Product ReviewsCanon PowerShot SX230 HS 12.1MP Digital Camera - Black

An oldie but goodie.

Older digital cameras like this one still provide excellent images and are very economical. I can not detect any significant difference between this cameras pictures and the of my much newer pricier model. I presume there would be a difference in a poster size print but not in standard 4 x 6 or 5 x 7 print.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: mooeymoose

Good features, not worth the investment.

It struggles to focus. The images are not very clear. It has GPS that constantly drains the batteries. It is a defective product.

A quality performer and well-built camera in the point-&-shoot .jpg market

It is so hard choosing anything electronic because of the huge proliferation of products and fragmentation of features across models (manufacturers, are you listening?). I had made myself a wish-list (originally was a "Must Have" list), but I had to give it up! This camera was, therefore, a compromise, but overall I am very satisfied with it at the price point. The pictures look fantastic uncropped, and the camera focuses well the majority of the time (about 98%), but when I use the zoom slider, when viewing on my computer in Windows Photo Viewer, they pixelate very rapidly, which was a big surprise considering it is 14 mpx. I believe the culprit is that the only format is .jpg, whereas I used to have a camera (not a point & shoot) that also did .tif, so I am spoiled. This is the ONE thing that I wish I had not neglected to pay attention to!! I was formerly semi-pro, so this is important and a bad mistake for me to make, but it's not a pro camera after all, is it? :) The positives: Takes much better-than-expected video. The sound is also quite good, & the dual mics do an excellent job of picking up even normal conversation. Has the expected settings (portrait, landscape, etc), & Canon is one of the only brands that offers Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority which I have had several occasions to wish for on my previous point & shoot. It has smile detection, face detection, and blink detection features. The pictures and video are both very sharp the way they come out of the camera (I'm not saying that well, I apologize.) The 390 zoom is a shot-saver and one of the main reasons I chose the camera. I read a pro review that said the newer model with the 500 zoom was "not as easy to recommend" as the SX230, and I decided 500 on a point and shoot was probably pushing it, technologically. I might be wrong, but I do find that the 390 is enough to bring a reasonably distant subject well into the frame, in the majority of situations. Do use a tripod to video with the lens zoomed out to 390 because it will not be easy to avoid jerkiness in the result if you handhold, but for still pictures I have no trouble. Some people may think this camera is too large and heavy, but I don't mind the size or weight. I like a metal body and something to hold on to. The camera feels well-built when I handle it. (I'm an old Nikon film camera person.) One other complaint I have is that some of the view screen real estate is not used for either view-finding nor playback or picture review. However, I think the screen size was designed to accommodate the HD video. Nevertheless, the screen size spec set up an expectation in me that resulted in disappointment. I am mostly over it now. :) I also wish this model had the anti-glare coating that I saw on a few models I considered because in bright daylight I sometimes cannot see to compose my shot, same as camera this replaces. Those models were lacking some other important items in the feature set and cost more at the same time, so overall this Canon was the best choice for me. I had to adjust my normal method of holding this particular camera due to the placement of the flash on the top left. I've also pretty much gotten over this one, too. :) All in all, this camera is leaps and bounds better than the Olympus Stylus 710 All Weather camera it is replacing because of the zoom and because it focuses much more reliably, and because the video length is not pre-limited. Get a second battery if you do much video!Read full review...

This is a GREAT cam@ REALLY Worth for the money you spend & ll never worrry

Picture quality, features are excellent. Great quality photos and HD videos, amazing zooming..

The bad: Difficult to hold, manufacturer has not think about handling, and the batter life is poor. If you switch on GPS you may unable to take even 100 photos. May be GPS unit and 1000's of features running in background and drain battery.

Hint: Buy a back up battery and a car charger to manage some what.

*******

Cheers. harindra@gmail.comRead full review...

GREAT Professional style Camera @ easy to use affordable Price! Great Value

I'm still learning all the things this Awesome Camera can do!! But in the mean time I LOVE that it has an Auto and an Easy button! It's Brainless shooting! lol You don't have to think about Anything using those settings ... the camera does it for you! Great Size, weight, fits in a pocket, Awesome 14x Zoom, easy to access buttons. Does eat battery life when you leave the GPS on all the time though ... just be aware if you are using that feature! Have Extra charged up batteries handy! :) I bought it for the ZOOM feature and the GPS as we travel alot and I also wanted something that turns on quickly as I travel on a motorcycle and don't have alot of time to wait as I'm zipping down the road.Read full review...

Virtually new Canon sx230

I bought this because I already had one and wanted another. Thus particular one as received was virtually new, showing no signs if is use, and with charger, and extra battery. The Canon SX series is a really good set of superzoom cameras, but the 230 is especially a good buy because it has a technically better sensor than earlier sx series cameras, but is usually cheaper to buy than later models in the sx series which are not technically much better. Thanks for a great buy.Read full review...

A GREAT camera for basic and detailed picture-taking as well as High Definition Videos!

This camera is very nice! It is very detailed in how you want to take a picture. Or, you can just put it on "Auto" and let it figure things out based on what you are taking a picture of. The top quality of the pictures and video you can take with this camera is 1080P High Definition. The Blue color is very nice, too! The battery lasts quite a while, considering what it's powering. I would recommend this camera, especially if you can get it for under $50.00 and with accessories (cables, carrying case, instruction manual, CD with photo program, charger, straps, screen protector, etc.)Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: gardengleek

Canon did it again! Great bang for the buck!

Let me start by saying this camera takes FANTASTIC pictures for a point and shoot camera. The HD video is also quite exceptional. I had to boot a star off picture quality because mine has a dead pixel, but it's so small, it's not worth complaining over. Also, I knocked a star of the features, because while the features are fantastic, they're a bit confusing and take a lot of getting used to, which leads to my next -1 star for size/weight. It is small, but not the smallest - which is both good and bad in its own way. The screen is big, but that leaves less room for buttons, which makes accessing all the features somewhat of a pain.

However, in spite of those small nuances, this camera deserves a 5/5 for its features, its clear optical zoom, its high quality video, and price range.Read full review...

Great replacement point-and-shoot GPS camera

This purchase is a replacement for my former Powershot SX 230 that fell 10 feet or so from a ledge and broke. The neat thing about the SX 230 is its internal GPS system. Where GPS acquisition is allowed, you have a record of exactly where you have been. Put the coordinates into Google Earth or Maps, and you can verify where the photo was taken.

I bought my former SX230 11 years ago and have LOVED IT, taking probably 200,000 to 300,000 photos in all of our travels since we retired in 2011. I do love digital photography. Bad picture, just delete it.

The SX 230 I bought had never been set up. I would say it was brand new. Not a scratch on it anywhere. New state-of-the-art Point and Shoot GPS cameras are unbelievably expensive. I was thrilled to get a replacement so cheaply. Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: jlram31

I recommend this camera for anyone looking for a top tier point and shoot

this is really an excellent camera. It really shines in the image quality department and delivers better high iso pictures than any other point and shoot camera. there are some purple tints on the edges of some objects within the camera's focus but you have to look closely. My main concern is that it sometimes uses flash when it doesn't need to and the flash pops up EVERY single time you turn on the camera (which is where I like to hold the camera on my left hand), unless you hold the thing down (whereby the flash is disabled unless you turn off and then on the camera again). But overall, it was excellent value for the money and really importantly it can shoot 1080p video at 24 frames a second for that nice standard "movie" feel.Read full review...

Canon Powershot Sx230 Digital Camera

Splendid buy. Used but in perfect shape. Complete with battery and charger. So far operates satisfactory. Too early until fully acquainted to submit a full opinion. From the user manual downloaded elsewhere, I feel the capability of this device is very extensive and very useful at a very good price. I am very satisfied.Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: florideals99