We purchased this camera to update our existing Canon S2IS just before our first trip to Israel. Overall, this camera was excellent and consistently took great pictures. I shot about 1,300 pictures, some under very challenging conistions. The menus and operation were somewhat similar to our old S2IS so there was very little learning curve.
Modes used: I shot most pictures using the "P" mode which allows some manual settings such as ISO, white balance, flash strength, and exposure adjustment. The remainder I shot in manual mode.
What I liked: The old S2IS often took a long time to lock focus. This camera focuses very quickly allowing me to get a lot of "just now" shots. The image stabilizer, like the one in the S2IS was phenominal. With still subjects, I could consistently get clean, well focused shots at 1/8 second, and I have a slight hand tremor. Sometimes I could get good shots at slower shutter speeds. This really helped indoors where flashes were not permitted, or the subjects were distant. It also helped a lot at night. Another huge feature is the range of the lens. It goes from slightly telephoto at 28mm to 560 mm (20X zoom). I was able to get shots of things I could hardly see with my naked eye. I was also able to get close ups at great distance. Many of my best shots were at high zoom. With dslr's you often have to change lenses and these shots would have been missed. The manual settings were generally easy to use and really expanded the pictures we could shoot. Generally, I used shutter priority. I really liked the electronic viewfinder. It saves battery power and accurately shows how a shot will be exposed. It also has a diopter adjustment. The flip out and twist tilt screen was also a help with crowd shots. The flash was strong and can be enhanced. In addition, there is a "hot shoe" for an add on flash. I did not have an add on flash, but I can see how it would be useful in lower light conditions. I discovered there is a "mute" button on the top left that suppresses all noise. This is handy when you can't be obtrusive. To turn sounds back on, you have to go into the menu. Battery life was also very good. I used rechargable nmh batteries that when fully charged would handle the almost 200 shots per day without indicating much use on the battery level indicator. Overall the camera provided well focused and well exposed shots in a variety of conditions, with plenty of adjustments and clever features.
What could be better: Occasionally the autofocus would be fooled in low light or with objects intervening between me and the subject. I would revert to the manual focus mode, but it was a little awkward to use. In shutter priority mode, you spin a wheel on the back of the camera to adjust shutter speed. The change in shutter speed did not respond predictably to my thumbing of the wheel. Not a major problem, but I noticed it. In cloudy lighting (much of our trip in December) some shots were a bit overexposed in "P" mode inducing me to use shutter priority. To be fair the shots would often consist of brighter sky, and darker buildings. The camera does have several exposure algorithms to choose, but I stayed with the default. And since this is a point and shoot, and not a dslr, shooting at higher ISO's resulted in somewhat grainy pictures. The highest ISO I used was 800, sometimes at night and sometimes in caves so the "noise" was not all that relevant to the picture quality.
I gave the camera 4 stars because it was excellent, but not perfect.
Update June 17, 2009: I have happily used this camera for family and school events since my last review and I am very pleased. I also shot an Ultimate Frisbee tournament that my son participated in and was held indoors. With indoor lighting, I was not able to capture very many good shots, even when overiding shutter speed settings and shooting at 800 ISO. I ended up taking most of the pictures using a dSLR from my son's school newspaper. There was a world of difference in quality. The better sensor of the dSLR was able to handle the lower light with no problem. I am still very pleased with the SX10IS, its fine overall picture quality, and many features, but recognize the limitations of its point and shoot sensor.Get more detail about Canon Powershot SX10IS 10MP Digital Camera with 20x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom.
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