Canon PowerShot SX230 HS review

There’s the full complement of priority and manual exposure modes and manual focus. Their implementation is first rate, with the navigation pad doubling as a wheel for quickly adjusting settings. Standard shot-to-shot times were a little slow at 2.2 seconds apart but the 0.9fps continuous mode with updating autofocus makes up for it for those who like to fire off a string of shots. Continuous shooting with static focus was at 2.1fps until the card was full.

The 3in screen’s wide aspect ratio means photos appear smaller than on squarer screens, but it comes into its own for video capture. Video quality was superb, with a sharp 1080p picture, crisp stereo sound and smooth autofocus. The zoom and focus motors where picked up by the microphone but only in very quiet scenes. The 16-minute maximum clip length is more disappointing but we could live with it.

There’s a GPS radio for geotagging photos so you can plot them on a map in Google Picasa and various other photo managers. If this doesn’t appeal, go for the SX220 HS, which lacks this feature, is otherwise identical and costs £178 at Amazon. That’s a stunningly good deal, but both models are fantastic value for such capable, high quality cameras.