Canon Powershot SX610 HS Summary

Canon SX610 HS

This ultra-compact ultra-zoom offers a 20 MP sensor and a stabilized wide-angle 18X optical zoom lens. It's 1/2.3" high-speed CMOS sensor allows it to catpure full HD video and fit a huge 25-450mm focal-range by keeping a small maximum aperture, F/3.8 at wide-angle and F/6.9 at telephoto.

Image quality is reasonable with some noise visible at all ISO sensitivities, yet not enough to prevent common print sizes until ISO 800. Dynamic-range is limited, as it is with other such small cameras. Metering, color and white-balance though are all quite good. The weakest point of the SX610 is a slow autofocus system. The rest of the performance is slightly below average.

PROS	CONS
Ultra-compact 18X optical zoom	Visible noise at all ISO sensitivities
Low noise until ISO 200	Dim max aperture
Good metering system	Limited dynamic range
Nicely saturated colors	Slow autofocus speed
Low distortion	1s Video-Record delay
Generally responsive	Slow playback mode
Light yet feels solid	Very few direct controls
Average Average

There are fewer new ultra-compact digital cameras each year as cellphones overtake their principal advantage which is size. The Canon Powerhot SX610 HS is designed to surpass phones by featuring a huge optical zoom. With a cellphone, image quality degrades instantly as zoom is digital rather than optical. It also aims to be equally convenient by providing fully automatic operation, plus WiFi and NFC connectivity. For better or for worse, the SX610 HS has lost the manual-controls which made the original SX-series so desirable. In this respect, this digital camera delivers: It's a pocket-size ultra-zoom with ready-to-share output at the press of the shutter-release.

Neocamera detailed review Read the Canon Powershot SX610 HS review.