The Analysis

The most attractive feature of the Canon SX100IS is undoubtedly its 36 - 360 mm (equivalent) 10x optical zoom lens. It is quick and responds to light flicks of the zoom rocker quite well, and it's pretty accurate as well. The pictures we shot had good sharpness, contrast, exposure, and skin tone. The macro performance is excellent. The camera, however, suffers from a bad case of chromatic aberration.

Focusing is fast and accurate; we got very few out-of-focus images. It's not often that the SX100 IS will refuse to get a focus lock. Manual focusing is great, too, and with the assistance of the Face Detection AF system, the camera locates up to nine faces (as we saw in our tests) in an image, automatically prioritizes the dominant subject, and sets the focus and exposure of the image. (In case the camera cannot detect a face in the scene, it focuses at the center by default.)

Almost all camera manufacturers have their own version of Face Recognition, but Canon's implementation has been one of the best. The SX100 IS performs well in low-light conditions as well, largely due to the powerful AF assist lamp.

The SX100 has a start-up time of about 2 to 3 seconds, which is decent for an average digicam. The shot-to-shot times, though, are pretty high - about 2.5 to 3 seconds on an average. When using the flash, the shot-to-shot times go as high as 5 seconds. Although these timings are quite high, they won't really trouble those who usually just point and shoot.

The movies we shot were of good quality in both the available shooting resolutions, 640 x 480 and 320 x 240, and at all frame rates.

Now here's what we didn't like about the camera. For one, the Red-Eye Reduction system failed to work most of the time. Secondly, as with the A720 IS, the use of two AA batteries results in a delayed flash cycle. This particular drawback comes into the picture (pun intended) while taking flash shots (even when the battery level is high). At times, the delay can be more than 5 seconds between the flashes, and that's rather irritating.

Next, the 2.5-inch LCD, even with a 172,000 pixel resolution, is a letdown. We found the outdoor visibility below average, while in low-light situations, the screen was easy to view, since it "gains up" automatically when there's less ambient light.