Canon PowerShot SX110 IS 9.0 MP Digital Camera - Black

I am giving this camera a "Good" rating and 4/5 for its overall performance. I went away for the Labor Day weekend and it took great pictures of things up close, far away, indoors, or outdoors. The zoom is very good and the IS is a big help when trying to keep the photos with literally no movement in them.

If I had to pick out something wrong about this camera, then it would be the lack of a rechargeable battery pack. Of course, you can buy rechargeable AA batteries to help with this, but it is just something about having an actual camera as opposed to 2-3 batteries to keep up with. Although, I will say that I pair of AA batteries lasted through my trip and before the trip as well when I was getting used to the settings. Before anyone wonders, the batteries lasted with me taking superfine pictures on high settings. I also would like to have the size a little smaller; it fits into coats no problem, but jeans is definitely a no go when storing this camera.

I would recommend this camera to anyone who is looking for a better performing camera than the average point-and-shoot $99 type.

I did my homework before I bought this camera. My goal was to find a good digital compact "happy snap" camera for my personal use. I read the various reviews and user opinions and narrowed my search to a few cameras. I didn't want the dainty small digital cameras because I injured my left hand and I didn't have the normal dexterity to comfortably grip anything that small. The ideal camera for me was something about the size of my old point and shoot film camera. I checked out the supposedly improved Canon SX120 at my camera store and liked the feel of the camera in my hand. But, the reviews and user opinions of the updated SX120 weren't as impressive as the reviews for last year's SX110 model. I finally picked up a refurbished Canon SX110 on eBay at a very reasonable price.

As a die hard old school SLR film camera that moved on to a digital SLRs, I like the SX110's option of adjusting to the manual mode where I can adjust the shutter speed, f/stops, ISO sensitivity, megapixel size and other features. I also flip up the flash when I want it.

I don't need the 12 or 14 megapixel cameras that are the rage today. Unless you are making 16 x 12 inch prints or plan to crop a face out of a crowd shot, that much megapixel capability is overkill. Don't forget you may want to download these images over the internet to a drug store photo department or photo service. Your download times will be longer with larger megapixel images but without significant quality improvement, especially if you're only ordering 3 x 5 inch or 4 x 6 inch prints.

My brother gave me sage advice on digital cameras. As a longtime owner of a digital camera, he recommended finding a camera with long optical zoom, not one that is 3x and digitally enhances to longer focal lengths. He said the picture quality wasn't always there when the images are digitally enhanced. The SX110 has a 10x optical zoom lens that will focus in close to about 10 inches. I can see the individual hairs on my dog in the images. The pictures are so sharp they feel like they want to jump out of the computer monitor.

If you want a something small, the Canon SX110 not a camera that will easily slip into your pocket. I don't mind because I never liked the small miniature gears that control the zoom lens in the small digital cameras. With my wife's small digital camera, I always had problems zooming in and out to find the perfect lens focal length. My larger SX110 has bigger optical zoom lens gears inside and allows me better control of the image I want.

I love my Canon SX110. I just hope it lasts as long as my very old film cameras.

The camera has an excellent performance in a variety of lighting conditions. It has a lot of different automatic modes. Image stabilizer does a good job, distortion pretty low for a camera this size, noise reduction not heavy handed. Battery performance is good - a 2000+ mAh battery recommended because a camera with big LCD, decent flash, zooming etc is going to consume power. But with 2 pairs of batteries you must be good to go. Plus there is always the possibility of picking up AA batteries from anywhere in the world. Big, bright LCD display allows choosing pictures to keep without downloading it to the computer. I've found the only problematic feature of this camera. This is time required for a recharge flash. The camera is not able to shot frequently with a flash fired. So, you must be patient if you use this camera indoors or with low light. It is very good camera for beginners.

What I don't like about this camera (Canon SX110) is its power supply. Besides the battery covering lid is hard to use, the camera sucks power like a suburban sucks gas, faster than I realized. For this reason, I bought rechargeable batteries (AA size) and thought that I could save some money in powering up the camera. Unfortunately, it does no good. The rechargeable AA batteries nowadays are mostly of 1.2 volt d.c. Even fully charged, the 1.2 volt rechargeable batteries become dead after a few shots. I don't know if they produce 1.5 volt rechargeable batteries anymore. (I couldn't find any now). The two problems seems to be depending of each other. That forces me to buy regular 1.5 volt AA batteries. This in turn creates a third problem, which is the "environmentally unfriendliness". Now I have to think about how to manage the used batteries. What is good about this camera is its high resolution and big display screen (3"). The IS feature is good but does not mean much to me. To people with shaky hands, the IS feature will be good to them. Another praise about this camera is its macro feature in close up shots. You can get a high resolution macro shot at object distant of 0.5" away from the lens. I would like to see two enineering disign improvements in Canon SX110: (1) Redesign its power supply so that Canon rechargeable batteries can be used, (2) Redesign its body material from plastic to stainless steel (full enclosure stainless steel) like that of Canon SD550 Power Shots. Hope these help.

We have a digital SLR that we love, but we wanted to get something that was smaller and easier to bring with us when we went places. This camera not only fills that role, but has so many features that it has just about replaced our SLR altogether. Picture quality is excellent and the 10x optical zoom allows getting up close without any loss of picture quality. When you add the digital zoom to that it gets up to 40x zoom which brings just about anything up close. It has a fast reset time too, so you don't miss all of the "action" waiting for the last picture to be saved. With all the features packed into this point-n-shoot, it is no wonder it was selected as a Consumer Reports best buy (9/09 issue). My only complaints are that it lacks an optical viewfinder (but that's pretty rare in this category/price range) and seems to eat (2) AA batteries rather quickly. If you get one, I suggest you also get some NiMH rechargables (I found a Cannon 4AA NiMH & charger for $21), and a larger SD card (it only comes with a 512M card). It's still an outstanding deal! If I had to do it over again, the Cannon PowerShot SX110 would still be my choice by far.