Canon Powershot SX200 IS

After seven years of faithful service, my trusty Canon IXUS V digital camera has finally been decommissioned. I originally won it on a radio phone-in competition back in 2002 and even though there’s actually nothing wrong with it functionally, I just found myself wanting more zoom on a number of occasions recently and so finally got around to upgrading. For it’s time, the IXUS V was a truly terrific camera – ultra compact, seriously rugged, 2 Megapixels, 2X optical zoom, video capture and superb picture quality.

On foot of the desire for more (optical) zoom, and with a preference to stick with Canon, I set about finding a replacement. Since High Definition movies and television are also the flavour of the month, I decided to go for something with HD movie capture too. Enter the Canon Powershot SX200 IS, with 12 Megapixels, 12X optical zoom, a 28mm wide angle lens, full 1080p HD video capture and a massive 3″ LCD screen, there isn’t much more I could have asked for.

If I were to have anything slightly negative to say about this camera it would be just that the pop-up flash takes a little getting used to. It would be great if it only emerged when actually needed. I also miss having a manual viewfinder. On the old model, I used to switch off the LCD display when running low on battery and use the manual viewfinder instead, yielding another 30 minutes of battery life instead. That said, I won’t be changing back any time soon and am looking forward to another 7 years of happy snapping.