Canon PowerShot SX230 HS

Canon is replacing its distinctive PowerShot SX210 IS  flagship superzoom with the PowerShot SX230 HS. As well as a few minor changes to the design and handling, the internal electronics have been revamped. Although, on paper, the tech specs might not blow you away (14x zoom, 12-Megapixel sensor), Canon's new camera offers a budget alternative to high-flying and high-priced superzooms like the Panasonic Lumix TZ20 and Sony Cyber-shot HX9V.

Handling

The PowerShot SX320 HS has the same basic design as the SX210 IS. It therefore has quite a distinctive style: its body is more elongated than most of its rivals, and it has a smooth front face that we don't find particularly attractive. That said, we're big fans of the mode dial on the back of the camera (rather than on its upper edge), which falls perfectly under the thumb. However, this does mean you'll need to hold the camera with two hands most of the time.


There have been several interesting changes in the camera's overall design. For example, the horrible zoom lever has been replaced by a more traditional ring around the shutter-release button. This is much more practical, especially for controlling the speed of the zoom. The screen definition has been doubled to 460,000 dots but there's still room for improvement, as the 16:9 format means that in photo mode only 340,000 dots are effectively used. Worse still, light greys are overexposed (they look white) and colour reproduction is far from accurate with an average delta E of over 13 (this should be under 3 for accurate colour reproduction).

Interestingly, Canon has decided not to do away with some of the strangest features of the SX210 IS, such as the pop-up flash, which shoots out when you turn the camera on. Plus, there are no markings to show which functions can be accessed via the four-way arrow pad (take note: it's actually focusing on the left, exposure at the top, self-timer at the bottom and flash on the right). The panorama mode still isn't fully automatic and although Canon was one of the first manufacturers to equip its cameras with a panorama assistant, the mode hasn't been updated since and is now quite basic compared to the competition. Plus, the panorama mode doesn't use the full potential of the wide screen, instead displaying a thumbnail measuring 19 x 25 mm!

The SX230 HS has a built-in GPS that drains the battery (which already has an unimpressive battery life of 200 photos) and doesn't really work all that well. You may therefore want to save yourself some cash and pick up the PowerShot SX220 HS, which is exactly the same camera as the SX230 HS but without the GPS.

The battery life is the real let-down of this camera. Throughout this review, you'll probably notice that the SX230 HS is in line for a fifth star in pretty much every field. We could have feasibly made an exception to our scoring criteria for the slightly slow start-up time given that almost all superzoom cameras have the same problem (including the Sony HX9V, our top superzoom of 2011 so far). However, there's no way we can excuse a battery life that might not even get you through a day of heavy snapping on holiday, for example. Plus, Canon can't use the excuse of a small body (like the Ixus range) to justify the limited battery life, since the SX230 HS is just as bulky as the HX9V, which holds out for over 400 shots, or the Casio FH100, which can take just over 500 photos on a single charge.

Responsiveness

There's not much to say in this section as the SX230 is nothing out of the ordinary: it's neither good nor bad. The start-up time, photo-to-photo turnaround time and autofocus are all within average for this type of camera, and are slightly better than average for compact cameras as a whole. It's nowhere near as speedy as the five-star HX9V or the Panasonic TZ20, but this PowerShot is still a nice enough camera to use.

Picture Quality

The SX230 has the same sensor as the ultra-compact Canon Ixus 220 HS, which takes very good pictures. It's therefore no surprise to see that the SX230 HS handles noise in exactly the same way, since the internal electronics of the two cameras are the same, from the sensor down to the memory card. In other words, 8" x 10" photos (20 x 27 cm) are excellent up to 800 ISO, and are still good up to 1600 ISO (so long as you don't look at them too closely), even if smoothing is fairly marked.



The lens has also been seen before as it's taken directly from the previous model, the SX210. It therefore has the same problems, including a slight distortion, a loss in sharpness at the edges of the frame at wide-angle settings, and chromatic aberration that a trained eye will be able to pick out on an 8" x 10" print at all focal lengths. It does, however, also have the same qualities, which means that shots are incredibly sharp over the whole frame from intermediate focal lengths all the way up to 392 mm.

Video

Since the internal electronics are the same as the Ixus 220 HS, the SX230 HS also films 1080p video at 24 fps with picture quality that's accurate, sharp and pleasant to watch. The continuous autofocus is relatively effective and the optical zoom can be used (at a slower speed) while filming. Note that the camera displays the minimum focusing distance while you're changing focal length, which can help stop you zooming in too much on a subject that's nearby.

Sound is among best we've ever heard in a compact camera (see sidebar). In fact, the SX230 HS is one of the best cameras out there if you're looking to film high-quality video ... so long as you don't mind coping with 24 frames per second.