Canon PowerShot SX210IS 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 14x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD (Black)

1 Reply to “Canon PowerShot SX210IS 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 14x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD (Black)”

1. Iowadad says:

   March 26, 2011 at 9:14 pm

   261 of 264 people found the following review helpful:

   
   Had to give it five stars, April 10, 2010

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   Iowadad (Iowa City) –

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   This review is from: Canon PowerShot SX210IS 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 14x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD (Black) (Electronics)

   I put a lot of thought and research into picking out a camera this time. I was looking for an all-around family camera for someone who really likes photography and shares a lot of photos. Ultimately, I want a DSLR to get those perfect, professional quality archive photos to blow up and hang on the wall. I knew that the SX210 wouldn’t achieve that but, only being able to buy one camera this year, it still seemed the best all around choice. It does what it does well enough that I’m just excited to have it.

   A lot of reviews of this camera will just say that the image quality is Fantastic and Perfect and such. My review is based on knowing that there are other cameras that could ultimately produce better pictures but that this one is worth getting anyway.

   First off, the image quality is quite nice. Right out of the box, using the auto setting, I’ve been impressed. I have taken some difficult backlit pictures of my kids that were surprisingly beautiful. My old Elf would have been baffled by the light. I shot some flash pictures in near darkness while zoomed across the room and the amount of detail is impressive. I did this in Low Light setting, letting the camera focus with the little red light and hitting the shutter at the right moment. You could actually get usable shots that way. Daylight photos, as expected, are rich and vividly colorful. I’ve posted a backlit photo taken on auto setting, zoomed across the room. I also included a ’tilt zoom’ photo. That seems like it could be a fun effect from time to time.

   And then there are all of the manual controls. I can tell that one could put the effort in with this camera and become skilled at producing better and better shots. I haven’t had access to manual focus, aperture and shutter speed since my old 35mm days. It’s not quite the same to handle as that but the same principles apply. A real photographer could stay busy with this.

   Once I saw that the image quality is acceptable for an expensive point and shoot, the rest of it is a no-brainer. Having all that room to zoom really changes your perspective on the shots you can get. I prefer candid shots of people rather than posing and telling them to smile. This is the perfect stealth camera for that. My youngest daughter got into the habit of posing all the time. You pull out the camera because she’s doing something priceless but as soon as you’re pointing it at her she stops to ham it up. Now I’m taking natural, candid shots of my kids playing in the yard from all the way across the yard. It’s awesome. The only way to do it with my old Elf would have been digital zoom which produces terrible pictures.

   And then there is the video. This thing may cost a lot for a point and shoot but it’s not so much considering that I really don’t need to buy a video camera now. At a recent school event with my daughter on stage I was in envy of the parents with video cameras. But, of course, if they wanted to shoot pictures, they were carrying two cameras. With the SX210, I could zoom in for a perfectly framed, HD shot from the back row. And you don’t even need to switch to video mode. Just hit the red button. Very cool. I was so glad to see that they updated the video function from the SX200. (I owned one of those for a couple of days before returning it.) 14x optical zoom while shooting video is unbelievable. You can track moving objects all over the place. It’s really fun.

   Yesterday was my first full day of shooting with this. I took my daughter to the museum and the park and the SX210 fit pretty comfortably into my front pocket. I recommend using the strap all the time to avoid drops. To me, it’s not ideal in terms of handling. I liked the feel of the SX200 better, for example. But it’s a good tradeoff when you consider the functions and how much camera you’re able to put in your pocket.

   Changing the annoying pop-up flash so you can snap it shut was a big improvement from the SX200. It gets it out of the way, for good, when you’re shooting in daylight and I like being able to shut it off without going into the functions. There are some situations where you’re not allowed to use flash and it’s nice to know for sure that it’s not going to fire. With it snapped shut, you know for sure.

   I imagine the Panasonic and Sony superzooms that compete with the SX210 have their charms as well. But I don’t care about having GPS and I trust the Canon not to be beat in its class in terms of color and overall image quality.

   When I saw that Canon had raised the megapixels, probably, too high for the size of the sensor in this camera, I was prepared to be annoyed. It seems gimicky. 10x zoom and 10 MP wouldn’t have been enough? But, the image quality is still decent and I find myself using all of the zoom. It’s definitely a gimicky camera but they’re fun gimicks…

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