 35mm terms) which is good enough for almost all occasions. There are many special shooting modes for still pictures allowing levels of creativity not normally available to compact camera users. It has face recognition as you would expect but also has automatic shooting modes that look for smiles. It is even possible to control the camera during self-portraits by winking at it! There is also a variety of different movie modes, including several HD options. Again there are many creative modes including slow motion and fast motion, which I have never seen on a camera of this price. My only criticism of the movie modes is that the frame rate is 30 fps (24fps for full HD mode) which is not directly compatible with UK TV standards (25 fps) and can cause slight juddering when played back through the television. The paper manual supplied with the camera is a simplified version that does not explain the complex functions of the camera. The electronic version of the manual, supplied on the CD and downloadable from canon's website, is more comprehensive but not definitive. Some experimentation is required to get to grips with some of the camera's features. If you are looking for a compact point-and-shoot camera that will also allow a high level of creative control then this camera is well worth consideration.

I waited a month before posting this review because I wanted to try out the camera first and have a better opinion. So, here it is! So far I like this camera a lot! Previously I used my girlfriend's Canon IXUS 800 IS, which I liked very much. The battery life was amazing (it use to last weeks, and went through a whole 4 day trip without recharging), loads of features and took amazingly bright and sharp images. And I had a Sony DSC-P72 which was more than 7 years old and in desperate need for a replacement. (It still works! but gave it to my dad to play with it) I first wanted to buy an entry-level DSLR but then I would splash out more than my budget and also you have the hassle of carrying half a kilo (or more) of weight around your neck which is not so nice on long walks. Then I looked at the Fuji FinePix F550EXR, but that one has updatable firmware which points to the fact that it has loads of software bugs that need to be fixed and they ARE NOT YET fixed. The most annoying & funny at the same time, is the bug where you turn off the sounds the camera makes and you cannot fire the flash anymore (it prompts you to enable sounds again!!!) What were they thinking!?! So I had to choose between the SX230HS(with GPS) and SX220HS(without GPS). Since I built my own GPS tracker using a microcontroler as a pet project I didn't need the GPS in my camera! Which people reviewed as just another battery eater, and they disable it anyway! This is why I ended up buying the SX220HS! I also bought along with the camera a Transcend 16Gb class 10 SD card which works perfectly. A LowePro Rezo 30 travel pouch, which is nice, snugly padded and has a pocket for batteries ;) cuz' you do need them !!! Here are the pros & cons: PROs: * lens quality is quite good * huge zoom (14x) with digital zoom you can go up to ~56x!!! WOW! * very good picture quality in both stills and movies (although full HDMI movies get very big!) * image stabiliser is very good to have * fast image processor (the same DIGIC 4 processor Canon uses in DSLRs?!? Hmmm... it sure looks like it is!) * creative picture manipulation options, just to have a bit of fun * low price CONs: * VERY POOR BATTERY LIFE! (I run out of juice in just a single day of shooting ~70 pictures and around 20 minutes of 720p movies) This camera is very hungry!!! * manual is entangled and does not explain properly all the features of the camera's shooting modes and when to use them. * very complicated restrictions on some shooting modes. For example when you shoot at the longest exposure time (15" seconds) you are restricted to ISO100! WHY?!? * cannot disable noise reduction These last two disadvantages CAN be overcomed by using CHDK, google "CHDK Wiki" and upgrade the features of most Canon cameras!!! It is AWSOME!!!! The manual is not that important to me since I usually just give it a quick look after a couple of weeks of actual usage of the camera, and after that the would gather dust (if they would be printed, but they are not! so we are saving the trees :) So I am left with just one (but MAJOR) disadvantage which is the battery life! However I ordered TWO batteries from eBay and they are on their way :) ! Hope they will work out! 4.5stars because of the battery life, but the manual shooting options are just amazing for me! Since I want to do astronomy photos, time-lapse and more. and the CHDK makes it happen! I can definitely recommend this camera to the bit more technically minded people for its abilities! But can well do the job for the average user! This is what I had to say about that! Thanks for reading!

I adore this camera. Why? Because I get a higher percentage of good shots out of it than from any other camera I have, and that includes a few DSLRs, and the video is ridiculously good. Is the image quality as good as a DSLR or even a micro 4/3 system camera? No, but it's not far off, and a shot that's perfectly exposed and focused and free of camera shake on a smaller sensor like this beats not getting a picture at all by a long way. The SX220HS is my constant companion and lives in a pouch on my belt. I've spent 30 years in photography, since buying my first Russian Zenit E around 1979, including being a semi-pro at one point. I know all about aperture/shutter speed/ISO ratios, exposure values, incident light metering, parallax error, Hurter & Driffield scales, flash guide numbers, the difference between depth of field and depth of focus, Ansel Adams's zone system, blah blah blah. When I'm taking a photo, I don't want to think about any of that stuff, I want to be enchanted by a scene and have a decent reproduction of it when I get home. With this camera, I get that. When I pull it out, I know I'm almost certain to get the picture I want. Canon have done an amazing job with it. The video is astounding. When I upload it, I view it on a large screen, not a little laptop, so any flaws would be immediately apparent. I uploaded a few to Youtube for a friend to see, and she emailed me back, 'They are so clear!' Many other cameras don't even let you zoom while filming, this one does and regains focus acceptably quickly when you do. I'm fairly picky about sound quality too, and the SX220HS produces good, clear, rich sound. Yes, if you zoom while filming, there's a little bit of zoom noise, but if you're shooting outside, there'll be plenty of other noise on the soundtrack too. If you care that much, buy a video camera and an external microphone. Otherwise you'll love the full HD video on this. The quality is incredible, especially surprising in a camera as small as this. As has been mentioned, this camera is excellent in low light (very important in the UK), which is unusual for a camera with a long zoom, it has a pretty decent lens, colours are rich and glorious and the image stabilisation is also very good. Noise is virtually never an issue. If it were broken or stolen, would I buy another one? As fast as I could get on the internet. I am absolutely delighted with this camera. Canon are usually not the cheapest of companies, but I chose this over their S95 (one and a half times the price) and Powershot G12 (double the price) after doing a lot of internet research, and I'm so glad I did. Those cameras have more manual functions, but a few weeks ago I spent 10 minutes in a camera shop comparing my SX220HS with a secondhand G12, and if someone had offered me a swap, I'd have laughed. I moved my SD card from one to the other, and took a few shots in low light, and the SX220HS focused quicker and more accurately and took better photos, despite having a slower lens. (Not to mention that neither of those other cameras do full HD video, only 720, and have a much smaller zoom range.) If you're that bothered, you can use manual focus on this camera, but I've never needed to yet. We're lucky in the UK because this version doesn't exist in the US, there you can only get the more expensive SX230HS with built-in GPS, presumably on the basis that if you go on holiday and spend most of the time completely off your head and can't remember much about it, at least your camera will tell you where you were at the time. Don't really get it myself, but I guess that matters to some people. The SX220HS is squat and ugly and drab, has a fairly short battery life, and the flash pops up every time you turn it on. Calamity!!!! Apparently this is a disaster. For goodness sake, so what? Nobody else has mentioned the looks, lots of people have mentioned the other two factors and marked the camera down as a result. To them I say: grow up. Buy a spare battery or two, they're cheap and small. I actually quite enjoy pushing the flash down each time I turn it on, strange as it may sound, it's like saying hello to the camera. I assume Canon did it this way because a bigger battery would have increased the size of the camera, and they had the flash pop up instantly on switch on so that you could guarantee some kind of picture in an emergency. I hardly ever use the flash, but that's the kind of thinking I like. The SX220HS (even the name is ugly) is the ugly baby you love even more. A camera that doesn't draw attention to itself is less likely to get stolen and makes it much easier to get natural shots of people. If you know nothing about photography, this camera will lead you by the hand and give you great photos, and you won't even realise how lucky you are and how good it is compared to much of what's out there. If you know a lot about photography, you will continually marvel at the consistency and quality of this camera and the value for money it represents. It's a truly great camera at the price. I couldn't be happier with it. UPDATE 10th May 2012 Yesterday, an apparent disaster. Saw a photo I wanted to take, reached down to my belt, pressed the familiar buttons, lens only half opened. I took a closer look and realised that there was a dent in the lens assembly, so that the shutter blades couldn't open fully. It must have got damaged a couple of days ago when it fell off my belt. I had visions of £100 repairs and checking to see whether Canon had come out with a newer model, but decided not to do anything until today. With the aid of a penknife and some needle-nose pliers, I managed to straighten the metal sufficiently so that there is only a tiny dent visible, and it's no longer fouling the blades. This does bring me to an important point, though. The physical weak point of this camera is around the lens. When I was looking around for one, I saw one advertised on Gumtree and went to have a look. It turned out to be damaged, probably beyond economical repair, so a wasted journey, but had evidently been bashed around the lens, only to a far worse extent than mine. I ended up buying a new one on Amazon. I will still take the risk with my neoprene belt pouch and being more careful in future, but I would say preferably get a harder case if possible. I still carry the camera on my belt nearly every day and use it more than any other. UPDATE 24th July 2012 This camera has now been superseded by the SX240HS and SX260HS (which has a GPS). The zoom on the new cameras is 20x as opposed to 14x on the SX220HS, but the lens aperture is slightly smaller. Battery life on the new ones is a bit better, and apparently the stabilisation is better too. Sensor size is the same, and for that reason I won't be upgrading. If I hadn't already got this camera, I would get the SX240HS, but I'll hang on for a year or two until there's a dramatic improvement over my SX220HS.

I bought this camera to replace my Canon Ixus 870IS - my third Ixus camera in a row. I went for the Powershot this time (rather than the Ixus equivalent) because of the extended zoom range on the Powershot. As I have come to expect from Canon, the pictures this camera takes are excellent, whether you use the fully automatic option, the program mode, or, one of the more exotic pre-programmed settings. The Powershot is slightly larger than the Ixus but still very pocketable and with good build quality. The viewing screen is bright and highly detailed. The lens goes from wide angle to telphoto and, contrary to expectations, remains usable even if you use the extended range of the digital blow-up. As other users have mentioned, the flash pops up as soon as you turn the camera on. If you don't like this, hold the camera with your finger pressed down over the top of the flash and it stays down. Simple! All this would be enough to give the Powershot SX 220HS five stars. However, what makes it truly outstanding is the remarkable quality of the 1080 HD video. Suffice to say that the results are startling for such a small, inexpensive camera. I use it for taking short movies of my young family and for skiing. The results approach broadcast quality when displayed on my 24" NEC computer DVI monitor or on my 37" Panasonic plasma TV. Even the stereo sound quality is far better than might be expected for the price. With a 32 Gig SD class 10 card fitted, I can shoot movies up to two hours. It won't replace a decent HD camcorder, but for recording family occasions it's ideal. No doubt due to the quality of the camera lens, the quality of the video recording is far superior to any of the small "Flip" type cameras. The Powershot does not come with a memory card and has no internal memory. If you are going to take a lot of video, buy a 16 or 32 Gig SD card. I use class 10, but I understand that class 6+ should be ok. Also, get a spare NB5L battery. Whilst the battery life is reasonable, the massive display and fancy electronics do take their toll, especially if using a lot of video. I took the recommendation of one of the other users and got a LowePro Rezo 30 case which offers quick access; a lot of protection; hangs vertically from the belt loop, and provides a useful compartment for spare batteries and SD cards. I also purchased the smart "official" canon leather case which is good, but lacks additional storage and only fits on a belt horizontally, (which can be a little uncomfortable at times because of the width of the camera). Amazon price was highly competative and delivery was the day after the order was placed. Couldn't be better!

I bought this camera back in April 2011. I have a Canon dSLR camera but wanted something smaller to take to concerts or places where larger cameras aren't allowed or a pain to carry around. My starting point for buying a camera was for something that would shoot well in low-light and this absolutely fits that bill. The flash can be a nuisance as it always pops up when you switch the camera on. But I'm so used to this now, I push it back down as part of the switch-on routine! I'm often out and about taking photos when dusk kicks in and this camera will carry on shooting good photos when a friends camera just won't play ball anymore. I once videoed a group of people making a music video in a tunnel, the quality is good for the light and the sound and I didn't use a tripod. I mainly take photographs and taking movies does use up more battery power. I will take about 300 photos in one session and sometimes I do have to switch to a second battery. I always carry plenty of spare batteries so this isn't a problem for me. I think if you are always switching the camera on/off (which I do on many occasions!) then this will wear down the battery more but then any camera that has a display will do this to the battery. If you are out and about and only have one battery, don't keep reviewing photos/videos if you don't need to or you will just wear your battery down. This camera has a good 'wide-angle' on it. I'm often able to get a whole subject in one shot, whereas a friend has to take a couple of shots and 'stitch' the photos together. The other great thing with this camera is having a 'Manual' mode. So many of the compact cameras don't have this, so I'm able to take some shots the normal point and shoot modes won't allow you to do. I recently dropped my camera and debated about bothering to get it fixed or not. I decided to fix it as it was cheaper than me having to read dozens of reviews to buy another one which I couldn't afford! The problems I had were the zoom decided to do what it wanted to do and the battery housing kept complaining that I needed to change the battery pack! (actually a friend has a different Canon camera and that did the same too with the battery). I sent the camera to [...] (I got their website from the Canon site). It cost me £80 this included spare parts, general service & re-calibration. I really missed my camera while it was in the workshop and was very glad to get it back again! At the time of writing this, I see the camera is £122, I think this is a bargain for the camera that it is, even though it's been superseded by newer models.

This is the first Canon I've owned. I bought it after considering a Panasonic TZ20, mainly because it seemed better designed and easier to hold, and reviews flattered it. I was upgrading from a Casio EX-Z750 chiefly because I wanted something with a wider angle lens and more telephoto capability. Well, the Canon SX220 has those features, and much better video, and it takes good pictures. But it's much more complicated to use, battery life is very poor, it is sometimes slow to focus and process a shot, and build quality is very suspect (the lens cover is particularly flimsy). I take a lot of photos of outdoor events, and battery doesn't last more than a couple of hours of snapping. Changing the battery outdoors in UK conditions is not recommended, so I have always to carry an old Casio as a back-up. The beauty of the Casio is that battery life is exemplary (even on a 7-year old secondhand camera), shutter speed is excellent so I never miss a shot, pictures are acceptable (even if colour is a bit over-saturated), and it has never let me down. Moreover, the Casio's all-metal body takes a lot of rough treatment - I have three, including one that bears the dents from several drops onto hard surfaces and it still works perfectly. The Canon demands much gentler treatment. Would I buy the Canon again? Probably not. I would be inclined to buy a cheaper (and hopefully more robust) point-and-shoot for my pocket and a compact SLR for the serious stuff. And probably not a Canon, in view of the generally miserable reputation Canon have for warranty service.

I wanted a replacement for my old Canon PowerShot A75, so went looking for something a bit similar - its modern day equivalent (auto and manual options etc) and with a better zoom. My brother had the Canon SX200 and my Dad has the Panasonic Lumix FZ38, pretty similar in terms of zoom and available functions. I liked both but I like the true coloring that Canon cameras give, producing good blues and greens. I was also more familiar with it as a Canon owner and found it harder to figure out the Lumix and its strange AF tracking. Its taken me a couple of weeks to get to know the SX220, figure out the menu's etc (yes I admit I'm no expert!!) and although I could do with printing out the manual and carrying it round with me, my photos are definitely improving. I love taking sports and action shots and the AF tracking, quick burst options are great for this. The favorite option is a bit pointless unless your lending it to an eejit or drunk in charge of a camera. Overall, takes a bit of studying and homework but some really good results. The 14x zoom is great and the image stabiliser means you can actually get sharp shots. Lots of quirky options for silly photos are quite fun too. The purple colour is rather lovely too... oh and its tiny, fits easily in my pocket.

I've had mine about 5 months. The picture quality is very good, and to get good quality 14x optical zoom at this price is astonishing. I've been taking photographs since 1957 with various cameras and now feel this is is all I need. (Only my Canon EOS SLR's gave better results, with dedicated long & macro lenses for wildlife when I was younger and better able to get out & about, but my remaining EOS is pre-digital & therefore gathering dust). The video quality is superb - too good for my computer, which won't play the true HD back properly as I have only a 1.3ghz processor (you really need 2.8ghz or higher). But converting movies to a lower resolution still gives very impressive results. Be aware that HD movies will be very large files: if you want to shoot movies longer than 2 or 3 minutes, it is well worth going straight for a 32gb card. I paid £32.62 for the card, inc delivery, which was money well spent. The camera has no internal memory, which is now not unusual, so a card is necessary and while a low-capacity one such as 4gb might just be enough for stills for some people, it wouldn't do for video. As everyone says, the flash popping up every time you turn on the camera is a minor nuisance, but you get used to it. Unlike some, I wouldn't advise holding a finger over the flash to prevent it popping up: you can hear the camera making slightly nasty noises - sort of fighting with itself for a moment. Better to allow it pop up, then just press it back down again. I get best results using Program AE mode with the flash suppressed, and tweaking ISO or exposure compensation if necessary. Reverting to Auto mode will give acceptable results if you're in a hurry. Battery life is reasonable when shooting stills, but if shooting movies it's pretty well essential to have a spare battery available. A cheap Lowepro case gives good protection to the camera & has a pocket which carries the spare battery. I haven't installed the software, as previous experience suggests camera software slows down transfer of pictures to the computer and uses resources unnecessarily. Windows Camera Wizard does the job quickly and easily. My only complaint is the difficulty of getting a mains adapter & lead. I wanted one so that I could leave the camera on a tripod & shoot myself playing guitar - longish vids so I could edit out the bad bits. Two and a half months later I was still getting apologetic messages from Amazon saying they hoped to get the mains adapter to me soon - I gave up & cancelled that order. But everything else has been fine and I'd choose the same camera again.