After the highly successful model Canon PowerShot SX20 launched in 2009, Canon has brought out its successor to take things to the next level. The Canon PowerShot SX30 IS we received for review has everything that its predecessor had; raised CCD sensor resolution of 14 MP from 12 MP, with RAW handled by the same DIGIC 4 image processor, optical zoom has been increased from 35X from 20X, 2.7-inch swivel LCD screen is better than the 2.5-inch screen of its predecessor, and optical image stabilization.
It features the same 720p with stereo sound movie recording capability as its predecessor, but with some additional effects, thus far available only in the still image mode.
Bundle
While the bundle is good, it would have been better to include an HDMI cable to connect to an HDTV. Also, Canon has not included any memory card with this camera. When you pay so much for a camera like this, you expect the company to include a memory card, without which, the camera is basically useless.
Design and Build
The Canon PowerShot SX30 IS looks like a no-nonsense super-zoom camera with a black matte exterior polycarbonate casing that makes it look like a D-SLR camera. The build quality is very rugged and it feels solid while holding. At 615 g with batteries, this is quite heavy and you may struggle if you have to hold it for long. Other than the heavy weight, the ergonomics have been taken well care of in the traditional Canon way, with proper attention being paid to button placement and grip.
The camera lens has specifications 4.3-150.5mm (24 mm to 840 mm equivalent) and comes with image stabilization to reduce the chances of blur when shooting with shaky hands. It comes with an astounding 35X zoom, which will bring you views you may not be able to see with the naked eye. The lens consists of 13 elements in 10 groups with one Hi-UD lens and one UD lens and one double-sided aspherical lens. A pop-up flash is conveniently placed at the top of the body, directly above the lens axis and can be lifted manually to be used. The placement ensures that there is very little chance of your hands accidentally covering it. The autofocus beam window is present on one side of the lens.
There are a lot of controls seen on the top of this camera. The largish chrome shutter button can be distinctively seen on the right, around which is the chrome zoom ring controlled by a lever. The power button is placed behind the shutter button and is nicely recessed in the body. In between these two buttons, there is a mode dial to choose from amongst the different shooting modes. There is Smart Auto, Program AE, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, full Manual, two custom settings (C1 and C2), three more commonly used Scene options (Portrait, Landscape, Sports) as well as Scene containing 15 different modes.
The purpose of bringing out the three scene modes outside on the dial for direct access is because these are what people would want to use the most. Also, it saves the hassle of going one level inside to search for them. There is a flash mode button present just besides the flash to help you choose what flash mode you want to use. A hot shoe option is not provided on this camera, so you cannot connect external peripherals such as flash.
The back portion features the large high resolution 2.7-inch color LCD with approximately 230,000 pixels, which can be adjusted to allow you to shoot in awkward angles. It produces sharp and vivid images and is bright enough to be able to use outdoors. An optical viewfinder consisting of a color TFT screen with 202,000 dots with dioptric adjustment dial is provided at the top. This goes a long way in conserving battery life, as you don't have to depend on the LCD at all times. Just to the left of the viewfinder is the Short cut/Direct Print button.
A dedicated video recording button is provided to the top-right of the LCD. Just to its right is a thumb-rest -another ergonomic feature. The usual four-way navigator control surrounded by a ring dial is situated just below this thumb-rest. This navigator can be used to select different functions, the dial is used to cycle through them and the Function Set button at the center is used to select the intended function.
Near the top right, there is a Zoom Framing Assist button to help you quickly zoom the lens out momentarily to reacquire the subject (useful for such high zooms as 35X), a playback button and a button to control AF Frame Selector/Erase. Just below the navigator, there is the Display button on the left bottom and Menu button on the right bottom.
At the bottom of the camera, a flap with a latch houses the battery compartment and the memory card slot. This camera supports SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards. There is also a threaded tripod mount socket too, and this is made of metal rather than plastic, thus ensuring durability.
The Lithium ion battery is a proprietary 7.4V Canon NB-7L with a typical rating of 1050mAh. The battery cannot be charged in the camera and has to be charged in a separately provided charger. This has been one of the most wanted features, as against the AA batteries used in its predecessor.
The camera has a standard mini-USB port to connect to the PC, while a mini-HDMI port lets you connect it to any HDTV, although you will require to purchase a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable separately.
As you may see, the 35X zoom is quite amazing and even more amazing is the fact that the camera was handheld and not attached to a tripod.
As mentioned before, there are several scene modes to choose from, such as Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Smart Shutter, Super Vivid, Poster Effect, Color Accent, Fisheye Effect, Miniature Effect, Beach, Foliage, Snow, Fireworks, and Stitch Assist. The Fisheye Effect mode was fun to use.
5-Rupee coin shot from a distance of just 1 cm with an exposure of 1/30 sec at ISO 160 in fluorescent light
Exposure of 1/400 second at ISO 80 in daylight
Exposure of 1/400 second at ISO 80 in daylight
Exposure of 1/500 second at ISO 80 in daylight
The Macro shoot mode is incredible with the SX30 IS, allowing you to shoot subjects up close from as close as 1 cm from the camera lens, producing incredible close up shots. You can shoot subjects placed almost touching the camera lens, but the camera shadow falling on the subject is the only limiting factor in this case.
Low Light mode was used to snap this shot under sodium vapor street lamps around 1:04 am. The shutter speed was slowed down to 1/3 second at ISO 800. Even though the ISO value is high, the shot is not very noisy as the camera keeps the noise level down even in low light conditions. In this mode, the image size is lowered to 1600x1200 (2 MP) and the ISO level increased to be able to capture as much light as possible.
ISO 80
ISO 100
ISO 200
ISO 400
ISO 800
ISO 1600
You can see that the sharpness decreases and noise increases as the ISO value is increased.
The SX30 IS comes with several features you may find useful.
In the Quick Shot mode, the camera continuously adjusts focus and exposure with the LCD turning into a control panel of sorts, allowing you to scroll through settings using the front dial and quickly change them.
Heavy fringing is noticeable, especially when shooting at maximum zoom, as you can see in this photograph which has been cropped at 100% size. It can also be noticed that the photographs have a softer focus near the edges than near the center.
Here are a few more shots.
ISO 80 with 1/500 second exposure in daylight
ISO 80 with 1/250 second exposure in daylight
ISO 80 with 1/500 second exposure in daylight
ISO 80 with 1/400 second exposure in daylight
As noted earlier, the camera supports recording 720p HD video at 30 fps with stereo sound. Movies are recorded in 1280x720 MOV format. Video quality is good with natural colors and crisp picture quality and sounds. Optical zoom as well as automatic focus is supported during video shooting.
The accompanying lens features lens shift image stabilization using a built-in gyro sensor, which detects camera shake and compensates by automatically shifting the lens to prevent blur and preserve image quality. This is especially useful while using zoom and while shooting videos or when shooting in poorly lit environment.
There are other notable features such as Face detection and Smile Shutter, which detects the subject's smile and clicks photos automatically at the right moment. Kids & Pets function recognizes faces of felines and canines and automatically shoots them at the right moment. There is also a Wink Function that detects if the subject blinked when the shot was taken and sounds a warning so that you can take one more shot.
The color is very faithfully captured, but the focusing was not very good when using autofocus. I often ended up with soft focus and had to resort to manual focus for better results. Manual focus is digital, so there is a limitation in that too when compared to mechanical focus on the lens. As far as ease-of-use is concerned, this camera is very easy to use for anyone and if you have used a PowerShot before, you will feel right at home with the familiar menus with a slight modification to accommodate the extra features.
The burst speed is 1.3 fps. Time between two manual shots at full resolution is a minimum of 2.8 seconds. Shutter speed support ranges from 15 seconds to 1/3200 second, while aperture ranges from f/2.7 to f/8.0 at wide angle and f/5.8 to f/8.0 at telephoto.
Verdict
Canon PowerShot SX30 IS is a worthy successor to the SX20. The user is given full manual control over every feature of the camera. As always, ease of use and ergonomics have been given proper attention. Image quality is good, but not up to the mark in terms of the price demanded for this camera. The 35X huge zoom has been handled well, thanks in many ways to the very efficient image stabilization mechanism that really prevents blurs even while the camera is handheld.
The Macro mode is equally impressive, allowing you to shoot subjects almost touching the camera lens. Features such as Low Light produce some good results even in low light, such as in twilight or dimly lit indoors. It supports shooting 720p HD videos with stereo sound and does a decent job at that with optical zoom and autofocus support.
The photographs were almost consistently found to lack sharp focus when using autofocus mode. Canon has strangely omitted automatic panorama mode in this camera. Digital manual focus could have been replaced with manual focus, as it gives better control. The camera is a bit heavy to handle, especially if you want to shoot for long hours.
The Canon PowerShot SX30 IS is available for an MRP of Rs.28,995 according to the Canon website, which is too expensive a proposition. The Nikon P500 we reviewed earlier which competes well with this model costs Rs.4,000 less and yet we thought that even that was expensive. But search well and you may get it for around Rs.5,000 less in the market. The pricing is similar to an entry level D-SLR camera. Even with its excellent feature set and performance, it is not a D-SLR, and the price makes it hard to buy.
It features the same 720p with stereo sound movie recording capability as its predecessor, but with some additional effects, thus far available only in the still image mode.
Bundle
- Canon PowerShot SX30 IS
- Wrist strap
- USB cable
- Li-Ion battery
- Battery charger with power cord
- A/V cable
- User manual
- Software disc
While the bundle is good, it would have been better to include an HDMI cable to connect to an HDTV. Also, Canon has not included any memory card with this camera. When you pay so much for a camera like this, you expect the company to include a memory card, without which, the camera is basically useless.
The Canon PowerShot SX30 IS looks like a no-nonsense super-zoom camera with a black matte exterior polycarbonate casing that makes it look like a D-SLR camera. The build quality is very rugged and it feels solid while holding. At 615 g with batteries, this is quite heavy and you may struggle if you have to hold it for long. Other than the heavy weight, the ergonomics have been taken well care of in the traditional Canon way, with proper attention being paid to button placement and grip.
The camera lens has specifications 4.3-150.5mm (24 mm to 840 mm equivalent) and comes with image stabilization to reduce the chances of blur when shooting with shaky hands. It comes with an astounding 35X zoom, which will bring you views you may not be able to see with the naked eye. The lens consists of 13 elements in 10 groups with one Hi-UD lens and one UD lens and one double-sided aspherical lens. A pop-up flash is conveniently placed at the top of the body, directly above the lens axis and can be lifted manually to be used. The placement ensures that there is very little chance of your hands accidentally covering it. The autofocus beam window is present on one side of the lens.
There are a lot of controls seen on the top of this camera. The largish chrome shutter button can be distinctively seen on the right, around which is the chrome zoom ring controlled by a lever. The power button is placed behind the shutter button and is nicely recessed in the body. In between these two buttons, there is a mode dial to choose from amongst the different shooting modes. There is Smart Auto, Program AE, Aperture priority, Shutter priority, full Manual, two custom settings (C1 and C2), three more commonly used Scene options (Portrait, Landscape, Sports) as well as Scene containing 15 different modes.
The purpose of bringing out the three scene modes outside on the dial for direct access is because these are what people would want to use the most. Also, it saves the hassle of going one level inside to search for them. There is a flash mode button present just besides the flash to help you choose what flash mode you want to use. A hot shoe option is not provided on this camera, so you cannot connect external peripherals such as flash.
The back portion features the large high resolution 2.7-inch color LCD with approximately 230,000 pixels, which can be adjusted to allow you to shoot in awkward angles. It produces sharp and vivid images and is bright enough to be able to use outdoors. An optical viewfinder consisting of a color TFT screen with 202,000 dots with dioptric adjustment dial is provided at the top. This goes a long way in conserving battery life, as you don't have to depend on the LCD at all times. Just to the left of the viewfinder is the Short cut/Direct Print button.
A dedicated video recording button is provided to the top-right of the LCD. Just to its right is a thumb-rest -another ergonomic feature. The usual four-way navigator control surrounded by a ring dial is situated just below this thumb-rest. This navigator can be used to select different functions, the dial is used to cycle through them and the Function Set button at the center is used to select the intended function.
Near the top right, there is a Zoom Framing Assist button to help you quickly zoom the lens out momentarily to reacquire the subject (useful for such high zooms as 35X), a playback button and a button to control AF Frame Selector/Erase. Just below the navigator, there is the Display button on the left bottom and Menu button on the right bottom.
At the bottom of the camera, a flap with a latch houses the battery compartment and the memory card slot. This camera supports SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards. There is also a threaded tripod mount socket too, and this is made of metal rather than plastic, thus ensuring durability.
The Lithium ion battery is a proprietary 7.4V Canon NB-7L with a typical rating of 1050mAh. The battery cannot be charged in the camera and has to be charged in a separately provided charger. This has been one of the most wanted features, as against the AA batteries used in its predecessor.
The camera has a standard mini-USB port to connect to the PC, while a mini-HDMI port lets you connect it to any HDTV, although you will require to purchase a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable separately.
Features and Performance
The Canon SX30 IS features 35x optical zoom, which works great even without a tripod, thanks to the optical image stabilization that really works.
The Canon SX30 IS features 35x optical zoom, which works great even without a tripod, thanks to the optical image stabilization that really works.
As you may see, the 35X zoom is quite amazing and even more amazing is the fact that the camera was handheld and not attached to a tripod.
As mentioned before, there are several scene modes to choose from, such as Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Smart Shutter, Super Vivid, Poster Effect, Color Accent, Fisheye Effect, Miniature Effect, Beach, Foliage, Snow, Fireworks, and Stitch Assist. The Fisheye Effect mode was fun to use.
5-Rupee coin shot from a distance of just 1 cm with an exposure of 1/30 sec at ISO 160 in fluorescent light
Exposure of 1/400 second at ISO 80 in daylight
Exposure of 1/400 second at ISO 80 in daylight
Exposure of 1/500 second at ISO 80 in daylight
The Macro shoot mode is incredible with the SX30 IS, allowing you to shoot subjects up close from as close as 1 cm from the camera lens, producing incredible close up shots. You can shoot subjects placed almost touching the camera lens, but the camera shadow falling on the subject is the only limiting factor in this case.
Low Light mode was used to snap this shot under sodium vapor street lamps around 1:04 am. The shutter speed was slowed down to 1/3 second at ISO 800. Even though the ISO value is high, the shot is not very noisy as the camera keeps the noise level down even in low light conditions. In this mode, the image size is lowered to 1600x1200 (2 MP) and the ISO level increased to be able to capture as much light as possible.
ISO sensitivity modes of 80, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 can be selected in Programmable mode in addition to the Auto ISO mode. That being said, the ISO range can stretch to 6400 when the Low Light mode is selected, but such high ISO values cannot be manually selected. In general, you get good results up to ISO 400, but noise increases noticeably with anything above that and so does the coloration, especially in dark shooting conditions. For practical purposes too, ISO 400 is the highest you should use unless you don't have a choice.
You can see that the sharpness decreases and noise increases as the ISO value is increased.
The SX30 IS comes with several features you may find useful.
In the Quick Shot mode, the camera continuously adjusts focus and exposure with the LCD turning into a control panel of sorts, allowing you to scroll through settings using the front dial and quickly change them.
Heavy fringing is noticeable, especially when shooting at maximum zoom, as you can see in this photograph which has been cropped at 100% size. It can also be noticed that the photographs have a softer focus near the edges than near the center.
Here are a few more shots.
ISO 80 with 1/500 second exposure in daylight
ISO 80 with 1/250 second exposure in daylight
ISO 80 with 1/500 second exposure in daylight
ISO 80 with 1/400 second exposure in daylight
As noted earlier, the camera supports recording 720p HD video at 30 fps with stereo sound. Movies are recorded in 1280x720 MOV format. Video quality is good with natural colors and crisp picture quality and sounds. Optical zoom as well as automatic focus is supported during video shooting.
The accompanying lens features lens shift image stabilization using a built-in gyro sensor, which detects camera shake and compensates by automatically shifting the lens to prevent blur and preserve image quality. This is especially useful while using zoom and while shooting videos or when shooting in poorly lit environment.
There are other notable features such as Face detection and Smile Shutter, which detects the subject's smile and clicks photos automatically at the right moment. Kids & Pets function recognizes faces of felines and canines and automatically shoots them at the right moment. There is also a Wink Function that detects if the subject blinked when the shot was taken and sounds a warning so that you can take one more shot.
The color is very faithfully captured, but the focusing was not very good when using autofocus. I often ended up with soft focus and had to resort to manual focus for better results. Manual focus is digital, so there is a limitation in that too when compared to mechanical focus on the lens. As far as ease-of-use is concerned, this camera is very easy to use for anyone and if you have used a PowerShot before, you will feel right at home with the familiar menus with a slight modification to accommodate the extra features.
The burst speed is 1.3 fps. Time between two manual shots at full resolution is a minimum of 2.8 seconds. Shutter speed support ranges from 15 seconds to 1/3200 second, while aperture ranges from f/2.7 to f/8.0 at wide angle and f/5.8 to f/8.0 at telephoto.
Verdict
Canon PowerShot SX30 IS is a worthy successor to the SX20. The user is given full manual control over every feature of the camera. As always, ease of use and ergonomics have been given proper attention. Image quality is good, but not up to the mark in terms of the price demanded for this camera. The 35X huge zoom has been handled well, thanks in many ways to the very efficient image stabilization mechanism that really prevents blurs even while the camera is handheld.
The Macro mode is equally impressive, allowing you to shoot subjects almost touching the camera lens. Features such as Low Light produce some good results even in low light, such as in twilight or dimly lit indoors. It supports shooting 720p HD videos with stereo sound and does a decent job at that with optical zoom and autofocus support.
The photographs were almost consistently found to lack sharp focus when using autofocus mode. Canon has strangely omitted automatic panorama mode in this camera. Digital manual focus could have been replaced with manual focus, as it gives better control. The camera is a bit heavy to handle, especially if you want to shoot for long hours.
The Canon PowerShot SX30 IS is available for an MRP of Rs.28,995 according to the Canon website, which is too expensive a proposition. The Nikon P500 we reviewed earlier which competes well with this model costs Rs.4,000 less and yet we thought that even that was expensive. But search well and you may get it for around Rs.5,000 less in the market. The pricing is similar to an entry level D-SLR camera. Even with its excellent feature set and performance, it is not a D-SLR, and the price makes it hard to buy.
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