Canon PowerShot SX130 IS Review

September 16, 2010 by Jim Keenan Reads (13,278)

Editor's Rating

Ratings Breakdown (1-10)

- Image/Video Quality
- 8
- Features
- 7
- Design / Ease of Use
- 8
- Performance
- 8

- Total Score:
- 7.75
- Rating 1 to 10, top score 10

Overview

Pros
- Good image quality
- Reasonable price
- Nice 720p HD video
Cons
- Short alkaline battery life
- Slower lens for class
- Lengthy flash recycle time

Quick Take

The SX130 offers some logical upgrades to the SX120 like HD video, and despite weak battery life and a slower lens, it's a worthy competitor in the compact ultrazoom class.

Canon’s Powershot SX130 IS joins the compact superzoom posse as the SX120 IS rides off into the sunset.

The new camera gets a bump in resolution from 10 to 12 megapixels on a slightly larger physically-sized sensor, and the lens focal range goes wider and shorter: 28 to 336mm versus 36 to 360mm in 35mm equivalents. Here’s what the new range looks like.

Wide Angle, 28mm

Telephoto, 336mm

Both models share a close-but-not-quite-identical external look, with the SX130 being slightly larger and about a half-ounce heavier. The new camera is primarily an evolutionary step, sharing many features with the departing SX120 such as a Digic 4 processor, smart auto, intelligent contrast correction, face and motion detection technologies. The SX130 adds 720p HD video with stereo recording, blink technology, a few new shooting modes such as miniature and fisheye, and a narrower 80 to 1600 ISO sensitivity range. It can utilize SD/SDHC, SDXC, MultiMediaCard, MMCplus and HC memory media. Canon provides two AA alkaline batteries, a wrist strap, printed “getting started” guide, USB and AV cables, and CD-ROM software.

Let’s see what a modest makeover has produced in the new low-price leader of Canon’s SX line.