Canon Powershot SX100 IS Review
Review Date: November 15th 2007
Author: Gavin Stoker
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 8 megapixel Superfine
JPEG mode, which gives an average image size of around 4-5Mb.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available
on the Canon Powershot SX100 IS which you can select at any
time if the camera is in the normal shooting mode. Noise
is visible from ISO 400 and upwards, with the
ISO 1600 option returning results that look like they were
shot through
a trickle of sand rather than an all-out storm, which means
they're not the worst we've seen by far and still usable.
Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for
each ISO setting:
Sharpening
Here are two 100% Crops which have
been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand
image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the
camera images are just a little soft at the default sharpening
setting. You can change the in-camera sharpening
level if you don't like the default look.
Chromatic Aberrations
The Canon Powershot SX100 IS did suffer from
chromatic aberrations during the review. On close inspection
there are lines of purple fringing visible between areas
of high contrast and highlights are blown, but this
is truthfully no better nor worse than other cameras in
its price bracket. Limited purple fringing was mainly present
around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations,
as shown in the examples below.
Macro
The Canon Powershot SX100 IS offers a Macro
setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is just
1cm away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle.
The first image shows how close you can get to the subject
(in this case a compact flash card). The second image is
a 100% crop.
Flash
The flash settings on the Canon Powershot SX100 IS are Auto, On, Auto Red-eye
Reduction, Slow Synchro and Off. These shots of a white coloured
wall were taken
at a distance of 1.5m.
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Auto
Flash - Telephoto (360mm) |
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And here are some shots of yours truly.
As you can see, neither the Flash On setting or the Red-Eye
Reduction option caused any amount of red-eye.
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Flash
On (100% Crop) |
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Flash
- Red-Eye Reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Canon Powershot SX100 IS's maximum shutter
speed is 15 seconds, which is great news if you're seriously
interested in night photography. The shot below was taken
using a shutter speed of 1/8th second, aperture of f/2.8
at ISO 250. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show
what
the quality is like.
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Night
Shot (100% Crop) |
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Overall Image Quality
When it comes to image quality, overall sharpness impresses – pictures being
as crisp as the autumnal days on which they were taken. The
Canon Powershot SX100 IS's handling of colour – well saturated
without being overwhelmingly 'in your face' – is true to expected form, though the fact
that noise is visible from ISO 400 and upwards disappoints,
a bugbear that also blighted the Powershot S5 IS. That said,
here it's
not quite as pronounced: the manually selectable ISO 1600
option returning results that look like they were shot through
a trickle of sand rather than an all-out storm, which means
they're not the worst we've seen by far and still usable.
In truth most family users may well be content to fall back
on using the flash anyway so it's not as contentious an issue
as on an enthusiast targeted model. On a more positive note,
the Canon Powershot SX100 IS's optical image stabilisation
seems to work particularly well,
in that I was able to enjoy blur free photography at the
extremities of the zoom on dull overcast, November days,
and when switching to macro and shooting handheld. In fact,
set to continuous IS mode, I'd stick my neck out and say
its ability to counteract camera shake is one of the best
I've yet seen on a consumer compact. As when examining noise levels, it's
therefore only really when you zoom into the camera's images
that problems appear. Thus, on close inspection, there are
lines of purple fringing visible between areas of high contrast
and highlights are blown. But again this is truthfully no
better nor worse than others in its price bracket, and under
most conditions the large-lens sporting Canon Powershot SX100
IS delivers an impressive level of detail.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Canon Powershot SX100 IS have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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