Canon Poweshot SX1 IS, The Best Point-And-Click Camera?

September 20, 2008

On August 26, I blogged about the new Olympus camera, the SP565-UZ and listed several features I wanted to see in a digital point-and-shoot camera.

I blogged that on the surface the SP565-UZ seemed to be the perfect company for my old Canon PowerShot G6. I ended the blog hoping that two of my favourite brands, Canon and Nikon, would somehow come up with their own long-zoom camera to equal SP565-UZ’s 20x optical zoom.

I’ve said that, “The SP-565UZ does look like an ideal companion for the G6 but there is still no proof yet of its image quality.

“If it is good, then I might as well go for it. That is, if either Canon or Nikon is not already thinking of outdoing Olympus in the 20x wide-angle to ultra telephoto zoom segment. What say you Canon or Nikon? Are you already working on something or are you still reinventing the super zoom wheel?”

Well, guess what. Canon has answered my prayer and come up with its own 20x wide angle-to-telephoto zoom camera or 28mm-520mm equivalent, with 30fps high definition 1080 video capture to boot.

There are two models, the PowerShot SX1 IS and the SX10 IS but looking at the features, it is obvious that the SX1 IS is the better of the two.

And best of all, the SX1 IS has 4fps continuous shot until memory card is full, exceeding the 3fps I wanted to see in a point-and-click camera. The only thing lacking is the ability to shoot in RAW. However, I seldom shot in RAW mode with the G6. So the feature won’t be missed much in the SX1 IS.

And then there’s the super macro mode with the focusing distance of 0mm.

The SX10 IS, the cheaper of the two, will be available in October while the SX1 IS, in December. I’m seriously considering to buy the SX1 IS as the companion for my old but trusted PowerShot G6.

Posted in Camera Raves and Rants