Introduction

Ease of Use

Let's set things straight first. The Canon PowerShot Zoom is trying to do things differently in the compact camera market, but really its best attributes are as a digital monocular.

What you have is a palm-sized device weighing a mere 145g that will comfortably slip into your pocket. It features a 100-400mm optical zoom, plus 2x digital zoom that extends the reach to 800mm.

It's a three-stepped zoom starting at the widest 100mm setting. Press the zoom button and you're instantly at 400mm, press it again for the 2x digital zoom and then a third time to return to 100mm. Simple.

The scene is viewed through a 2.36-million-dot EVF that we understand is the same 0.39-inch OLED unit as found in the Canon EOS M50. It's a lovely display with 60fps refresh rate, that presents the scene even better than how your photos and videos come out (but we'll get onto image quality later).

Crucially, what sets the PowerShot Zoom viewing experience apart from much less expensive optical monoculars is that has an always-on 4-axis optical image stabilisation.

When viewing a scene at such high magnifications of 400mm and beyond, slight hand movements are magnified and such extreme shake can make viewing nauseating. Stabilisation transforms the handling, countering those movements, smoothing out the viewing experience.

Certainly, when the photo button is semi depressed to focus, stabilisation is very effective and it's possible to pan with subjects such as birds in flight with relative ease. That photo button is a tad sensitive though and the electronic shutter is silent, so you may find yourself taking shots unawares instead, when you didn't necessarily want to.

Should you opt for video capture, stabilisation is pretty good but not perfect. At 100mm it's fine, but at the 400mm and 800mm settings it's understandably a bit shaky and you'll need a really steady hand.

We know that this is a pocket device, but a thread on the underside to attach a tripod would have been really handy - we certainly could have made use of one during this test for capturing steadier video.

All being said, if your main goal is to view a scene and make some snapshots, then the EVF combined with stabilised lens serve the purpose really well.

In every sense of the word, the PowerShot Zoom is a fair weather device. For instance, the body is plastic and not weather-sealed. The EVF, despite providing a crisp display, is still digital and it does suffer from noise a little too soon once the sun has gone. And of course the image sensor is tiny, so image quality plummets as the light fades. (But again, we'll get onto IQ that later.)

A short tour around the camera. It features five buttons; power, zoom, menu, photo and video. Each button is entirely logical in its function - the latter two are used to start and stop image and video capture, while the zoom button cycles through the three-stepped zoom.

The layout is intuitive enough. Give it time and it's possible to memorise the layout well enough to operate the controls without taking your eye away from the viewfinder.

Overall, we do like the form factor and design of the PowerShot Zoom. It fits comfortably in the hand and the buttons are at your fingertips. We'd tweak the position of the power button, really it's too close to the zoom button which is your most commonly used control.

You'll twig that there is no LCD screen. Therefore, liveview, image playback and menus are all seen through that EVF. Menu navigation is made entirely by those buttons - there's no control wheel. What you're seeing underneath the viewfinder is the diopter adjustment (-3 to +1m), so you'll be able to focus the screen properly whatever the condition of your eyesight.

To cycle through the menu, you'll need to keep pressing the photo (up) and video (down) buttons and select using the zoom button. It's simple enough once you get the hang of it and honestly there is so little in the menu that you'll reach your desired control soon enough.

In fact, after half a day's use, we opted to set the camera up how we like it and have rarely needed to use the menu since. With pretty much everything automated, from exposure control to image size and so on, plus very few features, you don't really need a control wheel.

So what changes can you make? There's a choice between single and continuous shooting. The latter is 10fps and you'll squeeze around 30 shots out of this mode before the camera slows up.

Given this really is a viewing device for action, we kept the camera in continuous shooting mode. Also, that very thought process informed our choice of tracking AF over single point AF (fixed centre).

One other manual selection is exposure compensation. The camera automatically selects ISO and shutter speed while aperture is fixed, so if the exposure is off then exposure compensation is one method to fix the problem.

Honestly, auto exposure acquired by the 384-zone evaluative metering is too bright for our liking, especially in the shade, and often resulted in blown out highlights in photos. We quickly opted to leave exposure compensation to -1EV.

A different technique for exposure is to find a brighter area in the scene around your subject - for instance point to the sky - then semi-depress the shutter to take an exposure measurement and then recompose the scene. It's a real faff.

The recomposition technique is needed too much for our liking because it also fixes another issue; poor autofocus. Quite possibly, autofocus has been our biggest handling frustration, plus there is no manual focus option.

When tracking subjects at a distance in good light, the contrast-detection autofocus is OK enough. It will track a bird in flight pretty well. But as soon the scene is close and cluttered - take a bird on a branch 15ft away, you'll struggle to acquire a sharp focus.

What happens in closer-range scenarios with both fixed-centre-single-point AF and tracking AF is a focus hunt that usually results in a focus drop to the background. You'll often have to scour the surroundings at a similar distance to your subject in the hope of picking up a sharp focus to then recompose the scene. Yes, what a faff.

Another hindrance is the surprisingly limited minimum focus distance. At 100mm it's 1m which is OK, but more restricting is the 4.5m minimum focus distance at 400mm. To put this into context, you wont get anywhere near filling the frame with small birdlife when using the 400mm setting. Sure, the PowerShot Zoom gives you a closer look, but it's not close close.

Those auto exposure and auto focus hindrances do affect the handling of the PowerShot Zoom, but pose an even greater adverse impact on the images and videos you can make.

Photos and videos are recorded onto a micro SD card - there's a blast from the past! Inside the same door is a USB-C slot through which the PowerShot Zoom is charged.

According to Canon, on a full charge you'll get about 70 minutes of EVF time, 60 minutes of video record time or 150-shots. We've been able to squeeze significantly more shots out of the PowerShot Zoom when using the 10fps continuous shooting mode.

The PowerShot Zoom has a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi function in order to pair with the Canon Camera Connect app. At the time of writing, the app was not updated for compatibility with the camera, so we were unable to check it out.

Without a tripod mount, we can't see the camera being used for remote shooting through the app, although for easier image playback it will be handy, plus GPS data can be recorded.

That's a look around the Canon PowerShot Zoom. Now let's explore its photo and video quality.

Image Quality

Try thinking of the Canon PowerShot Zoom as a digital monocular that can take 12MP JPEG pictures and full HD videos for reference, rather than a competent compact camera with an unusual design.

In short, image quality is a real let down. Perhaps it's not the point, but don't stop us dreaming.

The lens construction is actually quite complex, comprising 11 elements in 8 groups. The 100mm setting has a fixed f/5.6 aperture and is the sharpest focal length of the lens. At 400mm, the aperture is fixed to f/6.3 and this setting is a little softer, although there are other factors at play too, such as atmospheric haze and so on. Of course, the 800mm digital setting is the worst of the bunch for pictures.

Using the older Digic 8 processor, the Canon PowerShot Zoom offers one picture format of 12MP JPEG pictures (4000x3000), plus Full HD videos at 30fps capped to ten minutes. Really, there is some dated tech in here and you'll experience a performance lag post capture.

Images are recorded using a tiny 1/3in sensor - that's smaller than a standard smartphone sensor. It's no surprise then that the PowerShot Zoom really is a fair weather camera. In anything but sunlight, pictures a mushy. Frankly, even in good light it is clear that we're looking at digital pictures.

There is very little control over image making and virtually every setting is automatic, which for such a camera is no bad thing. Shutter speed, fixed aperture, auto ISO (with a ISO 100-3200 range), no picture profiles.

You can't shoot RAW format, so exposures need to be right or else you won't be able to recover detail lost in blown out highlights or dark shadows. We've already mentioned the challenges that evaluative metering poses.

To put image quality into context, we made virtually identical pictures using the Canon Powershot Zoom's 100mm setting and the Vivo X51 smartphone's 5x telephoto lens (128mm) and picture quality was better with the phone.

The Powershot Zoom does have the upper hand over smartphones in that it is able to optically zoom to 400mm. Again though, if image making is the concern, you have better options at 400mm for the same price tag - think of a camera like the Panasonic Lumix TZ90.

With its tiny sensor, a maximum f/6.3 aperture at 400mm and fast shutter speeds needed to obtain a blur-free image given the telephoto focal length, the Canon PowerShot Zoom is pushed to its limits in anything but bright sunlight.

Cloudy day images need a high sensitivity setting of around ISO 1000 - it sure is noisy. Anyway, you get the picture. The Canon PowerShot Zoom is a competent monocular but image quality is not its strength.

Focal Range

100mm

400mm

800mm

100mm

400mm

800mm

Sample Images

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

Well, the Canon PowerShot Zoom grabbed our attention. From its curious design and function, this quirky 'camera' does stand out and Canon should be commended for venturing out-the-box. Unfortunately, the delivery is more miss than hit.

Let's start with the positives. We like the design. The PowerShot Zoom is tiny, lightweight and its button layout is logical enough. After some adjustment, you should be able to operate the zoom single-handed with you eye up to the viewfinder.

The 0.39-inch EVF with 2.36-million-dot resolution and 60fps refresh rate provides a clear and smooth viewing experience, being paired with the decent optical stabilisation. This is fundamentally the single and most important reason to consider the PowerShot Zoom.

Is the smooth and stable handheld viewing experience alone enough to merit the significant higher price over an optical monocular? Well, maybe, but the PowerShot Zoom can take photos and videos, too.

Sadly, we cannot recommend the Canon PowerShot Zoom as a photographic tool. Image quality is poor, while autofocus performance and limitation is frustrating when closer to subjects. This is some old tech in a new monocular shell.

Shift your stance on the PowerShot Zoom a little, considering its photo and video capability purely as a bonus to its versatility as a digital monocular, and it fares better.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	3
Features	2.5
Ease-of-use	3
Image quality	2
Value for money	3

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Canon PowerShot Zoom.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Canon PowerShot Zoom from around the web.

Specifications

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