Canon PowerShot SX200 IS review

The SX200 IS is a big departure from the bulbous plastic designs of previous SX-series cameras.

Its aluminium shell comes in blue, black or red, and there's a 3in screen, an HDMI output and 720p video capture. The lens is now wide angle with a 12x zoom that, along with Panasonic's cameras, is the biggest to be found in a compact camera. We're not so keen on the way the flash rises when the camera is switched on, but at least it's out of the way of fingers.

This is the only camera here to include the full complement of shutter priority, aperture priority and manual exposure modes. The aperture doesn't have a huge range, varying from f/3.4 to f/8 at the wide angle and f/5.3 to f/8 for telephoto shots, but keen photographers will still appreciate this control.

Manual exposure and focus are extremely well implemented, with a wheel for dialling in large adjustments. A Function button provides access to various other photographic settings, but while the redesigned layout looks smarter than on previous Canon cameras, it isn't as easy to navigate. Performance was a little on the slow side, but this camera is unlikely to keep most people waiting.

It's great to see 1,280x720-resolution video on so many cameras this month, but the SX200 IS's implementation is a mixed bag. Video quality is excellent except in very gloomy conditions, the HDMI output is a treat and there's no limit to recording time (Panasonic's TZ7 is limited to 15 minutes per clip). However, optical zoom is unavailable while shooting and the 23Mbit/s bit rate is excessive, filling a 2GB card in just 11 minutes.

Quality of photos was generally excellent, with immaculate colours and barely any lens distortion. However, focus was soft in quite a few of our test shots and low-light photos were below average. This is at odds with the enthusiast-oriented manual controls. We would prefer to live without the controls and go for Panasonic's TZ7.