Canon PowerShot SX150 IS Pro Reviews

Although I liked using the Canon PowerShot SX150 IS and the results I achieved with it in good light, I can't personally get very enthusiastic about it, given its quirks and slow response, even at its current street price of roughly $179. That said, it does pack a pretty significant set of features at low cost, and if you're looking for a long-zoom camera with full PASM exposure control, it's one of very few offering that capability in this price range. If your budget will stretch to cover $40-50 more, you'll find a number of models with better capabilities, but the Canon SX150 IS is a good deal at its roughly $179 street price, and a screaming bargain at the low price of $150 we've seen here and there online. Bottom line, it comes down to your budget: If you can afford it, models in the ~$220 price range will give you more capability, but in its price range the Canon SX150 IS has few peers.

The Canon PowerShot SX150 IS is a neat little camera with some interesting tricks up its sleeve. Its weighty, contoured body makes it nicer to hold than some of its smaller peers, and in favourable conditions at low ISO settings, image quality is very good. A versatile lens and effective image stabilization system make this a great 'go-everywhere' camera as long as you can live with the relatively slow performance and poor battery life.

The Canon PowerShot SX150 IS is a bit of a disappearing breed: a compact megazoom that uses AA-size batteries and has semimanual and manual shooting modes. It's fairly affordable, too, and does get you very good photo quality. Its shooting performance is miserable, though, so I'd only recommend it for patient photographers shooting landscapes and similarly stationary subjects.

A low-cost camera with a generous 12x zoom, but in most other respects – including image and video quality – it's nothing special and battery performance is a worry

There's a lot to like about the Canon PowerShot SX150IS. The compact offers a wide range of controls over image capture, including full manual control for those wanting to more advanced shooting alterations. The higher-end PowerShot control layout means that altering these controls is a breeze, and the general shooting experience is pleasing on the whole. There are, however, misgivings - the design is rather bulky and, although AA batteries are the preferred power option for some photographers, the decision to employ the on the SX150IS is to the camera's detriment. Add to that the slight issues with the model's lens, and things are starting to look negative. However, on the whole, the SX150IS has more than enough about it to recommend as a sensible purchase.

The Canon PowerShot SX150 IS is very much a minor upgrade of last year's SX130 model, principally offering 2 additional megapixels, an improved image stabilisation system, a range of creative filters and a handy one-touch movie record button. Otherwise it's virtually identical to its capable predecessor, with an attractive price-tag but also a rather big and chunky design that's looking more and more out-dated as time goes on. Areas of concern that still haven't been addressed from the SX130 are the noisy images if you stray above ISO 400, perhaps forgivable given the increase from 12 to 14 megapixels, the tendency to eat up alkaline AAs in a couple of afternoons of shooting (make sure to use high-powered NiMHs), the slow lens in terms of maximum apertures, and the low-resolution 230k dot 3 inch LCD which seems under-specified in 2011.

The Canon Powershot SX150 IS has its share of niggles. But it is nevertheless a good buy. Definitely, not an upgrade over its predecessor but worth a look for first-time buyers. Casual users who wish to have a truckload of manual controls will enjoy the camera.

The Canon PowerShot SX150 IS is a hard camera not to like. You can talk about features and compare specifications but what those things rarely convey is a sense of personality, which the SX150 IS has in bundles. Compared with most modern compacts it's big and heavy, but it's a comfortable and enjoyable camera to use whether in point-and shoot auto modes or for fully manual operation. On the down side, increasing the resolution to 14.1 Megapixels has done nothing for the image quality and noise characteristics, and continuous shooting speeds remain a bit of an embarrassment. The SX150 remains a solid performer, it won't turn many heads, but for a capable compact with better than average zoom reach at a budget price it's hard to beat.

When picking up the SX150, the first thing that strikes you is how heavy and bulky it is for a compact camera. There are many cameras on the market that offer a similar amount of zoom in much smaller lighter bodies, but these cameras are likely to be more expensive or lack features such as manual controls. For a very reasonable price you get a good zoom range and decent image quality making it an ideal camera for travelling.

Canon's PowerShot SX150 IS is capable of capturing some very sharp images across its 12x zoom range, but is hindered by high noise levels at almost every ISO setting.

Although the new features the Canon PowerShot SX150 IS offers aren't substantial enough to tempt the majority of SX130 users to upgrade, those photographers looking for DSLR-like controls in a compact body that costs under £200 should seriously consider this PowerShot. Its size, versatile zoom and reliance on AA battery power makes the Canon PowerShot SX150 IS a serious contender as one of the best travel compact cameras available today.