Canon PowerShot SX230 HS Pro Reviews

Despite some tiny niggles like the annoying pop-up flash, Canon has done an excellent job in upgrading this 14x travel zoom camera with Full HD video, a new low-light sensor and extra shooting settings and with Amazon selling it under £240, it's a must.

Impeccable image quality and quick, comprehensive controls more than make up for the relatively modest zoom range.

The new Canon PowerShot SX230 HS is a more sensibly priced and better-specced challenger to the market-leading Panasonic TZ-series, going head to head with the TZ20, which it actually betters on paper in quite a few aspects. Judged on its own merits, the Canon PowerShot SX230 HS is an easy recommendation as a travel zoom camera that does it all with the minimum of fuss.

Fun as GPS recording was, I was greatly relieved to know I didn't have to worry about image quality. I took shots in a variety of situation and the Canon SX230 always got the job done, often doing it much better than I'd hoped. And that earns it a Dave's Pick.

On the plus side, the SX230 HS offers an excellent range of shooting modes, great video features, a lot of fun unique stuff like Creative filters and smart shutter features, and the best quality images of any pocket super-zoom in its class. If you can live with the fact that it lacks the super wide angle view and fast shooting modes of its competitors, then it has a lot going for it.

Canon consistently makes some of the best-performing point-and-shoot cameras in our tests, and the PowerShot SX230 HS is no exception. Its image quality puts it among the top tier of 2011's pocket-megazoom class, and the camera can be as easy to use or as manual-oriented as you want it to be. Its GPS functionality is fairly bare-bones, but even without that, it's a standout camera for travelers and vacationers due to its in-camera settings and its long-zoom lens. It isn't a radical departure from the PowerShot SX210 IS, but that's a good thing: The few enhancements that it does have (high-speed shooting, 1080p video, and geotagging) are solid additions.

The Canon Powershot SX220 HS is a very good camera, the SX230 HS adds GPS and some additional body colours, however compared to other pocket zoom cameras with GPS, the SX230 has slower continuous shooting, and there is less difference between the SX220 and SX230. That's not to say that the SX230 isn't a good choice if you want GPS, it's just that if you were choosing between the SX220 and SX230 and didn't need GPS, then there would be no real reason to buy the SX230, whereas the other cameras with the addition of GPS make a much more compelling case for buying the more expensive model. If you are looking for the most compact pocket zooms with GPS, then the SX230 HS is a good choice, and the use of a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor means noise is very low.

The SX30 is an easy-to-use and well-specified travel compact that delivers consistently excellent image quality. While we would have liked the ability to record lossless Raw files and a proper finger grip, there is little else to fault with the camera. Ultimately, we have no hesitation in recommending the Canon SX230 HS – or indeed its non-GPS twin, the SX220 HS – as thoroughbred travel compacts.

Excellent image quality with a good level of sharpness and detail overall, as well as excellent stereo sound quality when shooting Full HD movies. The array of exposure modes on offer is excellent, as is the focal length range offered by the 14x optical zoom lens. Battery life is pretty poor and the constant battle with the pop-up flash can get a little tiresome. Results from the GPS system are patchy, with the camera struggling to find a lock when not out in an open space.

Canon consistently makes some of the best-performing point-and-shoot cameras in our tests, and the PowerShot SX230 HS is no exception. Its image quality puts it among the top tier of 2011's pocket-megazoom class, and the camera can be as easy to use or as manual-oriented as you want it to be. Its GPS functionality is fairly bare-bones, but even without that, it's a standout camera for travelers and vacationers due to its in-camera settings and its long-zoom lens. It isn't a radical departure from the PowerShot SX210 IS, but that's a good thing: The few enhancements that it does have (high-speed shooting, 1080p video, and geotagging) are solid additions.

The SX230 HS is most notably a GPS-enabled device, however, this camera has a lot of other things going for it. Although location tagging is an increasingly fun area of photography, the real power of the SX230 HS is in the images it can create. The image quality of the SX230 is very good, and by far one of its best selling points. Don't get me wrong, GPS is cool, but not enough to sway some buyers. The images are rich and natural. The SX230 does extraordinarily well in low-light scenarios and the smaller resolution size has proven to create a better image with less aberrations and better image quality overall than the SX210 IS.

If you want a compact megazoom with manual controls, GPS, and excellent photo quality, the Canon PowerShot SX230 HS is a good place to start.