Canon Powershot SX110IS 9MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black)

Just came back from 9 week backpacking trip in Asia. I usually use a Canon DSLR, but could not bring my SLR due to size, weight, worrying about its safety all the time, attracting too much attention, etc. However, if you're an SLR user like me, you miss all the professional functionality, versatility and most of all, zoom range when you settle for most point-and-shoot (PAS) cameras. The SX110 IS was my dream come true. The 10x optical zoom makes all the difference... in 35mm terms you have a max focal length of 360mm -- like carrying a massive zoom lens on an SLR. Can't count how many beautiful shots would have been impossible if I had been using an 5x zoom or less. Pros: - full creative modes (Av, TV, Manual, exposure adjustments) that are actually faster to adjust than my SLR, no fake "Manual" modes that lots of PAS's have, which are anything but Manual - (it's still got all the scene modes, e.g. Landscape, Action, Portrait, etc. and most of the common ones are on the main dial so you don't have to cycle through them onscreen to get them quickly if you're not comfortable with the creative modes) - lots of white balance options - you manually flip-up the flash, only when you want to use it... I hate it when cameras automatically decide for me when to pop-up and use the flash (or you have to cycle through the flash buttons to get control of them) ... I know whether I want flash or not dammit... also you can adjust the flash intensity (great for using light flash on daytime shots in the shade) - massive and beautiful 3-inch LCD - form factor... compared to others in its class, i.e. PAS's that have great zoom and full creative modes, this was the smallest -- it actually fits in your pocket (bizarrely I've seen a bunch of reviews that say it's too big for your pocket -- not true at all as long as you're not wearing ridiculously tight pants), unlike those PAS's (including a lot of Canons) that are, to me, in no-man's-land because they're too big for a PAS and too small, not enough lens quality and w/o lens interchangeability to be a SLR - has a jog dial! (like SLRs have)... so great, and not that many PAS's have it. Let's you very quickly review/search through tons of photos, and quickly change shooting parameters like ISO, aperture, shutter speed, instead of pushing pushing pushing buttons to get what you want - the awesome Canon user interface -- I have tried all different brands and Canon is the best hands down - image stabilization seemed to work pretty well Cons: Big Cons - I do not like the AA battery as power source. This camera chews up AA batteries like no other... on one day when I took about 250+ pictures I went through 8 AA batteries. Granted: I probably should have bought a rechargeable AA system before I left, never tried that and also, the batteries for sale in Asia are cheap but they are absolute crap (even Western brands, although they were probably knockoffs). The high-quality $12 lithium AA's I bought in the US before I left lasted much longer, but still not that long. - the flash has to sit there and get recharged by the batteries before you can shoot again. My guess is it takes about 3-5 seconds, which is an eternity when you're asking people to hold a pose or you've got a fleeting chance at a great photo opp... this actually caused me to miss a few good shots - video -- you cannot zoom in or out once you start filming! I have no idea why not. Also, the video quality options are that of cameras from a few years ago.. can't shoot in HD, and can't shoot at a super-high rate of frames per second like some tiny Elphs from years ago can Small cons - can't shoot in RAW -- won't bother most people since most people just shoot JPGs but I will be moving to RAW soon - a bit slow to focus, I have definitely seen better in lots of PAS cameras - face detection was not as good as some other PAS's I've seen -- slow to recognize faces if it even recognized them at all -- although not a huge deal for me as I never rely on face detection to focus - in the display review, there are four displays to cycle through -- the 4th is a "focus check" which zooms on the center of the photo (or face if detected). It's pointless -- it does nothing more than what you do anyway to check focus when you do a standard review, you zoom in using the zoom buttons and move around the picture to see what you want to check -- except it adds extra cumbersome steps. Canon should get rid of this -- all I want when I cycle through review display modes is the 3rd display -- to check the histogram and see what the camera chose if I'm not in full Manual (i.e. what ISO if I'm using auto-ISO, what shutter speed if I'm using aperture-priority, etc.) - would be nice to have an exposure bracketing feature, but this is something you almost never see on PAS's anyway Anyway, I gave this 5 stars, I couldn't have bought a better camera for my trip, but would have given it a 4.5 if possible due to the above issues... HOWEVER, I see now that Canon has already fixed some of this in a new model called the SX200 IS, which has rechargeable lithium ion battery, more megapixels, HD video and more zoom (although I believe this is deceiving since the 35mm equivalent is actually lower than the SX110, maybe the SX200 has a smaller sensor? Anyway the upside is you have a wider angle shot when not zoomed). In summary I highly recommend this camera.

I’ve been using this camera ever since I got it and it has not disappoint me once. Pictures are amazing and it works phenomenal. I do have to say it runs out of battery kinda quick sometimes, however, all I do is switch the batteries and it works like nothing happened. It doesn’t bother me. Totally recommend, specially if you’re not a pro using cameras and just want really good pics and a device that’s easy to manage.

I bought this camera to take with me to a concert I went to back in february. I knew that I was in the 6th row, so I needed a good zoom, and I needed something with fairly low noise at high ISOs because of the indoor lighting. I also needed something that was fairly low in price. After much searching I decided on this little gem of a camera, and boy am I glad I did! Some of the things I love about this camera: It's compact. I was looking at the sx10is which is a bit of an upgrade, but ultimately the compactness of the 110 won me over. It's inexpensive. At least as far as cameras go. I make very little money with my part time job, so I was looking for something that wouldn't break the bank and for about $[...] you can't argue with this. You can set most everything manually. This came in great handy at the concert when I needed a quicker shutter speed than the pre-set settings wanted to give me. I also like knowing that I can control the image instead of just pushing a button and hoping for the best. Beautiful 3in screen. Very lovely to use and very clear. Manual flash. I hate hate hate built in flash for anything other than when you're taking a quick snapshot of you and a friend at night, so this was very convenient for me. I could flip up the flash when I wanted it, and when I didn't it would stay down. Pretty nice in low lighting. At the concert there was very little light on stage so I cranked the ISO up to 800 and was happy with the amount of noise. It was still there, but it wasn't distracting like on some other cameras. Nice video quality. I wasn't sure of the video quality when I bought it and was hoping for the best at my concert where I know lots of videos get overwhelmed with the bass. Luckily, it didn't sound like a bomb was going off at every beat. The sound isn't as good (in my opinion) as the sx10, but it's still pretty good. The video is also pretty high quality. 10x optical zoom. I. Love. This. The whole trip I took while seeing the concert was filled with me playing around with the zoom from our 9th story hotel room. There was a group of police officers talking with a man directly across the street from our hotel and you could literally read their name badges from how close it could zoom in. Now for some things that I don't like so much. First of all, the screen has no protection so it's easily scratched if it's not in a case whenever it's not being used. This is a turn off for me only because I'm the kind of person who likes to throw stuff into my bag and be on my way without worrying about it getting scratched up, or having to worry about the bulkiness of a case. This is by no means a reason to not buy the camera as this problem is easily remedied by keeping the camera in a small case or using a screen protector. Next is that you can't use the optical zoom while taking movies. This bothers me because I really like to take video at concerts and it's a pain if you set the zoom wrong at the beginning of a video and can't change it throughout. On that note, it's also VERY easy to switch from "standard" video mode to "compact" mode. Compact mode is a considerably lower resolution than standard and is closer to the resolution on a camera phone than the much higher quality of the standard mode. This has happened to me on at least two occasions and I couldn't figure out how it was happening until too late. It can easily change if the wheel located near the right thumb is moved while the camera is in movie mode. This is the one flaw that is causing me to give the camera 4 stars instead of 5 (I'm still bitter about the footage I lost because of it). This, however, can become a non problem if you're aware of how it can happen and how to fix it if it does happen. To wrap this up, the sx110is is an excellent camera if you want an awesome zoom, and good quality images on a budget. I will definitely continue to use this as a non DSLR concert/everyday camera far into the future! EDIT: I tried to leave some links to pictures and video I took with this camera, but apparently I can't do links in a review. If you'd like to see pictures just search flickr for katiebean, for video search youtube for katiebean08.

I purchased a pair of these cameras on Amazon the end of December, which were shipped from Adorama Camera. After less than 3 months of light use, both of them exhibited the "Lens error, restart camera" message. In my case, one lens is stuck all the way out and the other was partway retracted. I'm probably going to get stiffed on the repair fees for the second, which I pushed in after it got stuck and now semi-operates. The features are great for the price--especially the 10x zoom. I initially liked the cameras a lot, and I would have written off one failure as bad luck. After all I've had 4 other Canon digicams over the course of the past ~7 years that have been completely trouble-free. However 2 for 2 seems like a quality control problem--one which I find unacceptable on a "high-end" (Canon's descriptor) consumer camera.

I purchased this camera after my previous Canon Powershot digital camera was stolen at a construction site. This is my 3rd Powershot and to say that Canon has a winner in this series would be an understatement. The current model is a powerhouse. 9 MB file size, a 10x optical zoom giving you the same view as a 550 mm 35 mm camera lens lets you really pull images in from almost any vantage point. The image stabilizer is also a great tool as there is no visible blurring due to hand shake. The only issue for a really great camera is battery life. The first set of batteries, the ones that came with the camera ran out fairly quickly, granted my 10 year son was shooting movies and then reviewing them over and over again, but still. This is the first digital camera that allows for the use of AA batteries off the shelf which in theory shouldbe convenient except that they really don't last very long compared to the rechargable batteries that usually come with these cameras. As a result a sprang for rechargable batteries and a charger and then batteries seem to last a bit longer. Only time will tell so we will have to wait and see. Overall I am very happy with this camera and I think that you will be as well. Also the black colering is very cool.

This camera is everything I had hoped for in a mega-zoom, compact digital. Over the past month, I've been able to really test it out, and it hasn't let me down even once. The 10x optical zoom is not a 10x digital zoom, it is true optical zoom with excellent lenses. Some of the other 10x (mega-zoom) camera were reviewed to have poor exposure results through their lenses, surprisingly this included Nikon. The Canon performance is awesome. The effective pixels total 9 mega-pixels, plenty of pixel density on a .28cm sensor. The main sensor is a CCD type that measures 0.28 sq cm. There is a huge LCD on the back and the screen is awesome with lots of detail and a built-in portrait-to-landscape accelerometer (orientation sensor). The flash is manual which means you just flip the flash up if the display says you need it; leave it down if you don't need it--no fumbling for buttons to set the flash preference. I haven't be disappointed by the shots I've taken on auto yet. With face detection, just a light touch on the exposure button, the face detection senses the faces in your shot and focuses perfectly. Then mash the button and get a great shot every time. Easy to learn right out of the box. Nothing complicated about this camera. If you want aperture or shutter priority, you'll have to spend more. This camera is the best value I was able to find for the features and I've been really impressed with the quality of the prints that I've made on top-quality photo paper. The video is awesome, even on a 52" plasma. We're using this camera exclusively and pretty much shelved our Canon DV video camera. The research that informed my choice included Amazon reviews, JR Photo reviews, Consumer Reports, Digital Camera Review, Canon Web site, Nikon Web site and the Sony Web site. In my research, I looked at the most critical things that mattered to me. Sensor size and mega-pixels ratings can be confusing and deceiving. The higher the number doesn't necessarily mean better shots, especially if you're comparing a compact with a subcompact. I used the buying guide at Digital Camera Review extensively to narrow down to the compacts with the best performance features and to make sure I was comparing apples to apples. I compared camera in the Consumer Reports ratings, and though I found that they didn't seem to pay much attention to CCD sensor size in their ratings, as always, the review was very informative and helped narrow down the top brands for features, performance and reliability. Once I had a narrowed down list of a few cameras that looked like they had the best mix of features, performance, usability, price and quality, the clear winner was this Canon. Plus the fact that I have had excellent experiences with other Canon electronics, I chose the SX110. Bottom line, this camera takes great pictures and video. I've photographed and shot video at the max of 60 feet from my subject with excellent results. I've photographed in low light, too, and as long as you're relatively still, great results with minimal blur. I've been amazed at how much I've been able to shoot without the flash. The flash does produce some red-eye, but it is possible to fix it with a feature right on the camera. I use a Mac Book Pro with iPhoto, and the compatibility is ideal. I'm sure the same is true with PCs. The first shot delay is almost not even noticeable; very quick and second shot recovery after using the flash is great. I also recommend getting a 4GB memory card and a Sanyo Eneloop 4 Pack AA NiMH Pre-Charged Rechargable Batteries w/ Charger.

I purchased this camera late-December, after experimenting with it for a few weeks here is my take: The pros: - Interface is well done, very easy to understand, learn, and use. - The 10x optical zoom works great, very nice feature for a camera of this size. - Has a decent start-up time, from off to ready to shot is roughly 1.5 to 2 seconds. The cons: - Very slow when taking pictures. In auto-mode with-out flash it took three seconds to go from button push (take a picture) to being ready to take the next picture. The same shot took seven seconds using the flash. In general the actual image capture process is slow on this camera. - Picture quality issues. You can take a decent picture with this camera but odds are you will not be doing it in auto-mode. In particular I find ISO settings above 100 produce very grainy, noisy pictures. I tend to use this camera in either "P-mode" or "M-mode" 99% of the time so I can manually set the ISO value to 80. If you always shoot in perfect lighting, or can use a flash maybe this may not be an issue but really you should be able to use higher ISO values without noise totally dominating the picture. - Construction quality. The construction of this camera makes it feel somewhat fragile, like I was cradling an egg needing to be super cautious. I kind of wonder at the durability of this unit. Maybe others who have had one longer can comment. Overall I think this camera had some pluses, and some definite minuses. Its likely I will return this unit but the experience piqued my interest enough that I would like to try other Canon models.

Too bad it won't let me change the star rating. The camera was well taken care of, kept in a case, wrist strap always used, never left out for little hands to grab. Went on vacation and was in the process of putting the camera back into it's case when it dropped to the floor (maybe a 2 foot drop). Immediately the flash stopped working, even when it was raised I got the 'raise flash' error. It still took pictures, but you had to have perfect artificial lighting for the camera not to need the flash to focus. I kept it throughout the summer and sent it off to the repair facility. For all purposes of this review, I will skip 99% of this story. Just make a mental note that if you crap from Canon breaks and it 'might not' be under warranty DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THE SERVICE CENTER. They are by far the worst customer service center I've ever had to deal with. After keeping my camera for a month, (and failing to email me status updates, as they had promised) I find out the camera is being shipped back to me because it's 'beyond economical repair'. For a camera that was as well taken care of as this one was, and dropped ONCE, 5 months old and cost a few hundred dollars. It should be a little more durable than that. I went from a 'buy nothing BUT canon' to a 'never buy Canon (or allow my family to buy) canon ever again.' It's pitiful that one customer service department cost this company hundreds or even thousands of dollars worth of business from screwing over my family alone. We will be upgrading to Nikon and participating in the extended and accidental warranties. Surprisingly all of the photographers I personally know recommend Nikon anyway. Now why didn't I just listen to them in the first place? ^ EDIT ^ I put a lot of work into picking out this camera. I wanted a better quality camera for a great price. The more professional cameras started at $400 it seemed, so I stuck with the bargains. I had the Powershot A630 with a flip out screen previously. My daughter found it on my desk and started to play with it, dropped it and the shutter broke and the auto focus seems to be off too. (For Christmas she got her own durable kid's camera, lesson learned!) So the first brand I started reading about was Canon Powershot. I saw an ad for this camera by chance while browsing another Powershot and immediately I loved it. It looked like a great balance between the SLR's and the pocket cameras. It's exactly what I wanted. Pros: Very large LCD screen, large viewing range, 9MP, Great auto focus and a great pop up flash. It's a 'meaty' camera. It makes me feel like it's durable-although I'm not going to let my 3 year old test that theory. It takes AA batteries. I guess that could be a pro or a con, depending on your preference. I prefer AA's because if I get in a bind I can just run into any store and pick up some cheap batteries to last a few hours. Cons: No eye hole (sorry, don't know the correct term for that thing!). It's a little slow recovering from a busy picture. If there is a lot going on in the background it takes a few seconds to write the picture and be ready for another one. It's also large for a pocket camera. That doesn't bother me, but if you're looking for an Elph size, this isn't for you.