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Canon defines 'incremental updates' with CES 2016 PowerShot announcements

The camera manufacturer will have five new models in the coming months, but they're simply minor updates to ones currently available.

Joshua Goldman Managing Editor / Advice

Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.

Expertise Laptops, desktops and computer and PC gaming accessories including keyboards, mice and controllers, cameras, action cameras and drones Credentials

More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.

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Joshua Goldman

Jan. 5, 2016 6:00 a.m. PT

2 min read

Canon has been focused lately on improving its higher-end advanced compacts like the PowerShot G5 X, and you really can't blame it for that since smartphone cameras have put a hurt on its other compacts. And if its CES 2016 announcements are any indication, Canon doesn't have big plans to change course by making its midrange and entry-level point-and-shoots significantly better than the competition.

Let's start with the 50x zoom PowerShot SX540 HS, which is basically the same as last year's SX530 HS, but with a resolution bump from 16 to 20 megapixels and a more powerful Digic 6 processor that will give it the oomph to record full-HD video at 60 frames per second. Look for it in March for $400.

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Another updated long-zoom model, the SX420 IS, gets a 42x 24-1008mm zoom lens -- up from the SX410's 24-960mm lens. Arriving in February for $300, the SX420 IS will also have built-in Wi-Fi and NFC, but is otherwise unchanged from the SX410 IS.

Canon also tuned up three of its ultracompact Elph models, though the updates are so minor I'm not entirely sure why Canon touched them at all. The new models are the 12x 25-300mm zoom Elph 350 HS for $210, the $160 10x 24-240mm zoom Elph 190 IS and $110 8x 28-224mm zoom Elph 180. All capture 20-megapixel pictures, but only the 350 HS uses a high-sensitivity CMOS sensor for better low-light shots and faster performance. The 190 IS and 180 use older CCD-type sensors that are slower and best suited for outdoor use. They arrive in February.