Canon PowerShot SX130 IS review

The other controls are well suited to photography enthusiasts. Manual and priority modes give precise control over exposure, and the preview image gives an accurate prediction of how bright the resulting photo will be. The small 1/2.3in sensor and f/3.4- 8 aperture range mean there’s not much scope for playing with depth-of-field effects, though. Manual focus is included, and a momentary digital zoom function helps with fine tuning. We like how the pop-up flash must be raised manually, as it means there’s no chance of it firing unless the user wants it. It’s also good to see Canon’s older menu system in place. It presents a static list of options down the side of the screen, which we find much easier to navigate than Canon’s new Ixus menus with their animated scrolling lists.

We’ve mentioned that flash photography is frustratingly slow; sadly, the SX130 IS isn’t much better in other situations. 2.7 seconds to power up and shoot is respectable but 2.8 seconds between shots is less so. The continuous mode trundles along at 0.6fps, which makes it hardly worth using.

That’s surprising, as this camera isn’t short of processing power – videos are recorded at 720p resolution in the processor-intensive AVC format. Quality was excellent, with working zoom and autofocus, stereo sound, a clear, sharp picture and reasonably controlled noise in low light. The autofocus sometimes got a little confused at close range, though, throwing the scene completely out of focus as it attempted to track moving subjects.

The SX130 IS put in a solid performance in our photographic tests, too. Lens sharpness was excellent throughout the zoom range, despite some chromatic aberrations towards the corners of frames. Details were crisp without looking over-processed, and colours were consistently natural and balanced.