New Canon Cameras: PowerShot SX210 IS

Canon PowerShot SX210 IS MARCHANDS €     Amazon.co.uk  139.99  Misco  148.99  Pixmania  179.00  Comet  179.95  Pc world  189.99  Currys  189.99  Compare prices

A year after its SX200 IS, Canon has announced an updated version of its high-end super-zoom compact camera, logically enough called the PowerShot SX210 IS.  The incremental change in the name hides something of a revolution though, as the new model has very little in common with its predecessor.

Has Panasonic stuck too closely to its winning formula?  That's the question that we're beginning to ask now we've seen more manufacturers' super-zoom offerings for 2010.  The Panasonic TZ10 is actually very similar to the TZ7, with new features including a GPS receiver, updated image treatment and manual exposure settings.

It's up against Samsung and its powerful new WB650, which, for the same price includes a GPS receiver, an AMOLED display and, above all, a 15x zoom.  The difference is less marked in tele photo (360 mm vs 300 mm), but in this part of the market, the zoom is the magic number that consumers want to hear.

Canon, Panasonic's traditional rival, has also decided to try and stand out a little.  For starters, the SX210 IS will go on sale for £349, less than the TZ10.  It also has a more powerful zoom at 28-392 mm, or 14x, with, incidentally, the longest focal length in this part of the market.

Like its competitors, the SX210 IS can film in 720p HD, with stereo sound and zoom both available (something that was missing on the SX200 IS).  But the big news is that Canon has radically altered the style and handling of its camera.

The SX210 IS gets the same zoom control as the Ixus 130.  The mode selection dial is now flat and on the back of the camera, just about the now classic scroll wheel.  Unsurprisingly, the manual and semi-automatic modes still feature.

This layout, which is not unlike the S80 or some Olympus cameras, should make it easier to change the exposure mode more easily, as long as the controls themselves are a little bit less stiff then they were on the prototypes that we've tried out.

The pop-up flash opens as soon as you switch it on, but--hurrah!--you can now also put it away again if it's not needed.  It's much more stylishly integrated with the rest of the camera, and the hinge is hidden by a change in materials.  That design choice speaks to a tendency all over the SX 210 IS: while different parts of the SX200 IS seemed to be stuck on all over, its successor has a much more uniform look.  The controls actually seem to be part of the camera itself, and although the bar along the top of the screen is annoying, at least it looks a little bit less like a spare part.  Despite its 3'' widescreen display, it still only has 230 000 pixels.

Canon seems to resist the siren's call of GPS.  There's no geotagging on the SX210 IS, and although Canon was interested to hear what we thought about this feature, its engineers don't seem in a hurry to add it.

All that remains, of course, is to see what these new features will bring to the table, but on paper at least, the SX210 IS seems more than capable of facing up to the competition.  The distinction could rest on the image quality of the WB600, the lightweight version of the WB650, which will certainly be its closest competitor, as the TZ8 is held back with a zoom of 'just' 12x.

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