Product review: Canon Powershot SX200 IS

Everyone loves digital cameras but it's easy to become comfortable with the one you have and remain oblivious to the remarkable strides being made in this corner of the gadget world.

Manufacturers such as Canon are constantly adding new features that until recently were found only on expensive digital SLRs.

A case in point is the PowerShot SX200 IS. You can set up this compact camera to be as simple or complex to use as you wish. If you're such a timid photographer that you find even the automatic setting a bit scary then you can use easy mode, which disables all the controls you don't need and stops you inadvertently spoiling the shot. At the other extreme you can adjust a vast range of settings from white balance to contrast to tone to colour saturation… and much, much else.

The SX200 IS has a mighty x12 optical zoom that produces great results. You can stand at the foot of Burj Dubai and zoom right in on the crane at the top and capture an image that looks sharp even when blown up. You don't even need a tripod thanks to the image stabilisation system.

This camera is packed with ingenious features. For example, have you ever placed your camera so it is pointing at your friends, set the self-timer and then stumbled into a chair while rushing to join the group and looked on helplessly as the camera clicked away without you? Well that can't happen with the SX200 IS if you use the face self-timer, as the shutter won't be released until you join the line-up and the camera detects your face. Amazing but true. You can pick out just one colour in a composition and shoot the rest in black and white – for example a blue car in the foreground could appear blue against a monochrome background.

Want to experiment with manual focus but afraid your shots won't be sharp enough? Just set the camera to "safety manual focus" where the autofocus system fine-tunes the setting. If you want to move on from shooting in auto to selecting the shutter speed or aperture setting yourself, the camera will alert you if you exceed the exposure limits. You then adjust the settings so you can take a perfect photo. On top of all that you can shoot HD video.

My one reservation is that there's no viewfinder so you have to compose your shots using the three-inch screen – not always easy in bright sunshine. But that apart, if you want to move up from a simple point-and-shoot but don't want the expense, complexity and bulk of a digital SLR then you'll find the SX200 IS pretty much perfect.


Dh1,499


Verbatim

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