Canon PowerShot SX200IS review

The PowerShot SX200IS is Canon's latest high-end compact digital camera.

To be fair, this is hardly a compact camera by any modern standards, but it's much less bulky than a DSLR. The SX200IS makes up for its extra bulk with an impressive feature set that's sure to appeal to the enthusiastic amateur. The stand-out specifications include a 12x zoom lens, 12.1 megapixel CCD and 3in LCD screen. The zoom lens is a very impressive 28-336mm in 35mm terms. Suffice to say that there are few situations where you'll be without a framing option with this lens.

The SX200IS also boasts face detection technology, as well as automatic scene detection. However, there's full manual control and a selection of predefined auto modes if you don't trust the auto scene detection technology. If you're also interested in video capture, the SX200IS will record in 720p high definition at 30 frames per second.

Canon has made a really great job of making the body of this camera as small as possible, which in the main is a positive thing. We did find the dial on the rear rather small, and this really became an issue when using the camera in manual mode: we either went sailing past the setting we needed or had to click very slowly to ensure the correct selection. Other than this, though, the SX200IS is a breeze to use.

We also had some issues with indoor use, as we ended up with a few more out-of-focus shots than we'd have liked. Quick-fire shots seemed to fox the SX200IS. Given time, it managed to produce sharp images, but even when the light wasn't that bad, focusing still seemed sluggish. In its defence, the 336mm zoom lens with image stabilisation really is great in the outdoors. We were able to get some fantastic close-up shots without having to be on top of the action, especially with the lens helping to keep things steady.

Image quality was also impressive, with strong, vibrant and natural colour balance in every situation. Noise wasn't an issue and detail was especially good. If you're used to an SLR-level of quality, you'll have to look very hard to find any deficiencies in images produced by this camera.

If the SX200IS had performed as well inside as well as out, this would be a near-perfect camera for the demanding user. However, the number of out-of-focus shots the camera gave us in decent, if not perfect, lighting conditions counted against it.

The SX200IS is certainly aimed at someone who wants more that just a compact camera but not the bulk of an SLR. In this respect, it's definitely a great choice. Our main gripes with it are the rear user input dial and the sloppy focus performance it produced in lower light.

If you're looking for a camera that could plausibly replace a DSLR without losing the flexibility and saving on space, the Canon PowerShot SX200IS is certainly worth considering. Its ease of use and the quality of the images captured are excellent, and it's spectacularly easy to use, too.