Introduction

Ease of Use

We reviewed the SX130's predecessor, the 10-megapixel, 10x zoom SX120 IS, in October 2009, and outwardly at least very little appears to have changed at first glance, apart from some subtle styling differences. There's the same tactile control layout with reasonably large buttons and dials to intentionally keep things family friendly, plus an identical 3 inch LCD screen on the rear, pop-up flash on top and large lens on the front. The lens is actually one of the few aspects of the SX130 IS to undergo any change, now offering a 12x zoom with a much more versatile wide-angle setting of 28mm, a big improvement on the SX120's 36mm optic. Less pleasing are the maximum apertures of f/3.4-5.6, respectable enough but slower then on the SX120.

Though like its forebear the SX130 IS is chunky compared with the average point and shoot, it is still smaller than the typical super-zoom or bridge camera pitched at enthusiasts, although the likes of the Panasonic DMC-TZ10 and Samsung WB650 are actually smaller whilst offering a bigger zoom. 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 handgrip, as do the SD, SDHC and newly-supported SDXC memory cards. 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 SX120, generally the camera feels substantial when gripped in the palm.

The front of the SX130 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 on/off button up top. On initial inspection the front of the SX130 and SX120 are identical, but look more closely and you'll see that the handgrip on the left now extends at a jaunty angle and tapers from wide to narrow, a redesign that offers more of a visual differentiation rather than any practical improvement. There's also a slightly more pronounced hump above the lens where the flash unit is, and slightly more chiselled edges. Two small holes indicate the built-in stereo microphone nestling top left and right 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 SX120.

Front	Rear

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. On the right hand side of the SX130 IS is the same CR1220 battery port as featured on its predecessor.

The top of the SX130 is likewise virtually identical to its predecessor. The SX130 has the exact same user-friendly control grouping as the SX120, 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, and best of all the audible mechanical buzz of the SX120's lens has been replaced by much quieter operation which really helps when shooting movies and using the zoom. With a half press of the shutter release button the SX130 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 the same as before, with the same DIGIC 4 processor on-board - current SX120 IS owners would be hard-pressed to tell the difference.

Front	Top

The Smart auto mode has been upgraded and now automatically chooses from 28 different scenes. 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 video mode, a selection of scene modes, including the four new 'creative modes', Fish-eye, Miniature, Poster and Super Vivid, plus fireworks, snow, aquarium and a Low Light ISO 3200 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.

The SX130 IS now offers the advantage over some models of being able to shoot 720p HD video at 1280x720 pixels at 30fps. It boasts stereo sound courtesy of the microphones positioned either side of its lens, although sadly there's no dedicated button to activate the video feature whichever shooting mode you're in (you still have to turn the shooting mode dial). You can also take advantage of the 12x zoom during recording, although the operational speed is drastically slowed down to help prevent noise during recording, and you can use the Miniature Effect, Colour Accent and and Colour Swap creative filters to spice up your footage. Overall a big improvement on the SX120's video mode.

The handy auto red-eye correction feature is accessible via a flash settings option that's rather hidden away among the SX130's menu screens. Red eye reduction can also be turned on/off in capture mode by delving into the same menu; like the SX120 it's not included among the options accessed via the dedicated flash button at the rear, but at least here it's 'on' that handily appears to be the default setting rather than 'off'.

Side	Pop-Up Flash

Moving to the back of the SX130 IS, we find a 3-inch LCD with a rather disappointing resolution of 230k dots, identical to its predecessor's. Playback has its own button on the camera back, rather than squeezing in among the modes on the top dial. 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. As noted in our review of the SX120, 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.

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).

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

Face Detection works well, with the DIGIC 4-powered system 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 feature 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.

As you'd expect when up-ending the camera, the base of the SX130 features a plastic 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.

Just like its predecessor, the SX130 IS is an evolutionary upgrade, falling into the same incremental yearly cycle that a lot of modern compact cameras seem to follow, with a wider-angle lens and HD movies with stereo sound and use of the optical zoom being the new standout highlights.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 3Mb.

The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS produced images of good quality during the review period. The Canon PowerShot SX130 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 SX130 IS handled chromatic aberrations well with 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 very good, with the maximum shutter speed of 15 seconds allowing you to capture enough light for most situations. 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 SX130 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 SX130 IS's 12x zoom lens offers a versatile focal range, as illustrated by these examples:

28mm	336mm

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 SX130 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 SX130 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 SX130 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 (28mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (28mm)
Flash Off - Telephoto (336mm)	Flash On - Telephoto (336mm)

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 SX130 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 SX130 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 / 28mm
0.3 sec / 336mm

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Canon PowerShot SX130 IS camera, which were all taken using the 12 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

Front of the Camera / Flash raised

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

Front of the Camera

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS is a travel-zoom camera on a budget, offering enough features, performance and image quality to appeal to both beginners and serious photographers alike. It also addresses most of the concerns that we had about its predecessor and maintains an attractively competitive price, although the design is starting to look a little dated.

Outwardly virtually identical to its year-old predecessor, the SX130 IS is actually slightly cheaper than the previous model (in the UK at least) whilst offering a few significant improvements, most notably a 28mm wide-angle zoom that's much quieter than the SX120 IS, 720p video mode with stereo sound and full use of the 12x zoom (albeit at a glacial pace), easy operation for the inexperienced, and manual modes for those looking for a pocketable alternative to a DSLR.

The only areas of concern that haven't been addressed are the noisy images if you stray above ISO 400, perhaps forgivable given the increase from 10 to 12 megapixels, the tendency to eat up alkaline AAs in a couple of afternoons of shooting (make sure to use high-powered NiMHs), the slightly slower lens in terms of maximum apertures, and the low-resolution 230k dot 3 inch LCD which seems under-specified in 2010.

So the Canon PowerShot SX130 IS may not have all the bells and whistles, styling or cutting edge features of competitive models, but it undoubtedly offers fantastic value for money for such a big-brand camera, and is easily worthy of our Recommended award.

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 SX130 IS from around the web.

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