Powershot SX10IS 10MP Digital Camera with 20x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

I absolutely love this camera. I have only had the SX 10 for a little over a month and i wanted to be fully familiar with it before i wrote a review on it. I decided to get the SX 10 for several reasons. Cost, Quality, Functionality, and Ease Of Use. I have been using Canon cameras for many years. I love Canon products, they have never let me down. To me this camera is the best of both worlds. I do a lot of landscape and nature photography and so i really need the wide angle and the telephoto reach. The macro and supermacro modes are outstanding. To me the 5.0-100.0mm (35mm equivalent: 28-560mm) Lens is the most amazing thing about this camera. The lens on this camera is truly amazing. You can really reach out and touch somebody with this bad boy.The Canon SX 10 IS is a excellent choice if you don't have the money for DSLR. I am still learning and this camera is certainly a great one to learn with because you have many of the functions of a good DSLR. The Auto mode works really well and you can get away with most shots by simply point and shoot. But for the shots that you cant pull of in Auto you have the ability to go full Manual Which i love. There are way too many great functions on this camera for me to list. I didn't buy this camera for the video but the video is fantastic as well. I was actually shocked the first time i the recorded a practice session of my friends band, the audio and video quality are truly awesome. The SX 10 really is the one of the closest things you can get to DSLR without having to spend thousands of dollars.A lot of people seem to think that you can't use lens filters with the SX10, but they couldn't be more wrong. Just google Lensmate SX 10. I got the Lensmate Adapter 58mm, Hoya UV filter 58mm, an extra Lens Cap 58mm to fit the UV filter, and a Hoya HMC Circular Polarizer 58 mm and a few other goodies. I leave the Lensmate Adapter and the UV filter on the SX10 at all times to protect the main lens. This is the perfect addition. You can have a lot of fun with a Cir Polarizer. They are very useful for Landscape Photography because they help make the skies blue and the clouds white as they should be. The Polarizer is also great for taking the reflections off of water or glass.My only complaint with this camera is Canon or actually Myself. I bought this camera about a month ago and about two weeks later Canon sent me an email saying that the Canon Powershot SX 20 was about to be released. That really struck a nerve ha. I really don't know how they could improve this model very much but i would have definitely loved to have had a heads up about the new SX 20 IS. Oh Well i guess that's what i get for not doing more research. I am certainly very happy with the SX 10. And with this model i can use the Canon Powershot SX10 IS CHDK Hack to unlock many more functions and capabilities such as RAW Image Format, Time Lapse, Remote Shutter Release, Motion detection, Bracketing, DOF Calculator, ETC ETC.This was my first purchase from Amazon.com and i am extremely satisfied with Amazon. I ordered this camera late in the afternoon around 3:00pm or 4:00pm on a Thursday and it was at my house by 4:00pm Friday, ready for the weekend abuse.The Canon Powershot SX 10 IS is an excellent choice for beginner as well as advanced photographers. The Quality and Functionality of this camera greatly out weigh the cost. I would recommend the Canon SX 10 to anybody looking for an excellent all in one type of camera. Go ahead and pick one up you won't be disappointed.

We purchased this camera to update our existing Canon S2IS just before our first trip to Israel. Overall, this camera was excellent and consistently took great pictures. I shot about 1,300 pictures, some under very challenging conistions. The menus and operation were somewhat similar to our old S2IS so there was very little learning curve.Modes used: I shot most pictures using the "P" mode which allows some manual settings such as ISO, white balance, flash strength, and exposure adjustment. The remainder I shot in manual mode.What I liked: The old S2IS often took a long time to lock focus. This camera focuses very quickly allowing me to get a lot of "just now" shots. The image stabilizer, like the one in the S2IS was phenominal. With still subjects, I could consistently get clean, well focused shots at 1/8 second, and I have a slight hand tremor. Sometimes I could get good shots at slower shutter speeds. This really helped indoors where flashes were not permitted, or the subjects were distant. It also helped a lot at night. Another huge feature is the range of the lens. It goes from slightly telephoto at 28mm to 560 mm (20X zoom). I was able to get shots of things I could hardly see with my naked eye. I was also able to get close ups at great distance. Many of my best shots were at high zoom. With dslr's you often have to change lenses and these shots would have been missed. The manual settings were generally easy to use and really expanded the pictures we could shoot. Generally, I used shutter priority. I really liked the electronic viewfinder. It saves battery power and accurately shows how a shot will be exposed. It also has a diopter adjustment. The flip out and twist tilt screen was also a help with crowd shots. The flash was strong and can be enhanced. In addition, there is a "hot shoe" for an add on flash. I did not have an add on flash, but I can see how it would be useful in lower light conditions. I discovered there is a "mute" button on the top left that suppresses all noise. This is handy when you can't be obtrusive. To turn sounds back on, you have to go into the menu. Battery life was also very good. I used rechargable nmh batteries that when fully charged would handle the almost 200 shots per day without indicating much use on the battery level indicator. Overall the camera provided well focused and well exposed shots in a variety of conditions, with plenty of adjustments and clever features.What could be better: Occasionally the autofocus would be fooled in low light or with objects intervening between me and the subject. I would revert to the manual focus mode, but it was a little awkward to use. In shutter priority mode, you spin a wheel on the back of the camera to adjust shutter speed. The change in shutter speed did not respond predictably to my thumbing of the wheel. Not a major problem, but I noticed it. In cloudy lighting (much of our trip in December) some shots were a bit overexposed in "P" mode inducing me to use shutter priority. To be fair the shots would often consist of brighter sky, and darker buildings. The camera does have several exposure algorithms to choose, but I stayed with the default. And since this is a point and shoot, and not a dslr, shooting at higher ISO's resulted in somewhat grainy pictures. The highest ISO I used was 800, sometimes at night and sometimes in caves so the "noise" was not all that relevant to the picture quality.I gave the camera 4 stars because it was excellent, but not perfect.Update June 17, 2009: I have happily used this camera for family and school events since my last review and I am very pleased. I also shot an Ultimate Frisbee tournament that my son participated in and was held indoors. With indoor lighting, I was not able to capture very many good shots, even when overiding shutter speed settings and shooting at 800 ISO. I ended up taking most of the pictures using a dSLR from my son's school newspaper. There was a world of difference in quality. The better sensor of the dSLR was able to handle the lower light with no problem. I am still very pleased with the SX10IS, its fine overall picture quality, and many features, but recognize the limitations of its point and shoot sensor.