Bestseller Canon PowerShot SX230 HS (12.1 MP, 14x optical zoom) black – Sale
- Including Charger, Lithium battery
- Building on the success of the SX220 HS, the PowerShot SX230 HS hasloads to offer, including a 14x optical zoom and a built-in GPSreceiver.This stylish, compact camera is suitable for use in awide range of environments.
- Plus, it’s comfortable to grip and use,thanks to its Smart Auto mode.
- 12-month UK manufacturer’s warranty included.
121 MP 76 CM LCD BLACK
List Price: £284.88
A great compact that produces great results,
By no means am I a professional photographer to pick out every pro and con of a camera, scanning every pixel of an image to find out what’s good or bad, but I can say that I am very pleased with the results of the Canon SX230 HS (and it’s GPS-less twin SX220 HS).
After a lot of deliberation between a variety of other cameras (Sony HX9V, Panasonix Lumix TZ-20 etc) and online review comparisons I finally jumped on this for its better image quality, especially in low light situations. Without having the various other cameras to compare against myself, I am still pleased with my choice and am still having fun tinkering with all the settings and features of this superzoom compact. The image quality is impressive capturing natural looking photos by default, while still allowing you to customise colour vibrance and select appropriate scenes (such as Beach, Snow, Foliage, Portrait etc) via the menu. Additional features include smart shutter, where you can take self-photos that are triggered by your smile or even a wink, miniature effect that makes everything look smaller than they are, and toy camera. Of course, all features are listed in the product description, so I won’t go too much in to those.
Out of the box the camera feels good to hold, although lacking a rubber grip. It’s got a bit of weight behind it even without the battery, but this is likely to be down to the 14x optical zoom lens that the camera is equipped with. By no means is this weight awkward or overbearing, it feels just right. Inserting the battery and memory card is straightforward, so set yourself to Auto and you’re good to go.
While being easy to use and great for any beginner just wanting a point and shoot, there are also a great deal of manual controls available for those wanting to branch out in to the settings that provide you with a lot of customisation including Shutter Speed, Aperture Size and Exposure times. Reading through the manual you will find further advanced features allowing you to fix the exposure and focus to focus on objects that you don’t want to be centre, which I find useful to add some variety to your shots and add some nice effects. There are too many options to list here, and too many that I still don’t understand myself (time to find a book on photography, I think!). Either way, the menus are easy to navigate to produce the results that you’re after and after a bit of practice you’ll be flying through them.
Alongside the photography elements of this camera you can also record FullHD (1080p) videos at 24fps with stereo sound. You can also record videos at a higher framerate to give a slow-motion video, but this isn’t in HD due to the speed required to maintain the framerate. This is a cool effect (amongst others) that you could spend hours playing with. If you’d like to make the most of the HD video I recommend purchasing a high speed memory card – something higher than a class 4. I went for a 16GB Class 10 as HD video will also take up a lot of space.
In addition to the SX220 HS, the SX230 HS also provides you with geotagging options via the built-in GPS. This does drain the battery significantly quicker than when it’s switched off (as stated in the manual), so a spare battery is a must for anyone wanting to make the most of this camera on day trips – although a spare would be useful even without GPS.
The included software is the same as for most cameras, assisting with importing your photos, editing them where required and stitching them together to create a panaromic view. The SX230 HS also includes a Map Utility that maps your geotagged photos on to Google Maps, showing you exactly where you’ve been and where you took each photo. I’ve not used geotagging just yet, so I can’t comment on the SX230 HS accuracy or performance, but I can see a lot of potential for this on those trips further away from home.
Overall, this is a great superzoom compact with a lot of potential that couldn’t get much better without looking in to a dSLR. Offering impressive automatic results and allowing for any angle of customisation via the manual controls any beginner or budding amateur would be pleased with how the SX220/SX230 HS performs.
Addition: If you’re after a case for this camera there are many alternatives, most of the decent ones appearing to be the snug fit cases that leave no room for spare batteries etc. Thanks to a suggest from ‘A. Ross “gadget freak”‘ – “The cheaper Canon SCPS900 case which was for the old S50 fits this camera (SX210/220/230) perfectly and with room for spare battery and card. It also zips all the way round to keep out dust and sand.” – I can confirm this and it’s an excellent alternative for those wanting the extra space in the case.
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|Great Compact,
I bought this to replace a Lumix TZ3, which has been a great camera to-date except for low light performance. Most of the reviews I read for this praised its low light performance, and I wanted this specifically to use in gigs (helped for transportability by its pocket size).
Generally speaking it’s good. The low light performance is inevitably not perfect, but having attended the same gig over two successive nights – firstly with the TZ3 and then with this – the performance was markedly improved. I went from mostly blurred shots to a 50/50 mix of crisp and blurred shots. I also took my Canon 450D to the second night, with the 50mm prime lens, and was still getting faster shots from this, so used it in deference to the 450D. The ISO performance tends to get noisy around 1200+, but rather than introducing the standard noise it almost looks like cotton wool on the noisy areas. Different!
It has a lot of features designed to make taking photos easy, so is ideal for the beginner, or those that don’t want all the fuss. Equally it still has manual modes for those that want more control. Among other features, it has a “wink timer” which takes photos when you wink at the camera – rather than using a timed countdown. It also has blink detection, to try and avoid this in photos.
I fail to understand the criticisms of the GPS. It does state clearly in the manual that leaving GPS logging on will drain the battery in around half a day, unsurprisingly. Even leaving the GPS enabled for just photos is bound to provide some drain on the battery. I have used the GPS a bit, but mostly turned it off for my gig shots. At the gig I took over 150 photos, without flash, and the battery life dropped a third. I only bought with the GPS feature as a fun option, not for serious usage all the time, unless close to a charger.
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|Excellent (except for the GPS’s consumption),
I’ve had it for almost a week and taken it for three various photo shooting. I should say it’s a great upgrade for me over Leica d-lux 4. Even though Leica 4 is known for its image quality, I should say that this camera won’t come short in comparison. The options and different modes are a great advantage. the 14x zoom comes ready hand. If you don’t leave the GPS on, it’ll have a very good battery life. However, once you leave it on (even if the camera is off) it’ll continuously consume power. What I’ve mastered so far is to manually turn on the GPS through the menu at every different location that I get to. I wish there would’ve been a separate button on the camera so that you wouldn’t need to go to the menu for activating/deactivating every time. I’ve also compared its photo with the very recent Panasonic Lumix (GPS version); I should say I was first going to buy that camera, given the fact that it borrows Leica lenses, but after comparing the photos, I should say Canon beats it easily. When you directly uploads photos from SX 230 they all look much more crispier and color wise more balanced overall.
The video mode (Full-HD) is indeed a blessing. It’s noticeably better than HD. Especially when you hold the camera still and avoid any potential shock, since Full HD is shock sensitive because of the pureness in it’s motion.
The menu has a easy friendly user structure which takes my grandma to learn it in less than 10 minutes. Given the fact that I’ve also got a Leica M8 with some sexy lenses, I’m an apperture-priority mode addict photographer. Hence, I tried the same spirit with SX230 and honestly for the size, price and lens of the camera I’d say it’s a great bargain compared to Leica M8. (Not that Leica M8 isn’t worth it though) – but for the price that you pay for this beauty it’s not even a lens for a Leica. Thus it’s a great all in one camera. (1, Cam corder with ability of proper 1280*1080- 2, great photo quality- 3, GPS locating). Therefore if you want a camera that would do approximately 80-85% of Leica M8′s capability for less than a price of its lens, then this camera is absolutely the right choice!
After all I would’ve given it an absolute 5star but only because the GPS option doesn’t have an outside seperate button I have to take away one star I’m afraid.
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