| Canon PowerShot SX210IS 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 14x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3.0-Inch LCD (Gold) |  | Brand: Canon
Category: Photography
List Price: $329.99
Buy New: $299.00
as of 9/10/2010 08:32 CDT details
You Save: $30.99 (9%)
New (12) Used (2) Refurbished (1) from $262.99
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 166
Color: Gold
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Optical Zoom: 14
Display Size: 3
Maximum Focal Length: 70
Minimum Focal Length: 5
Has Red Eye Reduction: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 4.2 x 1.3 x 2.3
Legal Disclaimer: We do not in any way represent that any part we sell is legal to possess in your jurisdiction. Check with you local authorities to ensure it is legal for you to possess before buying!
MPN: SX210IS Gold
Model: SX210IS Gold
UPC: 013803120578
EAN: 0013803120578
ASIN: B0035FZJMQ
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Powerful 14x optical zoom with Optical Image Stabilizer; improved Dynamic mode for enhanced image stabilization | | • | 14.1-megapixel resolution for high-quality prints up to 16.5 x 23.4 inches | | • | 28mm wide-angle lens; 3.0-inch wide PureColor System LCD | | • | HD shooting capability at 720p with stereo sound plus HDMI output | | • | DIGIC 4 Image Processor with evolved Face Detection Technology; new scene modes |
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| Accessories:
Canon NB-5L Battery Pack for Canon SD700IS, SD790IS, SD800IS, SD850IS, SD870IS, SD880IS, SD890IS, SD900, SD950IS, SD990IS, SD970IS & SX200IS Digital Cameras |
| Similar Items:
Canon NB-5L Battery Pack for Canon SD700IS, SD790IS, SD800IS, SD850IS, SD870IS, SD880IS, SD890IS, SD900, SD950IS, SD990IS, SD970IS & SX200IS Digital Cameras | |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Decidedly slim and sleekly refined, the PowerShot SX210 IS packs a feature set that reads like a wish list. The 14.1-megapixel CCD joins a 14x 28mm wide-angle zoom for imaging power to spare. Frame your shots in the bright 3.0-inch widescreen PureColor System LCD, with the Low Light mode for sharp images in dimly-lit situations. It also captures stunning HD movies with Dynamic mode for enhanced image stabilization when shooting movies using wide-angle settings. Capture smooth HD video (720p) with stereo sound for a truly natural, high-quality HD experience.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
 Nearly perfect all-around point and shoot! April 21, 2010
Volchitsa (Maryland, MD USA)
88 out of 91 found this review helpful
NOTE: If you are confused about some of the issues brought up in the negative reviews, including the LENS SHADOW ISSUE, please read my commentary under the UPDATE section at the end of this review and feel free to ask any additional questions.
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REVIEW
People have already written excellent reviews for the black version of this camera and, obviously, everything applies to the Gold version as well. I will summarize my own experience with the camera and update the review as I learn more. Feel free to ask any questions.
I am a hobbyist and own a Canon DSLR with some high end lenses and accessories. It's a great setup, but because of its size and weight I rarely have it with me. I got sick of missed opportunities and knew I needed a pocket camera to take with me everywhere.
I've owned a Canon Powershot SX110IS 9MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black) previously and thought it was great, which is why I considered getting the Canon PowerShot SX120IS 10MP Digital Camera with 10x Optical Images Stabilized Zoom and 3-inch LCD this time. However, it's not pocketable, so I've also considered the amazing Canon PowerShot S90 10MP Digital Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3-inch LCD, Panasonic DMC-LX3 10.1MP Digital Camera with 24mm Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black), and Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX1/H 10MP "Exmor R" CMOS Digital Camera with 3-inch Touch-Screen LCD (Grey). These are all great on their own, but lack the zoom, and Sony also lacks manual modes. When I finally saw an SX210 at a local store, I almost bought it on the spot. It's pocketable yet boasts 14x optical zoom and all the benefits of the SX120 plus more!
Color: The Gold color is actually quite pleasant. It isn't the "bling" bright yellow gold as it might appear on pictures. It's a softer champagne-like gold that I personally love. It's perfect if you want something unique, yet not obnoxious. I was excited that Canon provides a color choice for this camera.
Size: The SX210 isn't as tiny as some Elphs or other manufacturer's (like Sony) pocket cams, yet it's borderline pocketable and quite light. I can put it in the back pocket of fitted jeans comfortably, although I definitely recommend a pouch (it won't fit into my back pocket with a pouch though).
Design: Nothing special about the design, but it looks classy and serious. Looks much more substantial than the somewhat plasticky SX1XX line. There aren't many buttons, but it's enough for easy and fast operation. If you've used Canon point and shoots before, you'll find the interface familiar, although it looks more sleek and refined than the slightly outdated SX110 interface.
The control (not the mode) dial is actually not physically labeled. BUT when the camera is on, touching the control dial slightly will display the functions of the buttons. Touch the left side of the dial and it will highlight the function for the left button and bring up a brief description. This allows for a dynamic arrangement of functions in various modes and although it took a little getting used to, I'm a big fan.
The mode dial is way too stiff for my liking and requires two fingers to operate. At least it won't change accidentally...
The flash position did startle me at first, but now I don't mind it at all. Yes, your finger is over the flash and it tries to pop up when you turn the camera on. However, the finger will suppress the flash popping up, and most of the time you don't want flash up anyway. So it's strange, but it works out in the end.
Screen: I would prefer a regular aspect ratio screen to the wide one on the SX210. It's catered towards HD video, but I use it more for pictures, so with the black borders around pictures it effectively becomes a 2.5" screen. But it's a minor drawback and the screen is gorgeous otherwise. It's much more accurate in terms of colors and exposure than the Sony TX1 screen I've tried.
There isn't much of a bezel around it, so I'd recommend a screen protector. (Don't use those film ones, use a stiff glass or plastic one. There are many available on amazon and ebay - you don't need a specifically SX210 one, just get one big enough and cut it to size. What I did is get a screen protector from a local Verizon store - they have nice stiff ones for the touchscreen phones like Droid and cost only $12 for 3 of them. When the protector is on, it looks exactly like the screen without a protector, which cannot be said about those film ones).
Operation: It's not the fastest camera around and the zoom is a little slow, although smooth. I've found it to be just fine for everyday shooting and the smooth zooming works great on videos (with other cams I'd often overshoot). As I said, the interface is in line with most Canon's point and shoots.
Image quality: Canon rarely disappoints in this aspect. The images are perfectly sharp (unlike the Sony TX1) and the colors are vivid yet accurate (unlike some Panasonic and Sony cameras). At lowest ISOs and regular conditions, the quality rivals some DLSRs. As in many point and shoots, noise becomes visible starting at ISO 400, but that's the price you pay for a 14x optical zoom. Low light pictures are not as good as the lead cameras' such as the S90, but they're not any worse than most point and shoots and are just fine for printing.
Lens: The lens is in line with most point and shoots today (f/3.1 to f/5.9). The zoom is very smooth (and you can control the speed), although a little slow. 14x is amazing and image stabilization works great. No noticeable distortion.
Flash: Nothing special, average for point and shoots. Good exposure. In auto mode, the camera does a great job trying to balance the background and foreground when using flash. Careful though, it might crank the ISO up to keep detail in the background when you shoot in low light.
Video: HD and normal video is great. The same awesome image quality as in picture mode. Videos look crisp and colors are great. The auto focus performs perfectly, works very quickly, and is very accurate even for moving subjects.
Many cameras won't allow you to zoom while taking videos, but this isn't a problem with the SX210. Since the camera is so small, camera shake is inevitable, so I would avoid zooming in too much if you're not using a tripod or a monopod. Audio is fine. Stereo audio sounds great on paper, but I don't hear much difference. Note that HD video eats memory cards in no time, so if you're just taping for web or the like, just change it to normal quality.
The dedicated video button is very useful to have! Can't tell you how many times I forgot to get into or out of video mode with other cameras. It still has a video mode, it just makes it faster and easier to shoot video on the go.
Features: This camera is pretty impressive in terms of features, both the serious ones such as manual modes and the more gimmicky features you see in lots of newer point and shoots cameras today. Here is a summary.
-Auto and Easy modes: intelligent scene recognition works great most of the time. Even I use Auto often instead of manual modes as it is very reliable.
-Manual, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program modes: godsend for point and shoots. You might not think you need them now, but if you start learning about photography more, you'll be glad you have them!
-Scene modes: All the general ones like sports and portrait, as well as cool unique ones such as:
-Smart shutter: camera automatically takes the picture when either a smile is detected, a new face is detected, or 2 seconds after a wink is detected. All of these are customizable and work just as described! Very useful for self portraits and such. As a backup, the camera fires after about 15 seconds even if it didn't detect anything, so no missed shots because it didn't recognize a face.
-Low light: Lowers resolution to improve quality. Sets ISO is pretty high. Nothing amazing, but good results.
-Color Accent and Swap: Canon's favorite - isolate a color (with the rest in black and white), or swap two colors)
-Fisheye effect: Look at sample fish eye images online. Just a fun effect. You can control amount of distortion.
-Miniature effect: Nothing like a true tilt-shift, but gets decent results. Blurs parts of image to make an illusion of a miniature. Customizable.
-Stitch assist: helps taking panoramas
-My Colors: tinker with colors - can add/subtract saturation or accent reds/greens/blues, can lighten/darken skin tones, etc. Great settings I use a lot.
-White Balance: learn to use custom white balance - it's quite painless and yields amazing accuracy in white balance. Use an opaque white object or a white wall to fill the frame, just press a button, and the white balance is set perfectly.
-Exposure Compensation for flash and for general exposure
Battery: I loved how the SX120 uses AAs (long lasting and easily available), so I was a little skeptical about the SX210. But I wasn't disappointed - the battery started getting low only after a week of moderate usage including many videos. Replacement batteries are very cheap ($5 off-brand).
Other:
Something else unique about this camera is it recognizes SDXC memory cards - the successor to the SDHC cards that will surely become popular soon. They allow for bigger read/write speeds and capacities of 64GB and more.
As with any new gadget, I recommend reading almost the entire manual. I have quite a bit of experience in cameras, and yet I always find something new or peculiar in the manuals. For example, you can press and hold the Disp button and it will bring up the brightness to 100%. Do it again to go back to your custom brightness setting. This is great if you keep the brightness down to save battery, yet need it up when it's bright and you're outdoors. Beats going through menus any day!
If you press and hold the center button (Func/Set), the camera will bring up a clock. To do the same from when the camera is off, press the center button and while holding it, press the power button.
What I would've liked from other cams incorporated into the SX210:
-Faster operation and zoom.
-Better low light performance.
-Faster lens (f/2 would be great at wide end).
-Better macro mode. I miss the SX110's ability to focus at 1cm for gorgeous pictures. SX210 focuses at a comparatively disappointing 5cm.
Gimmicks:
-Capacitive touch screen for focus points and faster operation.
-GPS sensor for geotagging, since this camera is so perfect for travel.
-WiFi - to upload pictures onto the web or even onto smartphones on the go.
Conclusion:
This one is definitely a keeper for me and it will never leave my side, even when I have my DSLR with me!
The pros outweigh the cons and this camera definitely beats the competition. The price is right too and will definitely come down soon.
Sorry for the very long review, but I am very excited about this find and I hope this helps. Feel free to ask any questions.
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UPDATE 5/3/2010
Re: LENS SHADOW ISSUE from other reviews (A copy of my reply in the discussion of the black version of the camera):
Stephen (top review author of the black SX210), AAAA (another owner of the SX210), and myself have all had a frustrating experience with J. Collins. I would not take his reviews into account, as they can be quite misleading. Unfortunately, he does not respond well to logic either. Please instead read about other people's experiences with the camera and ask any other questions you might have from knowledgeable and logical people such as Stephen.
From my experience with DSLRs, many point and shoots, and the SX210 itself, the flash shadow issue is MINOR. It is certainly true that the LENS CAN CAST SHADOWS, but:
1) As Stephen said, this is INHERENT to many cameras, even top of the line professional ones. It's physics. (Also, forget about using macro mode with flash, NO camera is going to give you even lighting).
2) The shadows ONLY appear when there is something within about 1m of the camera on the right side of the frame.
3) The shadows CAN BE ELIMINATED easily if you zoom in a little (and stand back to get the same composition if needed).
4) ASK YOURSELF: how many times have you taken shots that required flash and which had a subject in the right side of the frame that was closer than 1m to the camera? Look through old pictures to see whether you have indeed been in this situation. If so, ask yourself whether you'd be okay with either cropping the picture or zooming in a little.
5) If you find yourself in situations described above often and are not okay with the solutions, then LOOK FOR A DIFFERENT CAMERA. Obviously, a camera with an internal lens will work best. Be prepared to sacrifice optical zoom.
6) If this is a minor issue to you (it's not even an issue to me personally) and if you're reading this, you'll probably love this camera as it is one of the best all-around point and shoots around.
Re: Battery life
I'm waiting for some official review with controlled testing to see whether it is really that much worse than AAs. I don't notice a difference myself even though I owned an AA camera, but I don't shoot consistently enough to be sure. The battery life has been fine so far and the batteries are as cheap as rechargeable AAs. Also, it is worth noting that this same battery has been used in other cameras. Although power consumption obviously varies from device to device, it is worth checking out the reviews of other cameras with the same battery. I'll try to research that myself as well.
I'll update if I learn more.
Great Point and Shoot June 28, 2010
Lola Tinney (Santa Barbara, CA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I ordered two cameras, this one and the Panasonic ZS7 Lumix, because of the mixed reviews for this camera,. I am returning the Panasonic. For the reviewer who has the obsession with the lens and the shadow, the Lumix has the same lens, in fact I did not find a point and shoot with a good range that did not have a lens that expanded when the camera was turned on.
I have used the camera for 4 days now. Very heavily this weekend at a parade, took over 200 photos and have not yet charged the battery.
I took photo while walking and they came out great. The image stabilizer performed much better than the Lumix.
PROS: Color, great photos indoors and out. Zoom for a point and shoot is amazing. Got lots of comments on the gold color.
Cons: Location of the flash, makes the camera hard to hold.
Overall very happy I have a camera, with zoom I can put in my purse or pocket. I suggest you go to Flickr and type sx210 in the search field. You will see amazing photos taken with this camera.
Canon SX210IS Gold body color VS Purple color July 6, 2010
J. (County of Los Angeles, CA, USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I previously owned a Canon SD800IS and was happy with it. I ordered the SX210IS because of the HD. The primary features are the same as the SD800 but better. The only "downside" of this camera that I have found so far are the following: They all have white print on the buttons. The white print on the gold body does not show up well. The camera body comes in gold, black and purple. In fact, in bright light its even worse because the metal is a little shiny. The contrast between the white print against the gold colored body is difficult to see. I showed the camera to five of my friends and they agreed with me. The flash is located in an awkward place. The area where the flash pops up is where I naturally hold the camera so the flash usually doesn't pop up because my finger is holding it down. With my old camera this was not a problem because the flash was built in; not pop up. With this new camera I have to remember to hold my left hand in the shape of an "L" and let the camera rest in the corner of my "L". My right hand can hold the camera as normal without obstructing anything. With the red eye "on", there is a significant delay. If using red eye feature, be sure it's when your subjects are posing and not moving as they will surely have a long wait for you to take their photo. Regarding the video feature: The HD quality is noticible compared to my old camera. Sound is better too. Be aware that in order to view HD video on a computer, the computer needs a minimum requirement for viewing capability, so read the online user guide first to see if your computer matches. Regarding the delivery of the product: It arrived on time. I had ordered a HD SD card on the same day. The SD card was cancelled by the seller due to lack of inventory, so I had to go online and order a different one. As soon as the SD card arrived, I popped it in the camera and finally "played" with it. At that time I realized the white print on the gold camera was terrible. But by this time, with the delay of the SD card, I was outside of the window of time that the seller accepts returns. I called Amazon and also called the seller and explained what happened. I have since sent the gold color back and reordered the purple one. I still have the problem with the location of the flash, and red eye, but at least I can see the camera settings!! The return of the gold color camera was easy and went without any problems. I'm currently using the purple one. I have ordered a wide variety of products from Amazon and if I had a problem with one of them, it was always resolved to my liking.
Great little camera July 23, 2010
Michael Benak
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
You will be very happy with this camera. I'm a professional photographer and this is a great little "pocket" camera
New camera is very satisfactory! May 18, 2010
Michael O. Shipley
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
The camera is as expected. That means that it is better than others I considered. I highly recommend this camera despite a higher price.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
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