Firstly, I'm not a professional photographer by any means. However I do know several people who are, and having run it through their tests and mine, can say that this camera is great for the price point. I say almost professional because you won't be getting photos in National Geographic with it (unless you're really good). For a wedding photographer, "lesser journalist", or professional "Ebay-er" it meets and exceeds what one requires. It's also just fun to play with. Alright let's talk features. The 20X optical zoom does not disappoint, with sharp focus corner to corner. Add in an additional 60x digital zoom for a whopping 80x that allows for stunning close-ups with suprisingly low distortion/color noise. With the very aggressive tremor reduction it's possible to get clear pictures of the moon without a tripod! The ability to lock the focus by holding the shutter button halfway is another standout feature for un-cooperative subjects. Additionally the burst shooting mode works well, with low lag. It can get some immpressive action shots when combined with the 3200 ISO high shutter speed mode. Let's not forget the plethora of packed in modes and tools. Photos can be resized, cropped, and colors tweaked directly from the camera without navigating 15 menus. The latter color editing is merely choosing from optimized presets, but works well enough for a pack in. Shooting modes range from fireworks to aquarium, are readily accessed by spinning a dial and are genuinely useful. Some of the more artistic and interesting ones are the color swap/color accent which swaps a color you pick from whatever's in the viewfinder, and the more striking color accent which renders the whole image slightly greyscale except for a user selected color. It looks really cool when used to highlight trees/plants/flowers. Speaking of the viewfinder, it sports a mini LCD with crisp image and bright backlight. The main LCD is equally clear, if sometimes too bright to accurately judge whether you got the colors/lighting you wanted. My advice, use the big LCD to show off your pics or as a reference. When in doubt check the viewfinder and trust it over the exterior screen (lower res. but better contrast, besides real photographers use the viewfinder!). The external LCD has a neat feature of rotating the image as you rotate the camera to keep it upright. If you take a pic sideways the camera will automatically straighten it out while preserving the taller aspect ratio, a nice time saver. I could keep going for pages but these are just a few of the things that really sold me on it. To cover a few gripes for good measure, the manual is HUGE and some kind of awful confusing. Best bet is to skim it to find out what buttons do what and then put it away and experiment(You were gonna do that anyway right?). The included software is clunky and boring, but you probably knew that. The flash works well enough, but to Canon's credit it features a hotshoe for remote flash which I recommend. The battery life is not terribly immpressive either, typically a fresh set seems to last 4-6 hours. Closer to 6 if you judiciously hide the big LCD. If you like to show off your work, get a battery pack and recharger and prepare to use it ALOT (That goes double if you use the flash often). All taken into account this camera is literally THE BEST you will find without taking the plunge into $700+ professional territory. A great investment, or a fun toy if you have disposable income.Get more detail about Canon Powershot SX10IS 10MP Digital Camera with 20x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom.
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