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Canon PowerShot SX260 HS review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £271
inc VAT

A little slow and focus could be sharper, but otherwise this is an outstanding, highly versatile all-rounder

Specifications

1/2.3in 12.0-megapixel sensor, 20.0x zoom (25-500mm equivalent), 231g

http://www.amazon.co.uk

The Canon PowerShot SX230 HS was our favourite pocket ultra-zoom camera of 2011. Rival cameras offered bigger zooms, faster performance, fancier shooting modes and sharper screens, but the SX230 HS’s image quality was head-and-shoulders above the competition, especially in low light.

Canon PowerShot SX260 HS

This year’s updated model shows some shrewd judgement on Canon’s part. The sensor appears to be the same 12-megapixel back-illuminated CMOS chip that played a starring role in the SX230 HS, delivering the lowest noise levels we’ve ever seen from a pocket ultra-zoom camera. The lens has been significantly redesigned, though, with an increased zoom range up from 14x to 20x zoom. The 25-500mm (equivalent) focal length range means it excels for both wide-angle and telephoto photography – not bad for a camera that measures just 33mm thick when powered down. Canon isn’t alone here, though, with rival cameras’ zooms weighing in at between 18x and 24x.

Canon PowerShot SX260 HS sample shot
The windows on the house reveal sharp focus in this telephoto shot, but there’s quite a lot of blue and red spill either side of the fishermen – evidence of chromatic aberrations – click to enlarge

Huge zooms are only useful if focus is up to scratch. Here, the SX260 HS put in a mixed performance. Wide-angle shots were excellent, with crisp focus into the corners of frames and precise handling of subtle details. As we zoomed in, there was evidence of chromatic aberrations, giving a halo of discoloration to high-contrast lines and a slight vagueness to other details. We also noticed some blooming at long focal lengths, giving a hazy glow to brighter parts of the image. These problems were reasonably mild, though, and largely disappeared when we resized photos to fit a 1080p monitor.

Canon PowerShot SX260 HS sample shot
Noise here is incredibly low for an indoor photo taken at ISO 3200 – click to enlarge

Along with the superb sensor and Canon’s usual knack for well-judged automatic exposures, we’d class outdoor photo quality as consistently above average and often excellent. Its low-noise sensor fared came into its own for indoor photography, even outperforming the SX230 HS. We suspect this is down to more efficient noise reduction from the newer DIGIC 5 processor.

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Basic Specifications

Rating *****
CCD effective megapixels 12.0 megapixels
CCD size 1/2.3in
Viewfinder none
Viewfinder magnification, coverage N/A
LCD screen size 3.0in
LCD screen resolution 460,000 pixels
Articulated screen No
Live view Yes
Optical zoom 20.0x
Zoom 35mm equivalent 25-500mm
Image stabilisation optical, lens based
Maximum image resolution 4,000×3,000
Maximum movie resolution 1920×1080
Movie frame rate at max quality 24fps
File formats JPEG; QuickTime (AVC)

Physical

Memory slot SDXC
Mermory supplied none
Battery type Li-ion
Battery Life (tested) 230 shots
Connectivity USB, AV, mini HDMI
HDMI output resolution 1080i
Body material aluminium
Lens mount N/A
Focal length multiplier N/A
Kit lens model name N/A
Accessories USB cable
Weight 231g
Size 63x107x33mm

Buying Information

Warranty one-year RTB
Price £271
Supplier http://www.amazon.co.uk
Details www.canon.co.uk

Camera Controls

Exposure modes program, shutter priority, aperture priority, manual
Shutter speed 15 to 1/3,200 seconds
Aperture range f/3.5-8 (wide), f/6.8-8 (tele)
ISO range (at full resolution) 100 to 3200
Exposure compensation +/-2 EV
White balance auto, 6 presets, manual
Additional image controls contrast, saturation, sharpness, red, green, blue, skin tone, i-Contrast
Manual focus Yes
Closest macro focus 5cm
Auto-focus modes centre, face detect, tracking
Metering modes multi, centre-weighted, centre, face detect
Flash auto, forced, suppressed, slow synchro, red-eye reduction
Drive modes single, continuous, self-timer, smile detect

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