Canon PowerShot SX120 IS review: Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

Canon seems to have an "if it ain't broke" attitude when it comes to its PowerShot SX series. The SX120 IS is the latest version of the company's 10x pocket megazoom and is nearly identical to its predecessors, the SX110 IS and SX100 IS. The SX120 IS gets a resolution bump--it's now 10-megapixels--and uses Canon's Digic 4 image processor, which along with enhanced battery life adds advanced face and motion detection features and improved red-eye correction. It's not much of a step forward, just offering a little bit of new technology for the price of 2008's SX110 IS. You also get the same excellent photo quality, which is nice, but ever-so-slightly slower performance, which is less nice.

7.0

Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

$99 at Amazon

The Good

Easy to use; best-in-class photo quality; manual and semimanual controls.

The Bad

Fewer features, slower performance, and bulkier design than competitive models.

The Bottom Line

Canon's SX120 IS pocket megazoom falls behind the competition in every aspect except photo quality.

Though it's bulkier than similarly featured models from Panasonic and Kodak, the SX120 IS will fit comfortably into a jacket pocket or uncomfortably in a jeans pocket. It's not lightweight either; the optically stabilized 10x zoom lens and two AA-size batteries are responsible for most of its 10.4-ounce weight. The SX120 IS is large enough that it should be easy to hold securely, and despite the body being slippery, the right-hand grip seems improved (but that may be all in my head). Encased in plastic, the SX120 IS nevertheless feels quite solid and sturdy. A door on the bottom covers an SDHC card slot and battery compartment. Unlike many AA-powered megazooms that use four batteries, the SX120 IS is powered by two, and battery life feels relatively short. You'll want to pick up some rechargeable NiMH batteries, which will triple the shot count from alkaline.

The controls on the back are pretty much the same as those on the SX110 IS. Face detection, display, menu, and exposure compensation buttons are above and below the navigational scroll wheel to the right of the 3-inch LCD. The wheel surrounds a Func./Set button and has top, bottom, left, and right pressure points for ISO sensitivity, focus (manual, normal, and macro), flash, and timer. The wheel is a touch too responsive, but it's only a real problem in Special Scene mode as it's always activated for either changing scene types or exposure compensation. The PictBridge button that was relegated to the far left corner above the screen is gone, while a playback button sits between the right side of the LCD and the slight indent of a thumb rest.

For the SX120 IS, Canon throws the more common scene-shooting modes (Portrait, Landscape, Night Snapshot, Indoor, and Kids & Pets) on the actual Mode dial and keeps more specialized scene types (Sunset, Snow, Fireworks, Foliage, Aquarium, Beach, and ISO 3200) under an SCN spot on the dial. Also crammed onto the Mode dial is a full complement of manual and semimanual exposure modes; Canon's Smart Auto option that picks an appropriate scene type based on the camera's analysis of faces, brightness, colors, distance, and movement; and an Easy mode for fully automatic shooting with no access to menus whatsoever. There is a Movie mode on there, too, but it maxes out at VGA-quality without use of the optical zoom while recording and only mono sound. That's just sad.

Though the SX120 IS gets decent marks overall for speed, it does have some borderline performance issues that earned it some ratings demerits. It wakes and shoots in 2.5 seconds, which is typical of megazooms. Its shutter lag for high- and low-contrast scenes--0.6 second and 0.7 second, respectively--are typical for this class, too. However, shot-to-shot times are noticeably slow at 2.6 seconds without flash and jump to 6.1 seconds once you enable the flash. Continuous shooting is unimpressive, too, running at 0.8 frames per second.

Sample photos:
Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

If there was a reason to pick the SX120 over a competitor it would be for photo quality, but it doesn't win by much. Noise starts to show at ISO 400, but up until that point photos are relatively clean and sharp, with very good detail. At ISO 800 photos have a mottled look, but loss of detail is still fairly minimal. Even ISO 1600 photos are usable as long as you can overlook some color change from increased noise levels. Characteristic of megazooms, the lens has some barrel distortion--a surprising amount, given the relatively narrow-angle lens. There's magenta and purple fringing, noticeable mostly in shots with extreme contrast and also pretty typical of megazoom cameras. Colors produced by the SX120 are bright, vivid, and generally excellent, and exposure is consistently good, though not without clipped highlights.

The Canon PowerShot SX120 IS is a serviceable pocket megazoom camera. Its feature set, design, and performance are lagging behind models like Sony's H20, Panasonic's ZS1, and Kodak's Z915. And while Canon still tops them in photo quality, the difference is getting smaller and smaller and less significant if your prints aren't larger than 8x10 inches or just for viewing on a computer screen, TV, or digital photo frame.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Kodak EasyShare Z915

1.7 

1.1 

0.6 

0.4 

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H20

2.8 

2.1 

0.7 

0.4 

Canon PowerShot SX110 IS

2.3 

2.1 

0.7 

0.5 

Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

2.5 

2.6 

0.7 

0.6 

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS1

2.3 

2.5 

1.1 

0.9 

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