Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon PowerShot SX110 IS Digital Camera - Black (9.0MP, 10x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD

I have owned this camera for about a month, during which time I had enough opportunities to play around with it. My impressions are generally very good; although it is made of plastic it feels solid enough and weighty. It may feel slightly slippery sometimes, therefore it's advisable to use the supplied wrist wrap to avoid dropping it accidentally. The LCD screen is nice and bright (I also recommend buying a screen protector for it to avoid scratches), and the controls are easy to use and feel of quality. The flash is manual pop-up, which for me is an advantage, as you can just leave it down if you definetely don't need it (e.g. in museums where flash photography is not allowed). The size of the camera is bigger than the latest ultra-thin compacts, but much smaller that DSLRs and super-zooms. You can easily fit it in a coat pocket, although it's more difficult to fit in a jeans pocket if you have it with a case.

Coming to the foremost criterion on which cameras should be judged, i.e. picture quality, let me first mention that this is not a DSLR, and as all cameras with sensors much smaller than DSLRs (i.e. compact, bridge and super-zoom cameras), you are going to encounter some image noise at higher ISOs and poorer lighting conditions. In this camera however I did not find this to be too prohibitive and is not really a problem unless you go above ISO 400 or the lighting conditions are very poor (near dark without a flash). At ISO 80 or 100 outside you generally won't encounter any noise at all. I am generally happy with the quality of the pictures, including colours and white balance, although I would prefer some better handling of shadow areas. Also, there is some purple fringing around areas of high contract and some slight geometric distortion, this is nothing too serious. I would say apart from that the lens is quite good and consistent across various focal lengths, from wide to telephoto. I have uploaded some images on Amazon so you can get an idea of the quality of pictures that come out of the camera.

The biggest advantage of this camera and the reason I bought it is the possibilities it gives you for creative photography. You can have full manual control of exposure settings, i.e. adjust aperture opening, speed and ISO. You can also lock exposure and focus while playing around with other settings. Alternatively, if you are not comfortable taking control of the camera, you can put it in fully automatic or easy mode or select a special scene mode (e.g. portrait, beach, snow, landscape etc) and it will do everything for you; you just point and shoot. The pictures will come out excellent in most cases. In addition to this, one also has a quite large optical zoom of 10x at the full 9 Megapixels. This zoom can go progressively up to 40x if one drops the number of Megapixels (i.e. with interpolation), with no loss of quality of the picture. Combined with an additional 4x of digital zoom, you get a theoretical maximum of 160x, although by using digital zoom you would get deteriorated picture quality.

All in all I am happy with the quality of this camera, and I expect to learn a lot from it before I finally move onto a DSLR. Even then, I envisage keeping this camera for the cases when carrying around a bulky DSLR is not convenient. I would recommend buying this camera to use as an all-rounder, including point and shoot, but also when you want to become more creative and experiment with photography.

The camera has a very wide range of settings which can be used by the experienced or semi pro photographer in situations where a DSLR is unrealistic due to bulk and weight etc.

It also has a range of semi and fully automatic settings which the beginner can use constantly and still get top class results. Remember, the camera features the IS (image stabilisation) system, and Canon's is widely acclaimed to be the best. (Helps to prevent blur in shots where a slower shutter speed, and/or telephoto is being used). This will buy you approx two stops when handholding the camera - in other words, if you are using 1/125th second to shoot, the system will produce an image equating to use of 1/500th (125 - 250 - 500, two stops).

I do a lot of macro and landscape work, often tripod mounted, so the Aperture priority mode is my usual favourite - I can control depth of field (what is in focus, and what is not, along a line drawn from the lens to the very background of the photograph - the smaller the aperture, the more that is in sharp focus, but sometimes you want to isolate a subject from it's background by using a large aperture, throwing everything out of focus, apart from the subject).

This camera is my first serious digital camera, and as a pre existing user of a Canon A1 35mm camera for many years, this one does everything my A1 could, and also has a wonderful ten times optical zoom, nine megapixels, and a large bright 3" LCD monitor, coupled with a very easy menu system (takes a little learning, like all such cameras).

I can't wait to see what the next new model features are - but this one produces great photographs, and is definitely as professional as you are - good job Canon, thank you!

Have been using the SX110 IS for a couple of weeks now. My first impression was that it was strange to use without a viewfinder. But the large screen on the back is easy to look at and has sufficient detail to accurately judge focus. It also makes it great for quickly showing pictures to people around you. The camera is particularly easy to switch between camera and viewing mode.

The zoom is very powerful and fast, with the image stabilizer helping to make sure the photos do not have too much camera shake in them. Start up is quick enough not to be irritating although it does sometimes seem a little slow to power up the flash. This is always a trade off for battery lifespan I guess.

The built-in flash does not automatically pop up when lighting conditions require it. Some have suggested this is a problem but I personally prefer this. Many shots with flash can become very washed out or contrasty on small digital cameras. A flick of the thumb pushes up the flash and it is ready to use. On other digicams, preventing the flash from firing has required a couple of little button presses and you have to watch on screen icons to make sure that the correct setting has been used. With the SX110, it's no problem at all. Flash up=ON, flash down=OFF.

Anyone familiar with Canon cameras will recognise the sensible controls. All the manual shooting options are present for the more serious photographer. And there is the fully automatic mode for the quick and simple picture takers too. It fits nicely in the hand, is big enough to not feel like a toy camera, but small enough to be discreet and to fit in a pocket. All in all, I'm very happy with the camera and it is exactly what I expected from Canon.

This camera is simply a bargain. Its really an advanced "point-and-shoot" or a "bridging" camera between POT and DSLR's because of its advanced features and telescopic zoom.

The build construction and "feel" is superb, its all plastic but doesn't feel or look like that. It's unique because it looks like a DSLR, but in a compact shape.

All camera's are personal taste, and after extensive research I decided I'm a budding enthusiastic photography, so I wanted advanced/manual features other POT's don't have. These include controlling the aperture, and the shutter speed. I take a lot of night shots so needed to control lens. Other POT's doesn't have this, and everything is automatic.

Direct competition for the SX110IS would be the Panasonic TZ5. Similar specs of 9mpx and 10x zoom. However they are very different cameras. The TZ5 is automatic, having no manual control (aperture, shutter speed) so I can't use it for my personal photography. The TZ5 is very compact, more so than the Canon. The choice between them is small form/true POT vs. manual/larger size.

The picture is extremely good, and tests between the TZ5 and the SX110IS show the Canon is better in terms of less "noise" and sharper images. HOWEVER, if you merely print small images, you won't notice the difference!!! People only nit-pick once you print larger images (A4) or crop your shots a lot, THEN you notice the difference. So take this into consideration (when choosing cameras).

Also this camera has been updated by the SX200 - however that's really expensive (£100+ more) but has more features such as HD recording etc.

Overall very happy, awesome camera for a cheap price, allowing control for budding photographers.

Larger than expected, takes great pictures once you figure out what all the settings are for (takes a bit of fiddling around). However it eats batteries (I put in new ones and they died that day!). I would recommend it, though you need to get a battery charger & high performance batteries.