Canon Powershot SX10IS 10MP Digital Camera with 20x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom - 2665B001

Build quality is poor

8/29/2010

Got this camera a couple of years ago. It gave me very poor pictures with almost every setting except auto. The image stabilization was not very good and the all photos seemed washed out -- over-exposed.
Worst of all, the battery compartment cap/cover broke and now the camera cannot hold the batteries in. A camera this price should be more durable.

These reviews are better than the manual the camera came with.

8/24/2010

I really appreciate these reviews. As an owner of this camera, I find them more informative than the manual itself, or lack there of. What troubles me most about this product is the difficulty to achieve good focus. Most often in dark, indoor settings, such as a dance floor at a wedding. I must convey that that I have far better luck with my 6 year old Olympus Camedia 3.2 pixel camera in these situations, on the automatic setting. I've had great success with this camera in daylight, particularly close-ups of plant life and wild life. Dark settings of people is really kicking my rear. So much so that I feel I've taken far better shots in these environments with a disposable camera back in the day. For instance, I can't seem to get an entire wedding party in focus at the church alter. I've tried the "mountain/cloud" setting without great results. Can't seem to adjust flash, ISO settings very well with that setting, or not at all. Even in good daylight environments, parts of the pictures are out of focus. And yes, I use a decent tripod (a Manfrotto whenever possible) to minimize shake. The manual says that if the camera beeps twice, and shows a green square in the view finder before you press the shutter button all the way down, then you're all good. In my experience, not so very often. I'm in no way saying I'm a pro photographer, but I'd sure like to learn how to be one. My profession is graphic design and I've dabbled in photography as a need-to-do-it basis. And I like it and I'm having fun doing it. But having to fix two thirds of my shots in post-shot applications (i.e. photoshop, et al) is kickin' my butt. In closing, I'd like to assure this audience that this is not necessarily a bad review of this product. More so, it is a call for help. Any suggestions from you folks would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, and happy shootin'.

Great pre-SLR camera

8/16/2010

This is an awesome camera for those who wish they were more into photography but are not quite ready to make the jump to SLR. The 20x zoom is great and the quality of the shots you get is great. My only major disappointment is the lag time between shots and time for the flash to go off. The lag can really mess you up if you are trying to get "the shot". Everything else I love.

Love this camera

8/11/2010

I got this camera for a trip and didn't want to take my (relatively) ancient digital. I wanted a strong zoom and something that would do well on automatic. I read reviews, looking at maybe 20 different cameras.
It performed beautifully. Very easy to use, brilliant pictures on automatic but also has SLR-like options. (I just need to learn how to really use them instead of just playing around with them.) Fantastic low light performance, too. There were many places where flash pictures weren't allowed but I was still able to get a great shot without it. I've seen some complaints about the lens cap having no tether, but the inside of it has a clip that attaches to the strap, which I like much more than a tether. No dangling lens cap!
And the zoom and zoom stabilization! I couldn't ask for more.
I love this camera.

SX10IS...nice

7/5/2010

This camera takes nice photos...but I don't think any better than my small sony or Kodak camera. It is a little bit of a hassel to have to lift the flash but once you get used to the camera you pretty much remember to do that on your own before you try to take a photo. I mostly wanted this camera for the feature where I can take a still shot while taking a video...but then the video has a stop in the middle of it where I snapped the still shot. This was not exactly what I was hoping for.