Canon PowerShot SX10 IS

The Canon PowerShot SX10 IS features resolutions of 10 Megapixels, capturing all the necessary detail for poster-size prints.With a Canon 20x wide-angle (28mm) optical zoom lens, the PowerShot SX10 IS tackles everything from long-range telephoto shots to sweeping landscapes.

With a gigantic 20x optical zoom the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS takes joint lead of the category as far as pure size is concerned.The PowerShot SX10 IS started up in 1.8 seconds, which is exceptional for a camera of this type.

Obviously the key thing to note about this unit is the enormous lens. 20x is absolutely huge and equatesto 28mm-560mm in 35mm terms. This means it offers some serious zooming power and also offers wide-angle shooting.The Canon PowerShot SX10 IS camera’s is supported by optical stabilisation and, as usual, Canon has done an excellent job with it.Despite having a large lens, the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS performed very well in all our speed tests. It started up in 1.8 seconds, which is exceptional for a camera of this type. Furthermore it focused and zoomed fairly snappily. Its shutter lag was a fairly standard 0.09 seconds, there was a 1.8 second delay between shots and the burst mode captured 2.2 frames per second.

The Canon PowerShot SX10 IS camera’s images were a little disappointing but had no massive flaws. Sharpness was good, with little in the way of over-sharpening evident and a good amount of detail for a 10-megapixel sensor. Colour balance was pretty typical, with some strong over-saturation in some areas. Reds and yellows were noticeable culprits with overly bright, vivid saturation while blues and greens were better controlled. The overall balance will be fine for those who like lively reproduction; those who don’t will want to do a little tweaking either on-camera or in post processing.

The design of the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS will be familiar to anyone who has used an advanced compact before. With a jutting right hand grip and a huge lens it isn’t petite or stylish but it is comfortable to hold and does the job. One feature of note is the rotatable LCD display, which can be flipped out and angled up or down for those tricky shots.