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Announced in February, Canon's PowerShot SX200 IS offers a challenge to Panasonic, which has long been the leader in the 'traveller's zoom' digicam category. Equipped with a 12.1-megapixel CCD sensor and wide-angle (28mm equivalent) 12x optical zoom lens, the SX200 IS packs HD movie recording and the new TruCapture suite of automated functions into a slim, pocketable body. A 3.0-inch PureColor LCD II screen and mode dial with 13 settings combine to add extra appeal.

Although this camera is offered in several colours overseas, in Australia the only colour sold is brownish black.

The new model differs in several important ways from previous SX-series PowerShots. For starters, it's the first model in the SX series to use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Its body also features a complete re-design and is considerably smaller, lighter and more stylish looking than previous S-series models.

Canon has clearly set out to compete with Panasonic's TZ7 in size, shape and functionality. The size, shape and weight of both cameras are similar, with the front panels dominated by the large retracting lens and the backs by 3-inch LCD monitor. Monitor resolution is higher on the Panasonic model but the Canon SX200 IS has higher sensor resolution. The table below compares key features of both models.

Build and Ergonomics
The body of the SX200 IS combines plastic and metal components, with the front, rear and most of the side panels aluminium-clad. The front panel curves forward on the right hand side to provide a simple grip that positions the index finger on the shutter button/zoom lever combo. A discrete AF-Assist light is positioned between the lens and this control with a tiny microphone hole below it.

One really irritating feature of the new design is the auto pop-up flash, which raises its head whenever the camera is powered-up, regardless of the flash mode setting. It gets in the way of your left hand when you wish to shoot with both hands on the camera and there's nothing you can do to pull it back into the camera body aside from holding it down with a fingertip (the camera will still operate). Fortunately, it pops back down when power is switched off.

The front of the PowerShot SX200 IS, showing the lens, pop-up flash, AF-Assist light and microphone hole. (Source: Canon)

Most of the rear panel is covered by the LCD monitor, which sits slightly proud of the body. To its right lie the arrow pad and four buttons that access the direct printing, playback, menu and display functions. The arrow pad is a standard Canon design with an internal rocker wheel that accesses the focus, exposure compensation, flash and drive/delete sub-menus. A surrounding control dial is used for selecting settings in record mode and moving between displayed shots in play mode.

 
The rear panel of the SX200 IS. (Source: Canon)
A large part of the pop-up flash mechanism is located in the top panel and the top and front of the flash unit lie flush with the camera body when power is switched off. Also on the top panel are the on/off button, mode dial and combined shutter button/zoom lever.

The SX200 IS's mode dial is better positioned than the edge-mounted dial on Panasonic's TZ7 - and carries many more settings. However, it's terribly crowded (which means icons are very small) and we feel simple Auto, P, Av, Tv and M array plus Scene and Movie modes would have been infinitely preferable.

 
An angled view from the right hand side of the SX200 IS showing the top panel controls.

Inset into the right side panel is a compartment housing the mini HDMI and USB/AV port. It's covered with a shiny, metallic-looking plastic hatch that is held on with a rather flimsy-looking plastic tether. A tiny notch allows it to be lifted with a fingernail (but it's not easy). The strap eyelet lies below this hatch. It's made of metal and attached to the metal part of the camera body.

The tripod socket is located roughly 15 mm from the left side end of the base panel and closer to the front of the camera body. This position is far from ideal with most tripods because it leaves part of the camera body hanging out on the opposite side. The combined battery and card compartment lies at the opposite end of the base panel and has a slide-out/lift-up cover.

Despite packing the mode dial with shooting controls, Canon has obviously designed the SX200 IS for point-and-shoot photographers because the SX200 IS is one of the first cameras on the market with Canon's new TruCapture technology. This system combines optical image stabilisation with the latest DiG!C 4 image processor and 'Intelligent Auto' technology. Claimed as the most comprehensive available, the new Smart Auto setting on the SX200 IS uses Scene Detection Technology to set exposures based on the following criteria:
- Detecting people,
- Evaluating Distances,
- Evaluating Subject and camera movement information,
- Analysing Scene Brightness, and
- Analysing Colour.

Based on this information, the camera will determine focus, exposure, ISO sensitivity, flash and dynamic range adjustments and apply Intelligent Contrast Correction, should the need arise. Noise reduction processing is applied automatically if the camera determines it would be beneficial.

The face detection system can pick out up to nine human faces in a scene and select the main subject (a white box is superimposed on this face). Secondary faces are framed in grey. Blink detection is automatic in the auto setting but can be switched off in the P, A, S and M shooting modes. A Face Self-Timer makes it easier to take group shots or self portraits by delaying the exposure until the photographer has been detected in the frame.

Menus and Controls
Canon has redesigned its Function menu system to bring it more in line with its competitors. Key controls - including image size and quality, drive mode, flash exposure compensation, ISO, white balance, My Colours and metering patterns settings - are still accessed by pressing the FUNC/SET button in the centre of the arrow pad. Unfortunately, in an attempt to provide more information about each setting, the new display has been made more difficult to read in outdoor lighting.

The arrow pad retains the regular Canon settings, with exposure compensation, flash, self-timer and manual focus/macro allocated to the four directional buttons and a surrounding dial used for changing selected settings. This dial wheel moved quite freely on the review camera and was easily dislodged inadvertently. Using it for manual focusing proved quite tricky as a result (although, fortunately, the inherent wide depth-of-field of the sensor/lens combination meant most shots appeared sharp unless substantial changes of the dial's position occurred).

Pressing the Menu button calls up a standard suite of less-frequently-used functions, presented in a standard Canon style (which is easy to read). In the shooting section you find controls relating to focus (AF-Assist beam, MF-Point zoom. Safety MF), flash settings, the i-Contrast control, review times and data display, blink detection, display overlay, image stabilisation settings and date stamping. You can also allocate one control to the Direct Print button.

Sensor and Image Processing
There's nothing particularly special about the 12.1-megapixel CCD sensor in the SX200 IS. This 1/2.3-inch (6.16 x 4.62 mm) chip appears also to have been used in the Ixus 990 IS, Ixus 110 IS, Ixus 100 IS and PowerShot D10 models. All these cameras record only JPEG images and all but the D10 can record HD video clips at 1280x720 pixel resolution. The SX200 IS provides six image size settings plus two compression levels. Typical file sizes are shown in the table below.

Video is recorded in the MOV format using the efficient H.264 codec to compress image data. Audio Data is recorded monaurally using Linear PCM compression. Frame rates are constant at 30 frames/second for all resolution settings. The SX200 IS supports three 'quality' settings, which provide different recording times, as shown in the table below.

Unlike the Panasonic TZ7, which supports optical zooming during video capture, with the SX200 IS you can only use the digital zoom - and that degrades picture quality. It also limits zoom magnification to a paltry four times.  

Playback and Software
Pressing the Playback button on the rear panel displays the last image taken. Playback options are essentially the same as other Canon digicams. The camera supports single, 9-frame index and video playback, playback zoom of up to 10x, focus check playback (with magnification), slideshows with seven selectable transition effects and the standard range of Jump options.

In playback mode you can 'filter' images for play or deletion, erase or protect single shots or a selection of images, allocate images to categories, resize, rotate and trim images or apply red-eye corrections. Both i-Contrast and My Colours adjustments can be applied to images in playback mode. Images can be tagged for automatic printing via a dedicated Print menu and the camera is fully PictBridge compatible.

The software bundle, Canon Digital Camera solution Disk Ver. 46.0, includes ZoomBrowser EX 6.2 (Windows) and ImageBrowser 6.2 (Macintosh) for organising and editing images, movies and slideshows, or creating and printing digital photo albums. The PhotoStitch panorama stitching application is also provided. The SX200 IS also supports driverless transfer to Windows XP and Macintosh OS X, along with MTP for image and movie transfers to Windows Vista.

Performance
The autofocusing and auto exposure systems on the test camera performed to expectations under most shooting conditions. Focusing was fast and accurate, even in very low light levels, thanks to the powerful AF-assist lamp. Exposures were also spot-on in almost all situations, including strong backlighting. This was true for both the full-auto and Program AE shooting modes.

Pictures taken with the test camera were sharp and clean with natural-looking colours but elevated contrast in bright outdoor lighting. Switching on the iContrast control in the main menu brightened up dark areas in shots but failed to compensate adequately for bright highlights, which tended to blow out to white. Examples of shots taken without (top) and with (below) iContrast adjustment are reproduced below.




Sample images showing the effect of the iContrast adjustment.

Colour accuracy was good in our Imatest assessments, which revealed modest saturation levels, but slight shifts in hue and saturation for greenish blues. Skin hues were slightly off the mark but Imatest showed most other hues to be close to their target values.

Imatest also showed resolution to be close to expectations and revealed only a little edge softening at most focal lengths. Best performance was at the widest aperture settings and mid-range focal lengths. The graph below shows the results of Photo Review's Imatest tests.

Resolution began to fall off at ISO 200 and had declined sharply by ISO 800, where both available-light and flash shots began to look slightly soft. The graph below shows the results of our Imatest tests.

Low-light performance was above average for long exposures, particularly between ISO 100 and 400. From this point, image noise became increasingly visible, although at ISO 800 - noise would be unlikely to interfere with print quality at enlargements up to A4 size. At ISO 1600, we observed a small increase in overall noise levels but automatic noise-reduction processing produced noticeable softening in both long exposures and flash shots. The flash was capable of illuminating an average-sized room at ISO settings above 200 and produced evenly-balanced exposures up to ISO 1600.

Lateral chromatic aberration ranged from low to moderate in our Imatest tests, with the worst performance at the 5mm focal lengths (the widest angle of view) and the best at around 15mm, where chromatic aberration was effectively negligible at all aperture settings. The graph below shows the results of our tests.



We found some colour fringing with both the wide and telephoto focal lengths when shots were enlarged to 100%. Fringing was apparent and it was more pronounced towards the edges of shots than near the centre. Two examples are shown below.


A wide-angle shot showing the effect of coloured fringing..


This 100% enlargement is cropped from near the edge of the frame.

A telephoto shot showing the effect of coloured fringing.

This 100% enlargement is cropped from near the edge of the frame.

We found little evidence of flare or ghosting in backlit shots taken under typical shooting conditions unless the sun was shining directly into the lens. Digital zoom shots were slightly sharper and less artefact-affected than Photo Review commonly sees in extended-zoom digicams we review.

Close-up performance was impressive, thanks to the camera's 'zero macro' capabilities, which will focus on subjects that almost touch the front element of the lens. Depth-of-field is very limited in such shots and you must guard against allowing dusty or sticky items to come in contact with the front element of the lens.  Barrel distortion could be seen in shots taken with the 5mm (widest) focal length setting but was largely resolved by around 15mm.
Movie quality was adequate at the 1280 x 720 pixel setting but less impressive at lower resolutions, particularly in dim lighting where noise was evident. Audio quality was on a par with other VGA-capable digicams that record monaural soundtracks. 

The auto white balance failed to eliminate the orange cast of incandescent lighting and produced a slight residual green cast under fluorescent lights. With both types of lighting, the pre-sets delivered close-to-neutral colours, and manual measurement rendered white areas as white.

Overall response times were about average for the latest digicams. The test camera took just over two seconds to power up ready for shooting. Shot-to-shot times averaged two seconds without flash and approximately 3.5 seconds with. On average, it took 3.3 seconds to process each image file.

We measured an average capture lag of 0.65 seconds, which changed to 0.15 seconds when shots were pre-focused. The continuous shooting mode recorded 10 shots in 8.7 seconds. Image processing appears to be on-the-fly as it took only 3.8 seconds to process each burst of 10 shots.

Buy this camera if:
- You're looking for a well-built, long-zoom digicam for travelling.
- You'd enjoy plenty of user-adjustable controls and image stabilisation.
- You want to shoot widescreen high-definition video clips.
- You're happy to use the monitor for shot composition.
 - You want manual flash adjustment plus a good range of flash settings.

Don't buy this camera if:
- You want to shoot raw files (the SX200 IS is restricted to JPEG capture).
- You want a very simple-to-operate camera.

IMATEST GRAPHS

SAMPLE IMAGES

Auto white balance with incandescent lighting.

Auto white balance with fluorescent lighting.

Close-up. 5mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/60 second at f/3.5.


Super-macro:

 
5mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/318 second at f/5.0.

60mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/159 second at f/5.3.

 
Digital zoom. 60mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/101 second at f/5.3.

Barrel distortion at 5mm: ISO 100, 1/91 second at f/4.

Flare: 5mm focal length, ISO 80, 1/402 second at f/5.6.

Flare: 5mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/250 second at f/7.1.

6.1mm focal length, ISO 100, 1/318 second at f/5.

30.6mm focal length ISO 100, 1/501 second exposure at f/4. (Note blown highlights in overcast conditions.)

60mm focal length ISO 80, 1/636 second exposure at f/5.3. (Note blown highlights in bright conditions.)

Long exposure at ISO 100: 15 seconds at f/4; 9.6mm focal length.

Long exposure at ISO 1600: 2 seconds at f/5; 9.6mm focal length.

Flash exposure; 38.3mm focal length. ISO 100, 1/60 second at f/4.5.

Flash exposure; 38.3mm focal length. ISO 1600, 1/60 second at f/4.5.

Image sensor: 6.16 x 4.62 mm CCD with 12.7 million photosites (12.1 megapixels effective)
Lens:  5.0-60.0mm f/3.4-5.3 zoom lens (28-336mm in 35mm format)
Zoom ratio: 12x optical, up to 4x digital
Image formats: Stills – JPEG (Exif 2.2); Movies - MOV (Image Data: H.264; Audio Data: Linear PCM monaural)
Image Sizes: Stills - 4000 x 3000, 3264 x 2448, 2592 x 1944, 1600 x 1200, 640 x 480, 4000 x 2248 (widescreen); Movies – 1280x720, 640x480 and 320x240, all at 30 fps
Shutter speed range: 15 to 1/3200 seconds
Self-timer: Approx. 10 sec or 2 sec delay, custom, Face Self-Timer
Image Stabilisation: Optical (Lens Shift Type), approx 4 steps
Exposure Compensation: +/- 2EV in 1/3EV increments
Focus system/range: TTL Autofocus with Face Detect and Centre AF plus Manual Focus; range: 50 cm to infinity; macro and manual to 2 cm; Super Macro: 0-2 cm
Exposure metering/control: Evaluative, Centre-weighted average, Spot metering; Program AE, AE Lock, Intelligent Contrast Correction; Program Shift, Safety Shift
Shooting modes: Intelligent Auto (with Scene Detection), P, Av, Tv, M, Easy, Portrait, Landscape, Night Snapshot, Kids & Pets, Indoor, Sunset, Night Scene, Fireworks, Beach, Aquarium, Foliage, Snow, ISO 3200, Colour Accent, Colour Swap, Stitch Assist, Movie (Standard, Colour Accent, Colour Swap)
ISO range: Auto, ISO 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600
White balance: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Custom
Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Auto, on, Slow Synchro, off, FE Lock, Auto Red-Eye Correction, Red Eye Reduction, Slow Synchro, Safety FE, Auto pop-up flash, Flash output compensation, Manual flash output; range: 0.5 to 3.0 metres
Sequence shooting:  Approx 0.8 shots/sec; AF Approx 0.5 shots/sec; LV Approx 0.6 shots/sec
Storage Media: SD/SDHC memory cards
Viewfinder: n.a.
LCD monitor: 3.0-inch Quick Bright LCD (approx 230,000 dots) 
Power supply:  NB-5L rechargeable lithium-ion battery (CIPA rated for approx. 280 shots/charge)
Dimensions (wxhxd): 103.0 x 60.5 x 37.6 mm
Weight: Approx. 220 grams (without battery and card)