Introduction

Ease of Use

We reviewed the SX120's predecessor, the 9-megapixel 10x zoom SX110 IS, in October 2008, and, additional million pixel boost aside, outwardly very little appears to have changed at first glance. There's the same tactile control layout with reasonably large buttons and dials to intentionally keep things family friendly, plus that identical optically stabilized zoom range equivalent to 36 to 360mm in 35mm terms.

Though like its forebear the SX120 IS is chunky compared with the average point and shoot, it is smaller than the typical super zoom or bridge camera pitched at enthusiasts. There are no higher end features here such as a hotshoe for additional flash - merely one of the pop up variety - while power is again provided by two standard alkaline AA batteries that slot into the base of the handgripas does the 128MB SD card supplied in the box. While these features are indicative of a budget model, so too is the mainly plastic build, though it's handily disguised by a matt black finish. Those two AAs also add weight and, as we found with the SX110, generally the camera feels substantial when gripped in the palm.

Front	Rear

The front of the SX120 IS is dominated by that behemoth of a lens, the majority of which is hidden flush to the body when not in use, rapidly extending (in a couple of seconds) to maximum wideangle with a press of the slightly recessed but clearly labeled lozenge-shaped on/off button up top. On initial inspection the front of the SX120 and SX110 are identical, but look very close and you'll see that the handgrip on the left is just a little wider. Three narrow slits indicate the built-in microphone nestling top left of the lens, and over to the right-hand side of the lens we find the same rounded window housing the AF assist/self-timer lamp as found on the earlier SX110.

While the above changes are largely cosmetic, when it comes to more practical considerations there's a more important omission. As on its predecessor there's no optical viewfinder or EVF - the space instead occupied by the built-in flash. Continuing around the slight curve of the handgrip we find a loop for attaching the supplied wrist strap and a sturdy pull-open plastic cover for the AV out, DC in and USB ports.

Front	Top

The top of the SX120 is likewise identical to its predecessor. The SX120 has the exact same user-friendly control grouping as the SX110, namely a shooting mode wheel, on/off button and shutter release button encircled by a zoom lever. The mode dial is almost flush with the top of the body, although fortunately the dial itself has enough of a ridged surround to be able to turn it decisively with your thumb, and there's a cutaway portion at the camera back to allow access. It has a stiff action with a distinct click, so you're highly unlikely to shoot past the setting you want in the heat of the moment.

With the camera taking a couple of seconds to get going from cold, once again the action of the optical zoom is smooth and steady, though its motions are still sound-tracked by an audible mechanical buzz. More positively, with a half press of the shutter release button the SX120 is lightning fast in determining focus and exposure, while there's no noticeable shutter delay as you go on to take the shot. Operational speed is slightly improved than before, with the new DIGIC 4 processor on-board, although current SX110 IS owners would be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

Starting at the new Smart auto mode, which automatically chooses from 18 different scenes, and moving clockwise around the mode dial are the more creatively enticing settings of program auto, shutter priority, aperture priority and manual. The chosen mode is also shown as a virtual version on the screen, so you don't need to take your eye off your subject while making adjustments. Continuing clockwise we get a dedicated VGA-quality video mode (with a long play feature plus a further 320x240 pixels alternative), a selection of scene modes (including fireworks, snow, aquarium and an ISO 3200 mode), an optimized indoor setting mode, a dedicated children and pets mode, a night scene mode, plus landscape and portrait settings and finally the no frills 'Easy mode', which turns the camera into a purely point-and shoot experience, perfect for complete beginners.

Front	Pop-Up Flash

The handy auto red-eye correction feature is accessible via a flash settings option that's rather hidden away among the SX120's menu screens. Red eye reduction can also be turned on/off in capture mode by delving into the same menu; like the SX110 it's not included among the options accessed via the dedicated flash switch at the rear, but at least here it's 'on' that handily appears to be the default setting rather than 'off'. The quality of the video - although disappointingly still the standard 640x480 pixels resolution, rather than High Definition - is again commendably sharp with 30fps allowing for more realistic motion, and the sound, though mono, is equally respectable. Another remaining disappointment is that the 10x optical zoom can't be used when shooting video, though a 4x digital zoom can (albeit with a certain loss of quality).

Moving to the back of the SX120 IS, we find a 3-inch, 230k dot LCD, identical to its predecessor's. The direct print button on the SX110 IS that was positioned top left of the screen has disappeared, presumably because most people didn't use it. The display and menu buttons are located beneath the rather fiddly four-way control pad-come-command wheel that remains centre right of the LCD. A press of 'menu' in capture mode brings up two folders on screen, one with shooting options and the second with more generic set-up features. A press of 'menu' in playback gives access to both image review plus print selection folders, while the third folder is the same set up menu. If you've used a Canon camera before, the menus will be immediately familiar: their design pretty basic but easy to navigate because of it. Mirroring these two buttons above the command wheel are a dedicated face detection button (on/off) and exposure compensation button (-/+ 2EV).

Face Detection has been improved, with the DIGIC 4-powered system now capable of recognising up to 35 faces in a scene and automatically adjusting the focus and exposure settings. Face Detection includes the Auto Red-Eye Correction, Face Detection AF/AE/FE, and Face Self-Timer technologies – the latter is a new feature that waits until it detects a new face in the frame before taking the shot. Face Select & Track allows a particular face to be tracked as they move around the frame, making sure that your chosen subject is always in focus and well-exposed.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

Playback again has its own button on the camera back, rather than squeezing in among the modes on the top dial. As noted in our review of the SX110, when you come to access the options set at four points around the control pad/command wheel it's easy for your thumb to slip round to the adjacent setting. Being pre-aware of its liveliness, this time around it didn't irritate so much, but it's a little too easy to inadvertently change the wrong setting.

Ranged around the control dial, which additionally features a function set button at its centre, are a means of accessing ISO speed (Auto, Hi, ISO 80 to 1600), flash setting, self timer or continuous shooting, plus macro or manual focus – whereby users are presented with an enlarged central portion of the screen to check focus, its distance dialed in using the aforementioned wheel.

As you'd expect when up-ending the camera, the base of the SX120 features a screw thread for a tripod and a compartment storing the two AAs and SD memory card, opened by flicking the substantial catch and pressuring it proud of the unit. Closing it is a little awkward however as you have to press down on the two AAs as you're sliding it shut.

In summary, the SX120 IS is far more evolutionary than revolutionary, falling into the incremental yearly update cycle that a lot of modern digicams seem to follow, with slightly faster processor times and the improved face detection system being the new standout highlights.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 3Mb.

The Canon PowerShot SX120 IS produced images of good quality during the review period. The Canon PowerShot SX120 IS's main drawback in terms of image quality is noise, with ISO 400 showing some noise, blurring of detail and slight colour desaturation. The noise and loss of detail get progressively worse as you go from ISO 800 to the fastest 1600 setting.

The Canon PowerShot SX120 IS handled chromatic aberrations well with just some limited purple fringing effects appearing in high contrast situations. The 12 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should increase the in-camera sharpening level.

The night photograph was OK, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds allowing you to capture enough light for most situations, but the resulting image looking rather over-processed. Macro performance is a stand-out highlight, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from the subject, although there is a lot of lens distortion and shadowing at such a close distance. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure. Anti-shake works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range.

Noise

There are 6 ISO settings available on the Canon PowerShot SX120 IS. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 80 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

The Canon PowerShot SX120 IS's 10x zoom lens offers a verastile though not particularly wide-angle focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

36mm	360mm

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 a little soft at the default sharpening setting. You can change the in-camera sharpening level if you don't like the default look.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Canon PowerShot SX120 IS handled chromatic aberrations well during the review, with fairly limited purple fringing present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Example 1 (100% Crop)	Example 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Canon PowerShot SX120 IS allows you to focus on a subject that is just 1cm away from the camera. 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.

Macro Shot	100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Canon Powershot SX120 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.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (36mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (36mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (360mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (360mm)

And here are some portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On or the Red-eye-Reduction settings caused any red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Canon Powershot SX120 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 15 seconds at ISO 80. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.

Night Shot	Night Shot (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

The Canon Powershot SX120 IS has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length	Anti-Shake Off (100% Crop)	Anti-Shake On (100% Crop)
1/4th sec / 70mm
1/4th sec / 70mm

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Canon PowerShot SX120 IS camera, which were all taken using the 10 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample Movie & Video

Product Images

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Lens Extended

Isometric View

Isometric View

Rear of the Camera

Rear of the Camera / Image Displayed

Rear of the Camera / Turned On

Rear of the Camera / Main Menu

Rear of the Camera / Function Menu

Top of the Camera

Bottom of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Side of the Camera

Front of the Camera / Pop-up Flash

Front of the Camera

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

Virtually identical to its year-old predecessor, the new Canon PowerShot SX120 doesn't represent a worthwhile upgrade for current SX110 owners, but it does remain an affordable and well-specified super-zoom that should appeal to both beginners and serious photographers alike.

The Canon PowerShot SX120 is slightly cheaper than the precious model and offers an extra megapixel, new Smart Auto mode, slightly faster processing thanks to DIGIC 4, and an improved face detection system. Pretty much everything else remains unchanged, with the same appealing combination of 10x zoom, large LCD, easy operation for the inexperienced, and manual modes for those looking for a pocketable alternative to a DSLR.

The negatives are that the Canon PowerShot SX120 eats up alkaline AAs in a couple of afternoons of shooting, the optical zoom still can't be used when filming video, there's no stereo sound or HD movie option in line with some recent competitors, the zoom mechanism is very audible, the wide-angle zoom setting is not really wide-angle by modern standards, and images can be noisy if you stray above ISO 400.

The Canon PowerShot SX120 is a cheap and more than cheerful super-zoom that delivers consistently good results, although slightly more expensive rivals do offer more bang for your buck.

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

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Canon PowerShot SX120 IS from around the web.

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