The Canon Powershot SX200 is a budget ultra-zoom with a rather compact body, a wide-angle lens with 12X stabilized optical zoom lens and full manual controls.

Canon did a good job selecting the features to put in this digital camera, giving a very flexible zoom range and a complete set of manual controls while avoiding the least used features such as a viewfinder and hot-shoe. Since the majority of consumers do not use those features, it is very reasonable for Canon to remove them from budget models and keep them in more advanced models such as the Canon Powershot SX20 IS.

The compact ultra-zoom category is now populated with numerous models from several manufacturers. Among these the SX200 distinguishes itself as one of three current models to feature full-manual controls and the only one to have 720p HD movie mode as well. While the SX200 is not the most compact such camera, at 1.5" thick it is smaller than typical compacts equiped with much less powerful zoom lenses.

The Fuji Finepix F70 EXR is the only ultra-compact with a wide-angle optical zoom and full manual-controls. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 which lacks manual controls makes a unique offering by starting its 12X optical zoom at a very wide 25mm effective focal-length. It also takes 70p HD video.

The bottom line is that no other digital camera features this feature-set in such a compact size. Those looking for a compact ultra-zoom will be quite satisfied with the Canon Powershot SX200 IS.