Canon PowerShot SX220 HS Digital Camera - Grey (12.1MP, 14x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD

I adore this camera. Why? Because I get a higher percentage of good shots out of it than from any other camera I have, and that includes a few DSLRs, and the video is ridiculously good. Is the image quality as good as a DSLR or even a micro 4/3 system camera? No, but it's not far off, and a shot that's perfectly exposed and focused and free of camera shake on a smaller sensor like this beats not getting a picture at all by a long way. The SX220HS is my constant companion and lives in a pouch on my belt.I've spent 30 years in photography, since buying my first Russian Zenit E around 1979, including being a semi-pro at one point. I know all about aperture/shutter speed/ISO ratios, exposure values, incident light metering, parallax error, Hurter & Driffield scales, flash guide numbers, the difference between depth of field and depth of focus, Ansel Adams's zone system, blah blah blah. When I'm taking a photo, I don't want to think about any of that stuff, I want to be enchanted by a scene and have a decent reproduction of it when I get home. With this camera, I get that. When I pull it out, I know I'm almost certain to get the picture I want. Canon have done an amazing job with it.The video is astounding. When I upload it, I view it on a large screen, not a little laptop, so any flaws would be immediately apparent. I uploaded a few to Youtube for a friend to see, and she emailed me back, 'They are so clear!'Many other cameras don't even let you zoom while filming, this one does and regains focus acceptably quickly when you do. I'm fairly picky about sound quality too, and the SX220HS produces good, clear, rich sound. Yes, if you zoom while filming, there's a little bit of zoom noise, but if you're shooting outside, there'll be plenty of other noise on the soundtrack too. If you care that much, buy a video camera and an external microphone. Otherwise you'll love the full HD video on this. The quality is incredible, especially surprising in a camera as small as this.As has been mentioned, this camera is excellent in low light (very important in the UK), which is unusual for a camera with a long zoom, it has a pretty decent lens, colours are rich and glorious and the image stabilisation is also very good. Noise is virtually never an issue. If it were broken or stolen, would I buy another one? As fast as I could get on the internet.I am absolutely delighted with this camera. Canon are usually not the cheapest of companies, but I chose this over their S95 (one and a half times the price) and Powershot G12 (double the price) after doing a lot of internet research, and I'm so glad I did. Those cameras have more manual functions, but a few weeks ago I spent 10 minutes in a camera shop comparing my SX220HS with a secondhand G12, and if someone had offered me a swap, I'd have laughed. I moved my SD card from one to the other, and took a few shots in low light, and the SX220HS focused quicker and more accurately and took better photos, despite having a slower lens. (Not to mention that neither of those other cameras do full HD video, only 720, and have a much smaller zoom range.) If you're that bothered, you can use manual focus on this camera, but I've never needed to yet.We're lucky in the UK because this version doesn't exist in the US, there you can only get the more expensive SX230HS with built-in GPS, presumably on the basis that if you go on holiday and spend most of the time completely off your head and can't remember much about it, at least your camera will tell you where you were at the time. Don't really get it myself, but I guess that matters to some people.The SX220HS is squat and ugly and drab, has a fairly short battery life, and the flash pops up every time you turn it on. Calamity!!!! Apparently this is a disaster. For goodness sake, so what? Nobody else has mentioned the looks, lots of people have mentioned the other two factors and marked the camera down as a result. To them I say: grow up. Buy a spare battery or two, they're cheap and small. I actually quite enjoy pushing the flash down each time I turn it on, strange as it may sound, it's like saying hello to the camera. I assume Canon did it this way because a bigger battery would have increased the size of the camera, and they had the flash pop up instantly on switch on so that you could guarantee some kind of picture in an emergency. I hardly ever use the flash, but that's the kind of thinking I like. The SX220HS (even the name is ugly) is the ugly baby you love even more. A camera that doesn't draw attention to itself is less likely to get stolen and makes it much easier to get natural shots of people.If you know nothing about photography, this camera will lead you by the hand and give you great photos, and you won't even realise how lucky you are and how good it is compared to much of what's out there. If you know a lot about photography, you will continually marvel at the consistency and quality of this camera and the value for money it represents. It's a truly great camera at the price. I couldn't be happier with it.UPDATE 10th May 2012Yesterday, an apparent disaster. Saw a photo I wanted to take, reached down to my belt, pressed the familiar buttons, lens only half opened. I took a closer look and realised that there was a dent in the lens assembly, so that the shutter blades couldn't open fully. It must have got damaged a couple of days ago when it fell off my belt. I had visions of £100 repairs and checking to see whether Canon had come out with a newer model, but decided not to do anything until today. With the aid of a penknife and some needle-nose pliers, I managed to straighten the metal sufficiently so that there is only a tiny dent visible, and it's no longer fouling the blades. This does bring me to an important point, though. The physical weak point of this camera is around the lens. When I was looking around for one, I saw one advertised on Gumtree and went to have a look. It turned out to be damaged, probably beyond economical repair, so a wasted journey, but had evidently been bashed around the lens, only to a far worse extent than mine. I ended up buying a new one on Amazon.I will still take the risk with my neoprene belt pouch and being more careful in future, but I would say preferably get a harder case if possible. I still carry the camera on my belt nearly every day and use it more than any other.UPDATE 24th July 2012This camera has now been superseded by the SX240HS and SX260HS (which has a GPS). The zoom on the new cameras is 20x as opposed to 14x on the SX220HS, but the lens aperture is slightly smaller. Battery life on the new ones is a bit better, and apparently the stabilisation is better too. Sensor size is the same, and for that reason I won't be upgrading. If I hadn't already got this camera, I would get the SX240HS, but I'll hang on for a year or two until there's a dramatic improvement over my SX220HS.

This is the first Canon I've owned. I bought it after considering a Panasonic TZ20, mainly because it seemed better designed and easier to hold, and reviews flattered it. I was upgrading from a Casio EX-Z750 chiefly because I wanted something with a wider angle lens and more telephoto capability. Well, the Canon SX220 has those features, and much better video, and it takes good pictures.But it's much more complicated to use, battery life is very poor, it is sometimes slow to focus and process a shot, and build quality is very suspect (the lens cover is particularly flimsy). I take a lot of photos of outdoor events, and battery doesn't last more than a couple of hours of snapping. Changing the battery outdoors in UK conditions is not recommended, so I have always to carry an old Casio as a back-up. The beauty of the Casio is that battery life is exemplary (even on a 7-year old secondhand camera), shutter speed is excellent so I never miss a shot, pictures are acceptable (even if colour is a bit over-saturated), and it has never let me down. Moreover, the Casio's all-metal body takes a lot of rough treatment - I have three, including one that bears the dents from several drops onto hard surfaces and it still works perfectly. The Canon demands much gentler treatment.Would I buy the Canon again? Probably not. I would be inclined to buy a cheaper (and hopefully more robust) point-and-shoot for my pocket and a compact SLR for the serious stuff. And probably not a Canon, in view of the generally miserable reputation Canon have for warranty service.

I bought this camera back in April 2011. I have a Canon dSLR camera but wanted something smaller to take to concerts or places where larger cameras aren't allowed or a pain to carry around. My starting point for buying a camera was for something that would shoot well in low-light and this absolutely fits that bill. The flash can be a nuisance as it always pops up when you switch the camera on. But I'm so used to this now, I push it back down as part of the switch-on routine! I'm often out and about taking photos when dusk kicks in and this camera will carry on shooting good photos when a friends camera just won't play ball anymore. I once videoed a group of people making a music video in a tunnel, the quality is good for the light and the sound and I didn't use a tripod.I mainly take photographs and taking movies does use up more battery power. I will take about 300 photos in one session and sometimes I do have to switch to a second battery. I always carry plenty of spare batteries so this isn't a problem for me. I think if you are always switching the camera on/off (which I do on many occasions!) then this will wear down the battery more but then any camera that has a display will do this to the battery. If you are out and about and only have one battery, don't keep reviewing photos/videos if you don't need to or you will just wear your battery down.This camera has a good 'wide-angle' on it. I'm often able to get a whole subject in one shot, whereas a friend has to take a couple of shots and 'stitch' the photos together. The other great thing with this camera is having a 'Manual' mode. So many of the compact cameras don't have this, so I'm able to take some shots the normal point and shoot modes won't allow you to do.I recently dropped my camera and debated about bothering to get it fixed or not. I decided to fix it as it was cheaper than me having to read dozens of reviews to buy another one which I couldn't afford! The problems I had were the zoom decided to do what it wanted to do and the battery housing kept complaining that I needed to change the battery pack! (actually a friend has a different Canon camera and that did the same too with the battery). I sent the camera to [...] (I got their website from the Canon site). It cost me £80 this included spare parts, general service & re-calibration. I really missed my camera while it was in the workshop and was very glad to get it back again!At the time of writing this, I see the camera is £122, I think this is a bargain for the camera that it is, even though it's been superseded by newer models.