Canon PowerShot SX10 IS

Excellent single-lens solution for photo enthutiast

THE CANON POWERSHOT



SX10 IS ultrazoom digital camera offers an impressive 20x optical zoom lens. This 10-megapixel model's focal length of 28mm to 560mm resembles that of a digital single-lens-reflex (dSLR) camera and gives one-lens convenience for everything from group shots to wildlife photography.

The SX10 IS resembles a small SLR, with a large grip on the right holding four AA batteries. The 2.S-inch LCD may seem small compared with the 3-inch screens on some competing cameras, but it can swing out and swivel to shoot from unusual angles.

Overall, still-image quality is excellent. Details are very sharp, and colors are accurate without being overly vibrant. Noise levels are very low, yet little detail is lost to in-camera sharpening at higher ISO settings. The camera's optical image stabilization remained effective even at the farthest reaches of the zoom range.

We did notice some chromatic aberration (purple fringing) in areas of high contrast, but this was mostly evident when we zoomed in on deep or heavily cropped images. Also, we found that skies and other bright image elements were sometimes blown out in our shots. One other nit: The SX10 IS captures 10-megapixel, 3,648x2,736-pixel images in JPEG format only; there's no RAW support.

As for speed, the camera takes 1.6 seconds to start up. Shutter lag was well under a tenth of a second in our tests. The camera shoots 1.4 images per second in continuous-shooting mode; normal shot-to-shot delay is about 1.8 seconds. The SX10 IS will also shoot VGA-resolution video at 30 frames per second.



There's a dedicated Record button for video, and the resulting Quick-Time-format movies look good, though we noted an audible clicking sound in the video if we changed the zoom level while filming. The VGA-quality video isn't as impressive, however, as video from comparable cameras that shoot HD footage, including the similar Canon SX1 IS, which hasn't yet been released to the North American market. (One other interesting video feature: You can shoot full-resolution stills while recording video, though the image will black out for a second while the photo is captured.)
Overall, the SX10 IS is a marked improvement over earlier cameras in Canon's ultra-zoom line, offering a very flexible zoom range and shooting options, plus overall good image quality.—Denny Atkin

Computer Shopper March 2009