Introduction

Ease of Use

Canon have updated the PowerShot SX740 HS for 2018 by incorporating the Digic 8 processor, which has two main benefits. It increases the burst shooting speed from 4.6fps with AF on the previous model to 7.4fps on the new one (or 10fps with the focus locked at the first frame), and it adds the ability to record video in UHD 4K quality at 30/25fps.

Other than a couple of very subtle labelling changes to the exterior, the SX740 and SX730 models are otherwise identical, so we'd suggest that the sole reason for picking the latest and greatest version is the 4K video, which ensures that the SX740 can compete with similar cameras from other manufacturers. The SX740 is actually the first PowerShot camera to feature 4K video, and one of the few Canon cameras full-stop to offer it. Together with the 40x zoom lens and 5-axis image stabisation system, it's possible to capture some excellent 4K footage.

Front of the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS

The Canon SX740 HS, like the SX730 before it, is an impressively slim camera considering the 40x optical zoom lens that it houses. On the front of the camera is a slightly protruding grip which has a rubberised texture on part of it to help it feel secure in your hand. Despite the big lens, you can still comfortably fit the camera into your pocket.

On top of the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS is the shutter release, which is surrounded by the zoom switch. It feels reasonably sturdy, and zooming the lens in and out is quite a fluid movement - being neither too quick nor too slow. There’s also a video record button and an on/off switch. It can be all too easy to press the video record button when you’re first getting used to the camera, but Canon has placed them reasonably apart enough to get used to knowing where each one is.

A dedicated shooting mode dial is also located on top of the Canon SX740 HS. Enthusiasts will be pleased to see a full range of semi-automatic and manual modes, such as aperture priority and shutter priority. There’s also of course a full complement of automatic options, including the interesting “Hybrid Auto” mode. This mode works by capturing a 2-second video before each shot is taken and compiling them together at the end of each calendar day. It can be great for holidays and events where you get a bonus video to accompany your images - on the downside, you can’t edit what appears in the video, which would be even better.

Front of the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS

Selfie mode takes advantage of the tilting LCD screen. This is found on the mode dial, and allows you to change the background blur and the amount of skin smoothing you want to apply to your image. You can apply skin smoothing in other modes, too, if you like, but it’s directly accessible here. Also on top of the camera is the camera’s flash which you need to use a small catch on the side of the camera to release when you want to use it.

On the back of the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS, the buttons are grouped to the right hand side, which is beneficial if you’re using the camera one handed. The buttons are perhaps a little on the small side, which is something to consider if you have particularly large hands. They’re also slightly cramped together, which can make things a little awkward at times.

There’s a scrolling dial, which is used for a variety of different things depending on the shooting mode you’re in. For example, if you’re working in aperture priority, moving the dial will alter aperture. You can also use it in playback to move through the images you have already taken. The scrolling dial also doubles up as a four-way navigational pad, with each of the directional keys having a specific function assigned to it. Up controls exposure compensation, left switches on manual or macro focusing, down changes the camera’s display, and right is used for altering the flash mode.

Tilting LCD Screen

Four more buttons surround the scrolling dial which have various functions. One of the most useful buttons is the Zoom Frame Assist button, which as mentioned has moved from the side of the camera to the back. It’s used when shooting at long telephoto lengths - if you lose sight of your subject, hold down the Zoom Frame Assist button and the lens will momentarily zoom back out until you find it again. Release the button and the zoom will return to the same focal length you were previously using. It’s a great way to keep track of subjects at the longer focal lengths, especially if the subject moves.

Another button gives you direct access to the Canon SX740 HS’s Wi-Fi settings. The first time you press it, you’ll be asked to set-up the camera ready for connection. Once connected you can send images across to your phone for quick sharing, or remotely control the camera from your phone. That makes it useful for group shots or perhaps even some awkward angles. You can also pair with your phone using Bluetooth, which means that an always-on low-powered connection will be maintained. You can use this to remotely control the camera, but you’ll need the higher power of Wi-Fi if you want to see a live view output to your phone. Note that Canon have removed NFC connectivity from the SX740.

The final two of the four buttons are the playback button, and the main menu button. There’s also a central button in the middle of the navi pad which has a couple of useful functions. If you press it when in normal shooting mode, you’ll bring up the “function” menu, which acts as a quick menu, giving you access to a number of different settings that you might want to change reasonably frequently, such as ISO speed and white balance. The central button can also be used as a confirmation button for certain settings. Unfortunately it’s not possible to customise the camera to assign different functions to different buttons.

The Canon PowerShot SX740 HS In-hand

Despite offering full manual control, there are a couple of let-downs for enthusiast photographers here with the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS. For a start, it’s still not capable of shooting in raw format, disappotinting given how well-appointed the rest of the camera is, and it even loses the super fine JPEG compresssion setting that its predecessor offered. Secondly, there’s no option to change the focus point. For AF modes you can choose between Face AiAF, Tracking AF and a single frame in the centre. The latter means you need to focus and recompose if you want to photograph something on the edge of the frame.

Due to the physical length of the 40x optical zoom lens, the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS takes a couple of seconds to start up and be ready to shoot. If you have plans to take a lot of shots in quick succession, you’d do well to leave the camera switched on. Otherwise, the camera is very quick in operation, moving through images in playback with no hesitation. Autofocusing speeds in good light are very quick, dropping a little as the light darkens, but there’s an AF assist lamp on hand to help with that if you’re shooting somewhere very dark.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 20.3 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

Noise

The Canon PowerShot SX740 HS has six sensitivity settings at full resolution. Auto mode uses a range between ISO 80 and ISO 3200, or you can switch to one of the creative shooting modes to manually select these settings.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Canon PowerShot SX740 HS' 40x zoom lens achieves a maximum wide-angle focal length equivalent to 24mm, and is capable of a telephoto reach of 960mm (in 35mm camera terms).

24mm

960mm

Chromatic Aberrations

The Canon PowerShot SX740 HS handled chromatic aberrations fairly well during the review, with purple and green fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)	Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The close focusing of the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS at wide-angle is a mere 1cm. It does mean that there's little light getting in when you do that and the edge definition drops off leaving around 50% of the image in focus.

Macro

Flash

The Canon PowerShot SX740 HS' flash can only manage a relatively weak 4m range and hence there's some fairly obvious vignetting in our wide-angle test shot taken at a distance of 1.5m. The flash has four modes: Auto, On, Off and Slow Synchro, plus a separate setting to enable or disable red-eye reduction. Whether this is active or not, the camera successfully avoids any trace of red-eye.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (24mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (24mm)

Flash Off - Telephoto (960mm)

Flash On - Telephoto (960mm)

And here are some portrait shots.

Flash On

Flash Redeye Reduction

My Colors

The Canon PowerShot SX740 HS offers 11 different My Color modes.

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS camera, which were all taken using the 20 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movies & Video

Product Images

Conclusion

The Canon PowerShot SX740 HS falls firmly into the "modest upgrade" category of camera releases, principally adding just two new features to a design that hasn't really changed very much during the last few years. 4K video recording is the new headline grabbing feature, and for some people this will be reason alone to consider paying the full RRP for the latest model - for everyone else, we'd advise opting for last year's inevitably discounted SX730 model instead, which only suffers in comparison by offering slower burst shooting rates - otherwise, it's essentially the same camera.

Which means that the SX740 HS continues to suffer from a few flaws that may steer would-be buyers to rivals like the Panasonic TZ-series. There's still no electronic viewfinder, no Raw format shooting, no touchscreen, and no ability to change focal point, all things that we pointed out in our review of the SX730 last year, and the removal of the SuperFine JPEG compression setting and NFC connectivity are perplexing to say the least. We'd have expected Canon to address a few more of those criticisms in this year's update, but progress on the superzoom front has ultimately proven to be frustratingly slow.

This isn't to say that the SX740 HS is a bad camera per se - the combination of 40x zoom, 4K video, decent still image quality in good light and truly pocketable format is still a compelling one for the family market that it's predominantly aimed at. It’s just a shame that there are a few things missing for it to be considered more seriously by enthusiast photographers, which is exactly what we said last year...

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4
Ease-of-use	4.5
Image quality	4
Value for money	3.5

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS.

Specifications

News

The new Canon PowerShot SX740 HS digital camera has a 40x optical zoom lens, a 20.3 megapixel sensor and 4K video capabilities, a first for the PowerShot series.

The PowerShot SX740 HS will be available for purchase in late August for $399.99 / £349.99 / €419.99.

Canon USA Press Release

Long Zoom In A Small Package: Canon Introduces PowerShot SX740 HS Digital Camera

Latest Addition to PowerShot Family Provides a Multitude of Features for Entry-Level Photographers

MELVILLE, N.Y., July 31, 2018 – Whether your family is always on the go, you are an up-and-coming vlogger or you enjoy posting photos to social media, a compact digital camera capable of producing high quality images is a necessity. Today, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, introduced the new PowerShot SX740 HS digital camera boasting a 40x Optical Zoom Lens (equivalent to 24-960mm), a 20.3 Megapixel* CMOS imaging sensor and 4K video capabilities, which is a first in the PowerShot series.

“We remain committed to incorporating the latest technologies and innovations into Canon products that help meet the needs of our customers,” said Kazuto Ogawa, president and COO, Canon U.S.A., Inc. “As we continue to grow the popular PowerShot SX-series, we are excited to offer more imaging solutions that encourage visual storytelling.”

Featuring a DIGIC 8 Image Processor, dual-sensing image stabilization, automatic image transfer, feature assistant and a 3.0-inch LCD screen that rotates 180 degrees, the PowerShot SX740 HS helps make transitioning away from smartphone photography fun and easy. With high-speed continuous shooting up to 7.4fps, an ergonomic design and built-in Wi-Fi®** and Bluetooth®*** technology, you can easily capture life’s greatest moments with the PowerShot SX740 HS.

Availability and Pricing

The PowerShot SX740 HS will be available for purchase in late August for $399.99****. To purchase this product or for more information about Canon U.S.A products, visit http://shop.usa.canon.com/.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions to the United States and to Latin America and the Caribbean markets. With approximately $36 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), ranks third overall in U.S. patents granted in 2017† and is one of Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies in 2018. Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest level of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based service and support for all of the products it distributes in the United States. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. In 2014, the Canon Americas Headquarters secured LEED® Gold certification, a recognition for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of high-performance green buildings. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss and follow us on Twitter @CanonUSA. For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].

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† Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office.

* Image processing may cause a decrease in the number of pixels.

** Compatible with iOS® versions 8.4/9.3/10.2, Android™ smartphone and tablet versions 4.1/4.2/4.3/4.4/5.0/5.1/6.0/7.0/7.1. Data charges may apply with the download of the free Canon Camera Connect app. This app helps enable you to upload images to social media services. Please note that image files may contain personally identifiable information that may implicate privacy laws. Canon disclaims and has no responsibility for your use of such images. Canon does not obtain, collect or use such images or any information included in such images through this app.

*** Compatible with select smartphone and tablet devices (Android™ version 5.0 or later and the following iOS® devices: iPhone 4s or later, iPad 3rd gen. or later, iPod Touch 5th gen. or later) equipped with Bluetooth® version 4.0 or later and the Camera Connect App Ver. 2.0.30. This application is not guaranteed to operate on all listed devices, even if minimum requirements are met.

**** Availability, prices and specifications subject to change without notice. Actual prices are set by individual dealers and may vary.

Preview Images

Ahead of our full review, here are some sample images and movies taken with the new Canon PowerShot SX740 HS compact camera. The Canon PowerShot SX740 HS features a 40x zoom lens, 20.3-megapixel CMOS sensor, 4K movies with stereo sound, a 3.0-inch LCD screen that rotates up to 180 degrees, high-speed continuous shooting up to 7.4fps, and Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth connectivity.

A gallery of sample images taken with the Canon PowerShot SX740 HS compact camera.

Canon PowerShot SX740 HS Sample Images

Sample Movies & Video

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