Canon’s new SX10 IS is a 10 MP camera with an enormous 20x optical zoom that makes it perfect for telephoto shots. It’s a little larger than most point-and-shoot cameras, and features a provision to mount a flash. There’s a foldable screen, which makes taking photos in awkward angles very simple, but it’s only a 2-5-inch. The camera is powered by four AA batteries that significantly increase its weight. The body feels heavy, but the side of the hand grip doesn’t feel very sturdy.

With this kind of zoom, the image stabilisation has to be good. The SX10’s image stabilisation works well on really close range shots, but at the telephoto end, things get out of control. The in-built flash is powerful and useful to light up large areas. The focus-assist light is also powerful. The SX10 has a nice set of additions. The dedicated video recording button is one of them. The image preview buttons are lined up neatly on the right side of the camera.

Enhancements in the interface are in the form of animations for changing aperture size and shutter speed. Image quality is decent in well-lit areas, but turning the ISO level up beyond 800 adds a lot of noise to the image. Below is 800, the grain is within acceptable limits. Colours look normal and clicking macro photos are easy. Images aren’t as crisp as expected at optimum lighting conditions. In low-light scenes, we had some problems focussing. With it’s huge zoom, the motor adds a little vibration while shooting. Although the huge zoom is very rare to find in a camera, it’s not impressive either. The use for 20x optical zoom isn’t very necessary for every user but it’s a nice thing to have. Rs. 25,995 is still a decent price keeping in mind everything about this camera.

Canon’s new SX10 IS is a 10 MP camera with an enormous 20x optical zoom that makes it perfect for telephoto shots. It’s a little larger than most...