Canon PowerShot SX160 is 16.0 MP Digital Camera with 16x Wide-Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3.0-Inch LCD (Black)
Canon PowerShot SX160 is 16.0 MP Digital Camera with 16x Wide-Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3.0-Inch LCD (Black)
- Make sure this fits by entering your model number.
- 16x Optical Zoom with 28mm Wide-Angle lens
- DIGIC 4 Image Processor
- 3.0-inch LCD
- 720p HD video in stereo sound
- AA battery power
Brand : Canon
Category : Electronics,Camera & Photo,Digital Cameras,Point & Shoot Digital Cameras
Rating : 4.3
Review Count : 902
Canon PowerShot SX160 is 16.0 MP Digital Camera with 16x Wide-Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3.0-Inch LCD (Black)
- The media could not be loaded. Bottom line: The Canon SX160 is a good buy for the price point. It is not a Canon PowerShot SX260 HS 12.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 20x Image Stabilized Zoom 25mm Wide-Angle Lens and 1080p Full-HD Video (Black) , which I suppose is what most of us really want in the end. (Better CMOS sensor, better 20x zoom, better 30fps HD video, better hi-res LCD. (Don\'t need no steekin\' GPS. But the 240SX isn\'t sold in the USA.)) But the SX260 cost almost $100 more than what I paid for the SX160 and the SX260 doesn\'t run on AA batteries, which is of prime importance to me. If Canon made an AA version of the SX260, stuffing the better guts of the 260 into the body of the 160, I\'d jump. But since Canon doesn\'t, the SX160 will suffice.Long review to follow. Pick and choose what you want to read.For comparison purposes, my previous camera, still working well, is a Canon PowerShot A540. A 6MP, 4x optical, AA powered, full featured camera. (Has Manual mode, for example.) I was looking to upgrade to a similar AA battery powered camera with Image Stabilization (IS) and more zoom. (Those expensive, proprietary Li-ions are always dying on you in the middle of nowhere. If you don\'t carry a spare, you need to carry a charger and find 120v AC. Whereas carrying or finding extra AA\'s with you on a trip is cheap backup.) The pickin\'s for AA powered cameras are slim.Pickin\'s are even slimmer if you\'re looking for a two-cell camera. (Four AA batteries, unless Lithium AA, make a camera too heavy for my taste.) At the time I bought the SX160, I could only find two candidates: One, the low end Canon\'s, like the Canon PowerShot A1300 16.0 MP Digital Camera with 5x Digital Image Stabilized Zoom 28mm Wide-Angle Lens with 720p HD Video Recording (Silver) for $100. And the SX160 for a little more.---------UPDATE - Check out the Sony DSC-H200 Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD (Black) . Costs about the same as the SX260. Not pocketable, and 4 cell. But might be a better camera. Optical zoom while recording video.UPDATE - I just learned about the Pentax X-5 Digital Camera with 26x Optical Zoom and 3\" LCD (Black) , a four cell AA camera. Fry\'s Electronics is selling it for $200 this week. CMOS sensor, 26x zoom, high display LCD, Electronic viewfinder, etc. It won\'t fit in your pocket, but some say the SX160 won\'t either and needs a case. See the customer image of the moon there and compare to mine here.UPDATE - There is now also the new Nikon COOLPIX L610 16 MP Digital Camera with 14x Zoom NIKKOR Glass Lens and 3-inch LCD (Black) two AA camera with arguably better specs: CMOS sensor, higher res LCD; 30fps HD video (plus slo-mo 60fps), glass lens, better ergonomic body design. All for the same price as the SX160. (But no optical zoom when recording movies.) The L610 is narrowly focused on the \"point and shoot\" consumer market only. It doesn\'t have PASM which would be a deal breaker for many.----------The A1300 would have met my requirements, albeit a 5x zoom isn\'t much of an increase from my ol\' 4x. But you get a lot more bang for the buck with the SX160.So when the price of the SX160 dropped to $150, I jumped. I bought it with a Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 10 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC10E card that Amazon impulse-marketed me when I ordered the camera, which is more than enough capacity. (Update: And which CrystalDiskMark\'s above 10MB/sec write.)Since everyone else here is focusing on the positives, I\'ll primarily focus on the negatives to round out the reviews. (camera. focus. negatives. get it?) UPDATE: For example, as others are saying here, it is a tad slow with respect to shutter lag. Been taking pictures of a very energetic spaniel. Seems to be about a 1/4 second delay in what the camera captures after I press the shutter - even with the focus and exposure set to manual (so that there\'s nothing for the camera to think about).And so that you know as you read this review, I never used the automatic features in my A540, like the AUTO mode or AiAF. I don\'t expect to be using these or all the new \"tracking, face finding, anti-blink\" stuff they\'ve put in the SX160 now. (Although they are fascinating to watch in action.) I know how to focus, and I primarily use the Program mode for 99% of my photos.Ergonomics: My previous camera, the Canon Powershot A540, had a protrusion on the right front of the body, near where the batteries go, which made a fantastic hand hold. (A so-called \"Grip.\") Exactly like what Canon still does on the A3100. (And A810.) Such a grip places your finger more naturally on the shutter button and zoom control too. (See my customer images.)Unfortunately, even though Canon knew how to do it with the A540 and knows how do it in the A3100, the SX160IS does not have this important ergonomic feature. (Sometime shortly after the A540, the body design on the PowerShots changed to resemble the ELPH\'s. Now they\'ve brought back the old A540 style in the A3100. It\'s what customers want.) In fact, since there\'s no grip per se and since the camera is heavier (bigger lens) and longer, it tends to lever out of your hand. You cannot easily hold the camera with one hand without it rotating CCW.They put a chrome-colored strip on the front to give your fingertips a place to anchor, but that\'s more like using your fingertips while rock climbing. As such, you\'ll definitely want to use the wrist strap (included) with this camera as a safety net for when it slips and falls out of your hand.(See my fuzzy strip mod in customer images which makes the camera significantly easier to hold.) As it is now, you have to pinch the camera with your thumb and fingers. (More on that later.) Which makes it basically a two-handed camera.As such, I often end up unintentionally covering up the AF assist beam with a finger, since it\'s kinda close to the upper left part of the camera.Zoom noise in video: Unlike reviewer Yarii\'s, my camera was made in Malaysia. (Not Japan, like hers.) And unlike reviewer Yarii\'s, I can hear more \"zoom noise\" (a \"whirring\" of gears) in my camera than hers when zooming while taking movies. (Find her video on YT by searching for \"Canon SX160 Zoom Motor Noise Test.\" Turn your volume up all the way if you want to hear the noise.) I\'ve posted a sample video with this review of what mine sounds like during zoom.The manual warns the camera might record mechanical noise while zooming. Fair enough. Better than muting the audio, as some manufacturers do. I noticed, during the many takes of making my video for you, the whirring came and went. So maybe after the gears \"break in\" (what a horrible thought) the noise will stop?Battery compartment: The markings that show the proper orientation for the AA batteries are merely black letters in the black plastic inside the black (dark) battery compartment. Hard for aging eyes to see the polarity marks. See my Metallic Sharpie mod in customer images to mitigate this.Read the Manual: For the most part, the menu and buttons are like my old A540. But different enough that I\'m going to have to read the PDF manual on the CD.Nit: Unfortunately, the CD won\'t play in my computer. (A late model PC.) Will try in someone elses box and see what happens. (Update: CD plays in a friend\'s computer. Cheap media?) BTW, the User\'s Guide on the Canon website is now up to version CDD. (Revised from CDC on the CD. I don\'t know what changed.)Features & more ergonomics: After reading the User Guide (twice) - wow, what a feature rich camera! I doubt I\'ll be able to remember all the trick things it can do. (And I\'m an engineer type, who finds it easy to remember geeky stuff like that.) Among them are several \"safety features.\" The camera can automatically keep you from overexposing on flash. You can set it to double check your focus for you when you use Manual Focus. Etc. (I said I don\'t use that Auto stuff. But I do let it help me here.) UPDATE: I\'ve been experimenting with continuous focus, tracking AF, servo AF, etc. while taking pictures of a very energetic spaniel. It\'s not clear to me what the subtle differences are of those features. It would help if Canon would explain more in the manual how Servo AF differs from say, Tracking AF, and why you\'d select one over the other.====UPDATE: Just got back from taking photos from a small plane. I dearly miss the old \"Landscape\" scene mode, which set the Manual Focus to infinity for you. I can set the Manual focus to infinity by hand on the SX160 (3 steps), but since I have Safety MF set to ON, the camera often decrements the focus in flight down from infinity. I dunno why. Maybe it sees a reflection on the canopy? Clouds aren\'t the easiest thing to focus on either. So now I need to remember to do a fourth step to take landscapes: turn off Safety MF.16:9 format simply cuts off the top and bottom of 4:3 format. Better to leave the camera in 4:3 and crop at home for 16:9 as you desire.So Canon, how about a dedicated Landscape mode again that sets MF to infinity and turns off Safety MF? There\'s room on the Mode dial for it.====Even if I could remember all the trick things it could do, it\'s difficult to make it do them all. That\'s because some features require you press half way down the smallish shutter button while simultaneously pressing another button on the camera, presumably with your thumb. There\'s a small thumb friction pad area on the back side of the camera, expecting you\'ll be pinching the camera there to hold it. But when your thumb-your opposing grip-moves to push a button, you lose your grip on the camera! So if you move your thumb to access one of these two step inputs, you need to use two hands.But even if I could do the tricks, I don\'t want to do all the trick things this camera can do. Why would I want to fisheye a photo in the camera? Why not take a good shot and fisheye it later on software at home? Same with B/W scene. I can take the color out at home. Or why would I edit a shot on a dinky lowish res LCD on the camera when I can edit it on a larger laptop or desktop screen later?[I haven\'t played much with the AUTO mode, but it\'s clear a lot of the resources of this camera were spent on first time users (i.e., point and shoot) who apparently want gee-whiz gimmickry tricks. Like \"Read my mind and take the picture for me.\"]Image Stabilization inconsistency: The manual says that YOU need to turn off image stabilization when on tripod. Others here say it turns off automatically. As does the description here on Amazon: \"When tripod use is detected, the Image Stabilizer is stopped because it is not needed.\" Which is it?Ahhh... the answer is that when the Intelligent IS notices that the camera isn\'t moving (via the built in accelerometer), the IS turns off. Goes into \"tripod\" mode.\" But it doesn\'t really detect a tripod. It\'ll go into \"tripod\" mode if stationary on a table.However, in any other mode but Auto, the User Guide says you need to turn IS off when using a tripod. Why? Simply to save power? I dunno. Does it affect picture quality? Apparently it could. I found this quote in a Samsung camera manual about their IS mode with tripod: \"If you use the OIS function with a tripod, your images may be blurred by the vibration of the OIS sensor. Deactivate the OIS function when using a tripod.\" Interesting. As an engineer, I can understand how dithering of the IS due to circuit noise could degrade an image if taken on tripod. So, then, maybe you should turn IS off when on tripod?But upon more testing, I found this isn\'t necessary with the SX160. The IS turns off automatically in any mode when on tripod. It just won\'t annunciate to you with an icon that IS has turned off (that is, entering \"tripod mode\") as shows in AUTO. So the Guide seems inconsistent, telling you to turn IS off on tripod. You don\'t have to.[I\'ve taken demanding shots of the a street sign at night at 15 seconds (ISO 100, f5.6 full zoom) in M mode on a tripod with IS manually enabled/disabled. (See my customer image.) No difference that I can discern with IS on/off when pixel peeking. Moreover, I can jiggle the camera on the tripod with IS ostensibly enabled but I can tell the IS has turned itself off. (That is, when I jiggle the camera, the LCD image will jiggle for a half second, showing the IS was off. And then it\'ll suddenly lock in after the camera is jiggled, showing the IS comes back on. So the camera does turn IS off automatically for you when the camera is stationary.]More ergonomics: The four way multi-button has a rotating bezel around it. Hmmm... some cute feature someone in Marketing came up with? You can do almost everything with the Left/Right toggle that you can do by rotating the bezel. But there are a few things you can ONLY do with the Left/Right toggle that you can\'t do by rotating the bezel. And there are a few things you can only do with the bezel you can\'t do with the buttons. So it\'s inconsistent and I often find myself hitting left/right when I should rotate. They should change it so you use one or the other for certain tasks, but not both.FWIW, I\'m a 6 foot skinny man, and my hands aren\'t as large as your average mid-west farmer type male. I can spin the bezel fairly well, but I sometimes toggle left/right by accident when rotating the bezel. I\'d be surprised if a large burly man with big fingers can use it well. (A timer that inhibited toggle for a quarter second after using the bezel would minimize this problem.)Blinkie: Not stated obviously in the User Guide (I didn\'t understand what they were trying to say until I searched the web on how to read histograms and learned about \"Blinkies\"), one of the Display pages for reviewing your photos (the page with the histogram) blinks overexposed parts of your image in pseudo-reverse video. Canon might want to offer blinkie off/on on the basic review page too. A very handy feature.Counter-intuitive Movie mode: The way Movie mode works is counter-intuitive. On my old A540 (and another reviewer here tells me as late as the SX130), when you were in the Movie mode and pushed the shutter button, guess what? It started taking movies! But now it takes a snapshot. (But I have no idea what mode it takes a snapshot in when you\'re in Movie mode. Does it revert to Auto? Your \"P\" settings?) Anyway, when in the Movie mode, you still have to press the Movie button to start a movie. (A reviewer here says the Movie button will follow certain scene settings. The manual implies that too. It does, but it\'s subtle. For example, taking a movie at night in Fireworks mode makes the colors of street lights a little more orangish.)Maybe I\'m missing something, but I see no reason to ever switch to Movie mode on this camera to take a movie. I\'ll just start movies from the \"P\" mode, where I\'m usually at. (A YouTube reviewer on the Canon SX260 says you only go into Movie mode to select iFrame format. The Guide says you can control exposure (\"brightness\") of movies only in the Movie mode.)It records movie audio in \"stereo.\" Two mics, maybe two inches apart. Pretty useless stereo. Perhaps a marketing feature. Hey, Canon, if you\'re reading this, if you go back to mono and phase the two mic\'s, maybe you can get some directionality out of them? THAT would really be a marketing feature!Another \"neat idea\", wouldn\'t it be neat if the Auto-magnify AF thingie painted a green box around the zoom area after it acquired focus? That would give more user feedback that you\'ve locked focus.Another neat feature would be \"Maximum AUTO ISO.\" That is, I\'d like to set it so it can select the ISO automatically but not go past 400. (For example.) Graininess is too much past 400. (Either that or make the images less noisy in the first place.)Paparazzi mode: Continuous mode shooting is a lot slower than my old A540. The SX160 isn\'t anywhere near as fast as old film cameras that you\'d hear go \"click, click, click.\" (Tested with M1, Fine on the SX160.) Interestingly, the delay doesn\'t seem to be longer at L. Or shorter at S and Superfine. Must be a bottleneck elsewhere.In the manual, it says the special low light level scene will take fast continuous shots. it\'s true. It flies in that mode. 2.8 shots/sec according to the Guide. (But no Date stamp. I wonder what else they\'re not post processing?) But who\'s going to remember you have to take two steps to get into this fast continuous mode? (Incidentally, in this low light mode, I\'ve seen ISO as high as 6400.)[Here\'s an interesting test to see how long it takes Canon to post-process before writing to your SD card. Take the SD card out and take a photo. It\'ll be a second or so before the camera tells you it can\'t write the image to memory. So it\'s doing a lot of thinking in there. I wonder if we\'re really making progress with fancy processors and the push for more MP?]Wish list: I realize I\'m asking too much at this price point, but I miss a viewfinder for sunny days when it\'s hard to see the screen. Even an Electronic Viewfinder would be helpful, although where would they put it with the flash there already? (Moving the flash where there did on the SX160 and making it pop up with a push of a button was a big improvement over the auto popup many reviewers didn\'t like on the Canon SX230.) Anyway, I can see the screen in direct sun in Arizona. Usable, albeit a little washed out. (I really like that \"Hold the DISP button to get max brightness\" feature.) Glare is sometimes a problem and I sometimes see the reflection of my face in the LCD. (Of course I put a screen protector on the LCD.)Flash: Speaking of flash, the new Slow Syncho feature is a clever way to mitigate the notorious weak flash in the PowerShot line. Effectively increases the flash range.I notice too that the flash recharge/recycle time is faster than my old A540, using the same batteries. So that\'s better. But it still takes a second or two between flash shots.===UPDATE: I have my SX160 set for 3 seconds of detailed review, so I can study the photo and histogram of the image I just took. But when you use flash, the display shuts off immediately after a shot while the flash is charging. Canon does that so they can send more power to charge the flash and recycle faster. But by the time the flash charges, the review timeout is over and you can\'t see the image you just took!I wonder if Canon could stuff two BFC\'s (Big Fat Capacitor) in there for the flash, alternating between them to drive the flash? That way, after taking one flash picture, you\'d have the second BFC come on line, already charged for the next shot. The capacitor that just drained can then charge more leisurely in the background so the display can stay on all the time. Call it \"Burst2Flash\" and patent it.===Zooming on Zoom: Interestingly, the zoom lever is not pressure sensitive. You\'re either zooming or you\'re not. At full speed. No fast/slow. I never noticed it\'s that way on my old A540 too. But there\'s so much zoom on the SX160, the motor is too fast for me for still images. (It\'s slower when taking movies, per my video clip above.) It\'s hard to frame a zoom shot just right for stills. Seems like Canon figured you\'d be either all in or all out. They should either slow the zoom down (easy firmware fix) or make a two step zoom. (Expensive hardware change.)Quality Control: I have one or two pixels stuck somewhere. (Brand new out of the box.) When I go into a dark room and look at the display, I see two pixels stuck on the LCD. (User Guide says this can\'t be helped.) When I take a photo of the moon and review it on the computer, I see one stuck pixel in the actual image. See my customer image, above. (I called Canon. One pixel does not a defective camera make for warranty return purposes. Said they would fix if very obviously bad.)Otherwise, the picture quality seems fine to me, even at L SF. Dynamic range is best with L SF. (Since a 16GB card holds 1000 L SF images, and since the camera isn\'t any slower processing L SF images, I see no reason to not use L SF all the time. Better to have too much image data than too little.)A UK magazine review was critical of the image quality, saying it was only average. Said noise starts to be a problem at ISO 200 and up. Yes, there\'s about 30% more noise from 100 to 200. (A WAG. Hey, it\'s only a CCD sensor. Not CMOS.) But pictures seem as good, if not better, than my old A540. So I\'m content. (After doing my moon shot, I searched Google images and found some shots of the moon like mine, taken with 20X Canon cameras. They were amazing. But those were $500 CMOS units with better lenses.)Conclusion: While I said this review would focus mostly on the negative, if you can live with the ergonomic shortcomings (I can) it\'s a good buy. Especially at this price point. Especially considering I\'m moving up from an old Canon A540. I simply wanted an improved version of it, an AA powered camera with more zoom, image stabilization, (silent) optical zoom in movie mode and better flash. (I don\'t care about HD video. 640 at 30fps is fine for YouTube and Amazon reviews.) This is a big improvement for me. If you\'re coming from last year\'s model, say the Canon SX150, maybe not so much.The SX160 IS is about as close as I can get right now to the grown up A540 I wanted. A camera to throw in my bag or pocket, to always have with me whenever I need a camera that\'s better than a cell phone camera. I don\'t need a perfect image. Just one that\'s good enough. (And truth be told, most of us look at images on screen anyway nowadays.)
- The media could not be loaded. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&URGENT UPDATE, September, 2013:If you prefer using 2-AA batteries in a digital camera - as I do very much - then you seriously need to consider buying a Canon SX160, now, while the supplies still last. The new model SX170 runs on a Canon NB-6LH proprietary battery which costs $38 on Amazon for each spare battery, and it will only take about half as many shots per charge. The Canon SX160 is now the last remaining 2-AA battery, full-featured, full-function, compact, travel & field camera left on the entire worldwide market. When the remaining ones are gone, they are gone forever.I have owned and used all of them from the SX100 to the SX160. I have long-considered the Canon SX100 line of cameras to be \"The Best 2-AA-Battery All-Purpose Travel and Field Cameras Ever Made.\" I have posted 5-star reviews of both the SX150 and SX160 here on Amazon during the last two years, and I have made it abundantly clear why I feel so strongly favorable of them.Both cameras - the SX160 and SX170 - have exactly the same features, the same functions, and the same specs - except for the batteries. Functionally they both work exactly the same, and they both produce identical quality pictures. No changes were made to either the sensor or to the DIGIC 4 image processor to bring any improvement to the final images produced by the SX170.But it\'s your call.If you like using 2-AA batteries in a full-featured, compact, travel & field digital camera, then you need to act now. As for myself, I just bought two of them. The Canon SX160 is still my number one favorite camera I have ever owned in my life, and I still plan to keep right on using it for many pleasant years yet to come.Sincerely, and with best wishes to everyone, John AKA SLOphoto1&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&Tuesday, September 18, 2012 10 AM -- I bought the Canon SX160 IS today. (Early-Sale Source.) I\'ve tested it out at home, and everything works great! Here are some observations and results.&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&Video Added, Friday, September 21, 2012 at 11 AM. Flyover of the Space Shuttle, almost over my house in Monterey, CA, shot with the Canon SX160 at 16X zoom using a tripod mount.&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&Oct. 17, 2012 Finally got my Red Canon SX160 locally from Green\'s Camera World here in the Del Monte Shopping Center in Monterey. Beautiful right out of the pristine box. I love it!&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&Oct. 25, 2012 Posted three images I recently took to the users\' image gallery here with this camera. They show what this camera can do with the right adjustments in Manual Mode. (I give the exact adjustments for each one.) A Monterey Sunrise, A Blue Jay on a Wire at 16X zoom, and a Balcony View of Monterey Bay. Enjoy!&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&The Canon SX160IS is - in my personal opinion - the best 2-AA battery, all-purpose travel and field camera ever made. It is the latest and the best of a long line of highly dependable point-and-shoot megazoom cameras - the Canon SX100 series - which began five years ago in September 2007. With its combined features, its reliability, its versatility, and it\'s very economical price there is absolutely nothing else like it available today.It is the only quality digital camera of its type left in the world that still runs on 2-AA batteries. In the world of digital cameras, it stands alone as completely unique. It is the last one its kind, and the very best one manufactured to date. And it\'s a Canon.A WORD OF CAUTION: This camera is not ideal for everyone. There is no point buying something that you are not going to like. If you don\'t like AA batteries, then you won\'t like this camera. Its features probably don\'t outweigh its faults unless you really want to use AA batteries. It does not have a viewfinder, none of this line of cameras ever has, so if you want a viewfinder then this camera simply will not work for you. Also, for the record, this camera is not a fast-action camera. It is not the best camera for taking pictures of fast-moving children or sports action shots. Photos taken with it at higher ISOs (film speed) are pretty grainy even in good light. And the flash-recovery time is notoriously - there is no other word for it - slow! If any of this won\'t work for you in your own individual situation, then you really need to look elsewhere, seriously, because this camera simply will not meet your needs and will only frustrate you when you try to use it.The SX160 has its own charm, but it\'s rather old-fashioned in style and a bit slow in operation. It\'s kind of like owning the latest version of a classic car. It feels like a classic, and after five years and six very successful models it is actually becoming a classic in its own right. If that idea appeals to you, then you will probably like the SX160 very much. For photographing things like landscapes, portraits, architecture, and pretty much anything without a lot of fast motion in it, it functions very well, and it has an excellent zoom. Realistically, you will need a tripod at times if you want to get the best quality shots with it, especially for lower-light shots, long-exposure night shots and for very precise full-telephoto shots.If that still appeals to you, then this review of the SX160 is addressed to you.I have owned and used all six of the cameras in this line over the years - SX100 (2007,) SX110 (2008,) SX120 (2009,) SX130 (2010,) SX150 (2011,) and now the SX160. I have also had an extra two of these cameras converted internally to shoot infrared photographs. Over the years I have used these cameras to photograph everything from brilliant outdoor landscapes to the wispy lights of the Aurora Borealis and out to some 12X images of the four moons of Jupiter (Now you can even do 16X images of them.) These cameras have shown themselves to be very versatile field cameras for me, very dependable, and have always worked out very well for me all the way around. After five years, I am very familiar with them, and I prefer them for general purpose, travel and field photography above all other cameras on the market today.I always carry my current model of this camera with me wherever I go, and if I am on a vacation or field trip, I also carry last year\'s model with me as a backup camera. They produce an excellent quality image (for a small sensor) and they have all the features I personally want to do a wide range of photography. And in countless situations - particularly while traveling - I have been very, very glad that I had with me a camera that still ran on AA batteries. I always carry at least one or two extra pairs of eneloop rechargeable AAs with me, and the few times when even those ran out on me I was always able to find a pack of standard AA alkaline batteries nearby - anywhere in the world - to keep on shooting.I shoot mostly in Manual mode, but Auto Mode also does an excellent job in selecting the proper settings for you. If I am unsure of the lighting in any one situation, I always make sure to take at least a few shots in Auto Mode myself, just in case.The SX160 is very much like the previous model, the SX150 (which I also reviewed here at 5-stars.) I\'m not going to list all the basic features about the SX160, since they are easy to find in any professional review, or from Canon\'s own website. But I will point out in particular what is new with the SX160, and there are some nice new features. So moving right along then...PART 2 -- HERE\'S WHAT IS NEW with the Canon SX160IS.16 MEGAPIXEL IMAGE and 16X ZOOM: Last year\'s model SX150 had a 12X zoom and took a 14 megapixel image. This year\'s model SX160 has a 16X zoom and takes a 16 megapixel image. Most people will certainly like that better.LIVE PREVIEW: (This is not new, but it is an important reminder): Canon cameras have something called an a \"Live Preview\" on the LCD.* Other brands only have \"Live View,\" but that\'s not the same thing.Other Cameras: \"Live View\" means you see on the LCD only what the camera sees - not what the final photo will look like. If you are in a dark room and you adjust the dial to try to brighten the image on the LCD, it won\'t work. The screen will remain dark.CANON Cameras: \"Live Preview\" means you see a simulated-preview on the LCD of what the final photo will look like BEFORE you actually take the shot. The LCD lightens and darkens as you adjust the exposure dial. If you are in that same dark room mentioned above, you can adjust the camera settings to where the room looks almost like daylight on the LCD.For more dramatic shoots, if you want high definition in the shadows you simply raise the exposure. If you want high definition in clouds, then you lower the exposure. Combine the two images in Photoshop and you can create your own HDR photo (High Dynamic Range) with well-defined clouds together with bright colors even in the shadows. The \"Live Preview\" feature on Canon LCDs make this judgement call completely intuitive.Example Q. - \"How much exposure should I use?\" A. - \"You can see exactly how much exposure you should use, simply by looking at the image shown on the Canon LCD. It shows you EXACTLY what the final image will look like, before you take the actual shot.\"* Technically called \"exposure simulation live preview\" or \"exposure priority display,\" it is most comely called \"Live Preview.\"IT IS MUCH, MUCH EASIER to learn how to use the Advanced Manual Modes on a Canon camera than on any other camera, because you can see the effect of each one of the adjustments - Shutter Speed, Aperture Size and ISO (film speed) - right on the LCD as you make the changes. On all other cameras without this \"Live Preview\" feature on the LCD, all individual adjustments are done completely blind to the user. You just have to \"know\" from experience how to make those adjustments. That can be a long, slow, frustrating learning process for many people. With a Canon camera, it\'s quick and simple, because you can already see the answer right on the LCD before you take the shot.To the best of my knowledge ONLY CANON CAMERAS have this \"Live Preview\" feature on them, at least at present. (Present means \"2012\" - I believe this feature was first introduced in the year 2000, on the Canon PowerShot G1.) Nikon, Panasonic and Fujifilm, cameras do not have this feature, except perhaps for some of their high-end models. I\'m not certain about that, but this has been true at least up until recently - even with higher-end DSLR cameras. Only Canon cameras offer this \"Live Preview\" feature.Think about the utility value of this \"Live Preview\" feature VERY carefully. It is one of the biggest differences in deciding whether to buy a Canon camera, or to buy any other brand of camera.SUPERFINE JPEG COMPRESSION Option: This outstanding feature was dropped after the SX110, but has now been restored on the new SX160. JPEG compression always results in some loss of data. The 16 megapixel image taken by the SX160 would normally compress down to about a 3.8MB JPEG file image using a \"Fine\" compression, as on previous models. The restored \"Superfine\" option on the SX160 will compress that same camera image down to about a 7MB JPEG file image instead, much larger and retaining much more of the original data in the final image. (These figures are approximate and I have found in practice they can vary considerably with image complexity.) This is an important feature for getting a good quality JPEG file, so please keep it in mind.LESS SHUTTER LAG: Shutter lag has always been a problem with this line of cameras. Canon says the shutter lag has been reduced by 46% on the new SX160, and, yes, it is noticeably faster. This is really appreciated after having lost quite a few good shots over the years to this shutter lag problem myself. I am glad they improved it, but just remember that this has been a long-standing problem with this line of cameras.IMPROVED PROCESSING SPEED. This has also been a traditional problem with this line of cameras, and given the structure of the internal electronics, it is likely to persist. They are slow to process the image and load it onto the memory card. (Use at least a Class 6 card with the SX160.) Canon claims to have improved on this by about 20% and any improvement certainly will help. But fast-processing is simply not this camera\'s strong point, so just remember that, too.LIVE VIEW CONTROL MODE: Canon has introduced a new and rather interesting type of mode on the main camera dial called \"Live View Control.\" This mode is similar to Auto mode, but has three additional individual adjustments the user can control on variable slider bars using the right and left arrows or turning the control dial on the back of the camera. These control 1) Brightness as Dark --- Light, 2) Color as Neutral --- Vivid, and 3) Tone as Cool --- Warm. They are easy to use, and adjust in a series of distinct steps as you rotate the control dial. This is an excellent feature for the novice who wants to try some different adjustments without having to go to full Manual mode, and it makes these image adjustments right in the camera which would normally require a Photoshop-type program to adjust afterwards. Again this will be easy for the novice to use, because the Canon LCD display on the SX160 shows an image of the actual exposure adjustments being made before the shot is finally taken.DESIGNATED VIDEO BUTTON was moved: The model SX150 introduced a designated video button, but placed it so close to the spin control dial on the back that is was pretty easy to start a movie by accident. The button has now been moved further away, and has also been recessed with a small, raised, plastic lip around it making it much less accident prone. This was a very good idea.NO ISO LIMIT on the camera: Some of the lower-end Canon cameras have recently been subject to an unfortunate ISO 100 (film speed) limitation when shutter speeds drop below about 1 second in length, even in full Manual Mode. This can be a severe hinderance to doing things like long-exposure nighttime photography. Fortunately, Canon did not put that loathsome ISO limit on the new SX160. ....*** THANK YOU, CANON! ***Also, many of the professional reviews, and even some conflicting data on Canon\'s own website indicated that the ISO 1600 (very fast film speed for shooting things like fast-moving cars and also for doing long-exposure star shots) had been eliminated. This is false. The ISO 1600 is still there on the SX160, and though it is pretty grainy it does still work well when needed, and most of the excess noise can be cleared up in Photoshop. On the lower end, the ISO 80 was eliminated on the SX160, but is was close enough to the ISO 100 that it should not matter too much except maybe in photos taken in very bright sunlight.In closing, I hope that this review may have been helpful to you in gathering information to make your own decisions about which camera to buy for yourself. You should read as much as you can before you decide which one to buy. Whatever decision you make, it should be YOUR decision, not what I or anyone else tells you that you \"ought\" to prefer. Each of us has our own reasons for preferring one camera over another. May you choose the camera that best suits your own individual needs and preferences, and may you enjoy it to the fullest extent.Best Wishes, John AKA SLOphoto1
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