Canon PowerShot SX510 HS Pro Reviews

The only thing really letting the SX510 HS down is the quality of the lens system. Design wise, we'd like to see the ugly zoom switch replaced with something a little more sleek, but that's a minor digression and we certainly won't mark the camera down for it. If you're looking for a superzoom camera that's quite small and has good noise performance, then you'll like the SX510 HS. Just take a look at the sample images and look for chroma. If you can live with it, then you'll like the Canon Powershot SX510 HS.

The PowerShot SX510 HS is a solid upgrade to what was already a very popular model. The new CMOS sensor brings it into line with the other models in the SX range (the older SX500 IS is now the only model apart from the budget A series to use a CCD sensor) and brings improvements in image quality and a raft of other benefits including 1080p24 HD video and faster continuous shooting. Battery life has also been improved with the introduction of an Eco mode and there's built-in Wifi with the option to tag images with GPS data from your smartphone. All of these enhancements pretty much guarantee its continued well deserved popularity. In amongst all the good news, there are a couple of minor gripes. The chromatic aberration at either end of the zoom range takes the edge off its otherwise excellent image quality, especially as it's something that could be corrected digitally by a new image processor. And while it's nice to see an improvement in the previously mediocre continuous shooting performance, it's still hardly fast in that regard. These minor issues aside though, the PowerShot SX510 HS remains a great little camera with a great big zoom and one I have no hesitation in highly recommending.

The Wi-Fi-equipped Canon PowerShot SX510 HS is a perfectly capable long zoom camera with an affordable sticker price. Images are generally sharp, but show some noise.

Like most megazoom cameras, the Canon PowerShot SX510 HS is best suited for outdoor daylight use. Canon's switch to a BSI CMOS sensor, however, makes it a bit more useful in low-light conditions than last year's model. That, along with its beefed-up feature set, including built-in Wi-Fi, makes it a solid buy.

The Canon PowerShot SX510 HS packs all the features you'd typically expect to see in a bridge camera, but is much smaller than many of its competitors, even though it has built-in Wi-Fi. The reduction in the size of the camera means that the battery is small and therefore doesn't have a particularly long life. There are full manual controls but no RAW shooting, but the lens has a minimum focusing distance of 0cm, so you can get as close as you want to your subject for macro photography.