Canon PowerShot SX30 IS review

Now that some compact-shaped cameras come with up to 18x zoom lenses; bulkier, pricier ultra-zoom cameras need to do something special to justify their existence. A 35x zoom lens ought to do it, though – with it the PowerShot SX30 IS comfortably outstretches the 30x zoom on the previous record holder, the Fujifilm HS10.

The SX30 IS is quite a departure from its predecessor, the 20x zoom SX20 IS. Bulbous curves are gone in favour of a more angular design that looks smarter but isn’t as comfortable to hold. The switch from four AA batteries to a Li-ion rechargeable cell is welcome, reducing the weight and making recharging less fiddly. It also removes the cost of buying batteries separately, but the new model is around £50 more expensive than the old one.

The articulated screen is bigger at 2.7in across, although that’s still smaller than the 3in screens of almost all other ultra-zoom cameras. The hotshoe for an external flashgun is concealed underneath a rubber cover – easy to miss.

The controls and options are the usual fare for an ultra-zoom camera, with manual exposure and focus and a wheel encircling the navigation pad for quick adjustments. ISO speed and focus area are within easy reach, and a customisable button can be assigned to various roles including white balance. There’s also a button that momentarily pulls back the zoom. It proved highly useful when we’d zoomed in so much that it was hard to find the intended subject on the LCD screen. There’s still no RAW capture, though – a serious omission for this type of camera.

As with its predecessor, performance was below average. We can forgive the 2.3-second delay from switching on to capture, but three seconds between subsequent shots is frustratingly slow. It was even worse when we tried to adjust a setting directly after taking a photo, needing around five seconds for the requested setting to appear on screen. The 1.4fps continuous mode is more respectable, and the switch to a Li-ion battery has halved the time between full-power flash shots, now at five seconds.

Many ultra-zoom cameras shoot video at 1080p, but while this model is limited to 720p, it’s still one of the best video modes around. Autofocus and zoom were available during recording and didn’t spoil the high quality stereo soundtrack. The optical stabilisation worked wonders in smoothing out shakes in handheld telephoto clips. Brightly lit shots were extremely sharp and smooth, while indoor shots were noisy but not excessively so. With a 20-minute running time per clip, we’d be happy to use this as our main video camera.

14-megapixel photos proved more of a challenge for the lens. Details were sharp at the centre of the frame but heavy chromatic aberrations made images increasingly blurred towards the edges and produced halos of discoloration around high-contrast lines. It’s a common problem among ultra-zoom cameras but this was one of the worst examples we’ve seen. SLR manufacturers are increasingly turning to digital chromatic aberration removal, and it’s about time ultra-zoom cameras inherited this technology too. Image quality didn’t deteriorate at extreme telephoto settings but the autofocus struggled at focal lengths beyond 300mm in anything but bright light. Photos were no more detailed than the 12-megapixel SX20 IS at ISO 100, and heavier noise reduction meant they were less detailed at ISO 400. By ISO 800, they were passable after resizing to fit a computer screen. At ISO 1600, images were awash with multi-coloured blotches.

Then again, low-light photography isn’t the main selling point of an ultra-zoom camera. The SX30 IS isn’t alone in suffering from chromatic aberrations, and otherwise, image quality in bright light was impressive. Ultimately, though, the Fujifilm HS10 is a much better camera, with superior image quality and ergonomics. At current prices it’s much cheaper too.