Best Choice for a high quality and compact Camera

Thanks everyone for the great advice
I will do a bit more research about G12 and S95 and will pick up the most suitable.

bennz wrote in post #12058375
What are the thoughts and opinion on Canon SX220 HS / SX230 HS ?

I just picked up an SX220 today. Haven't had much time to play with it yet, having had to wait for the battery to charge. One thing I like about it is that the colour modes go from quite neutral to quite punchy. I don't much care for the way the flash pops up every time I turn it on, but I'll get used to that. I did a short video as well and that looked good despite my shaky hands. It's easy to use, even in full manual mode, and gives good quality pictures. I'll probably find other things I don't like about it and others that I do.

Two really big plus points for me are a) it replaces my 3X zoom 7MP Casio and my Canon S3is, and b) it weighs a lot less than my 40D + lenses.

If you want the extra zoom then the SX220/30 is a good camera, IMO.

garryknight wrote in post #12072701
I just picked up an SX220 today. Haven't had much time to play with it yet, having had to wait for the battery to charge. One thing I like about it is that the colour modes go from quite neutral to quite punchy. I don't much care for the way the flash pops up every time I turn it on, but I'll get used to that. I did a short video as well and that looked good despite my shaky hands. It's easy to use, even in full manual mode, and gives good quality pictures. I'll probably find other things I don't like about it and others that I do.

Two really big plus points for me are a) it replaces my 3X zoom 7MP Casio and my Canon S3is, and b) it weighs a lot less than my 40D + lenses.

If you want the extra zoom then the SX220/30 is a good camera, IMO.

Hi Garry,
How is the camera. I am considering the same one as a carry around. Could you pls post pics?
Are the manual settings easy to use/access?
Does it focus in video mode? or do you have to stop recording and restart?

Ta

I'll try and get some pics up at the weekend, or earlier if I can. In fact, it might be helpful to start a camera sample thread. I took it out today for the first time but was out with a friend so I didn't get much shooting done, only a dozen or so shots. I did get a few photos showing how well it handles contrasty situations, wide open and zoom shots, and full-zoom portraits with a distant background to show how much separation I could get. I also shot a short 1080p video with panning, zooming in, and zooming out while panning, and it seemed to handle the focusing ok, though my hand started shaking towards the end. I'll try and get around to putting it up on YouTube when I get some spare time.

If you've used a Canon compact or bridge camera before, you'll know about the Function button that you use to get to most of the useful settings such as ISO, WB, My Colours setting, and so on, and how easy that is to use. The scroll wheel can be a bit fiddly to get used to and you can find that while zoomed into a picture you're viewing and then trying to pan around, that the wheel has inadvertently rotated and put you on the next photo. And since you're zoomed right in, you might wonder what's going on for a second or two. But you get used to these little quirks.

Amongst other things, the scroll wheel is used to select focus mode, flash mode, Ev, and count-down timer, and since there are no markings or arrows on or around the scroll wheel, you have to remember which bit to press to get what you want, though you can turn on displayed tips. But the camera is no more fiddly than most compacts; it's part of the trade-off for having such a powerful camera in a portable format, IMO.

When you're used to a DSLR, a compact can seem to take an age to switch on, get its focus and light balance sorted out, zoomed to where you left it, and be ready to take a shot. But this forces you to slow down a little and maybe think more about the shot you're going for. Or you can just leave it switched on all the time and let it turn the display off to save battery. I've got an extra battery and 8GB card on the way as I intend to use mine for street photography amongst other things, so I'll probably leave mine on most of the time.

I want to try out some of the more useful modes like low-light shot, hand-held night shot (which takes 3 pictures in quick succession and makes a relatively shake-free well-lit shot), as well as some of the not-so-useful modes like Miniature Model (diorama shots) and Toy Camera. And getting to know all of the other features without having to think about them (like burst mode, flash compensation, separate focus and AE lock) will take a while. But from what I've seen so far, I'd recommend it as one of the best long-zoom carry-around compacts with full manual control, especially as the photos are crisp and clear with neutral colours. Or vivid, or several stages in between, depending on the colour settings you choose. It's one of the few compacts that will let you set sharpness, contrast, and saturation separately, though your chosen settings won't be applied in Easy mode (but who uses that, right?). Also, the zoom goes from 28mm efl to 392mm efl, which is a nice range.

A few niggles that other people have found that have happened to me today are:

1) The flash pops up every time you switch the camera on, just like the SX210 - I've noticed that I tend to hold the flash down while turning it on so I'll have to go out of my way to pop it up on the few occasions that I'll want to use it.

2) The images sometimes don't look all that sharp even when there's no motion blur and I don't know why that is; you'll either want to select Custom in My Colors and up the sharpness in-camera, or sharpen in post-processing.

3) To delete a shot you've just taken you have to press the Playback button, press Function, use the up or down arrows to get to the Delete function, press Set, press right arrow to select OK, then press Set. Reading it takes a lot longer than actually doing it, though, when you've had a bit of practice. I certainly wouldn't let this, or the other 2 niggles above, put me off recommending the camera. Many people wouldn't even delete photos in the field but wait until they can see them on the large PC monitor before deciding to junk them.

Anyway, since at my age it's getting harder to carry my 40D and lenses around, I expect to be getting quite a bit of use out of the SX220. So I'll be posting pics somewhere on the forum and hopefully others will too.

Gosh! This has turned into a mini-review. To answer your specific questions:

"Are the manual settings easy to use/access?"
Yes, easy enough. Turn the mode dial to Av or Tv, use the scroll wheel to adjust shutter speed or aperture. Turn the mode dial to M, use the scroll wheel to adjust shutter speed, press the up arrow to move the focus over to aperture, use the scroll wheel to adjust it.

"Does it focus in video mode? or do you have to stop recording and restart?"
As I said at the top of the post, it seems to be ok, though it might depend on light conditions, subject movement, and maybe on what you're shooting. My video panned across some buildings and up a church tower, zoomed in to the tower, then panned down while zooming out to full wide. If you were videoing sports with the camera set in portrait mode so that it kept (up to 35) faces in focus, it might struggle more. But I'm guessing. The User Guide says that if it has problems focusing, stop recording, half-press the shutter, and start recording again, so there obviously will be conditions under which focusing isn't optimal.

Ok, here are the promised sample photos, in this and the next post. All of them were imported into Lightroom 2 for upload but no changes were made to the original jpegs. They are all SOOC shots.

Nelson Silhouette
This demonstrates the zoom capabilities of the SX220. Nelson's Column is 169 feet 3 inches high. This photo also shows the purple fringing of chromatic aberration that you typically get with superzoom compacts.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559970564/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559972190/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559396139/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559977956/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559398565/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559401875/

Tree Gleam
Demonstrates a common cliche shot, and more purple fringing.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559980706/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559404665/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559981742/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559406075/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/garryknight/5​559407567/

Garry,
That is a great first hand review.
Thanks for the shots as well.

Now I have to decide between

gaining 2 stops (s95) of light vs ability to zoom significantly and autofocus in video mode (SX220)!!!!
Is it better to shot on S95 in RAW and then crop the image PP

Physical factor of S95 vs SX220

Decisions......

Thanks for your help.

I've had a G11 and now an LX5. While I like the '5, the protruding lens makes it as hard to carry as the G11 or 12.
The LX5 has a removable lens cap. Works well; however, I've had issues removing it (can't figure that out--I've done that with slr's since the beginning of time.) I've also had issues with the screen in bright light, and have purchased the electronic view finder. Glad it's available, great tool but expensive! I like my '5 but it's not for everyone.

Jon--G12 has a hotshoe as does the LX5 (Panasonic). Your summary was excellent.

What would I choose? Probably the S95 and a Franiec Grip. I love the faster lens.

The S95 is a beautiful pocket camera; the G12 is a beautiful system P&S camera. Your call.

350duser wrote in post #12130222
Garry,
That is a great first hand review.
Thanks for the shots as well.

You're welcome. I'll be posting some more, showing some of the other features, for others faced with a similar decision.

Easy. S95 in your left pocket, SX220 in your right pocket.

bennz wrote in post #12058375
I believe/hope S95 has the same quality and functionality as SX220/230 HS if not more?!

Canon S95 will give you a better quality picture, it has a much better sensor and has f/2.0 aperture and its can shoot in RAW which Canon SX220 doesnt support. Also Canon S95 is better in low lights.

Awesome write-up and samples Garry. Well done. This will be a great resource for anyone interested in that camera.

Thanks for doing such a great job.

bluenoser23 wrote in post #12137669
Awesome write-up and samples Garry. Well done. This will be a great resource for anyone interested in that camera.

Thanks for doing such a great job.

Thanks for your kind comments, James. Are you still shooting the s3?

garryknight wrote in post #12140392
Thanks for your kind comments, James. Are you still shooting the s3?

Hi Garry. Oh yes, I still shoot with my trusty S3 but with decreasing frequency (mostly D7000 and S95 now). Actually, I use my S3 for most of my video requirements - it still takes a very nice video and combined with that long lens and IS - I'm very pleased! Can't see me ever selling it.

Did you keep yours?

Am thinking of selling mine soon. I got the SX220 to replace my Casio EX-Z700 and the S3 as it has all of the capabilities of those 2 cameras and more.

I haven't got around to shooting any more sample shots, but if you want to see some more examples of what the Canon Powershot SX220 HS can do, I've added another 34 photos to my SX220 set on Flickr (starting with 'Dog Tired'). All of them have had some post-processing in Lightroom, though surprisingly very little. Once I got the camera set up the way I want it I started getting good results straight away. Just about all of these were shot in Av mode with i-Contrast on and with saturation and contrast bumped to +2 and sharpness to +1 - I often go for shots that look the way I saw the scene at the time and not for "photo-realism", though I do like to go overboard occasionally for the more creative shot.

They are a mixture of picture types: people, buildings, beach scene, statues, abstract, graffiti, colourful, not-so-colourful, daylight shots, low-light shots, and so on. Some have used built-in effects, all were shot handheld. They should give you an idea of what the camera is capable of, though I'm sure all of you could do much better.