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The spate of recent superzoom camera launches has a lot of people confused about which one they should pick. There is not much that rivalling camera manufacturers are offering in terms of design, quality and features, and you're likely to find a near-replica of any Canon, Olympus, Panasonic or Nikon superzoom out there. So how do you make potential buyers look twice at your product? According to Canon, it's by creating a superzoom which gives you a complete DSLR-like experience, at a competitive price – the PowerShot SX40 HS.
Build and looks
Unboxing the SX40 is almost akin to unpacking a DSLR. In terms of build and weight, it's just a little bit smaller than the Nikon D3100 or Canon 1000D, and probably larger than Panasonic and Olympus micro four-thirds cameras. If you've handled a Canon DSLR recently, the SX40 will put you at ease almost instantly. The body itself is designed to completely mimic a digital SLR, so you get your mode dial, directional pad, shutter button, pop out flash and even a protrusion imitating the lens-release button. A flap on the side houses the mini USB and mini HDMI ports. Except for the superzoom fixed lens and the zoom toggle switch, there's not much to differentiate it with other Canon DSLRs.
The 230k dot LCD isn't exactly high-resolution compared to some of the other screens I've used, but it can open out to 180 degrees and be rotated up to 270 degrees horizontally. For those of you who can't warm up to the idea of framing the perfect shot on an LCD (I'm one of them), you could try the electronic viewfinder. Let me warn you though, the results aren't pretty. It's really tiny, and with a resolution of just 202k dots, lacks clarity and sharpness. So you'd actually be better off using the LCD screen. Another bother is that the electronic viewfinder doesn't turn on automatically when you bring your eye close to it – you'll have to go through a multi-click process with the Display button to get it started.
What doesn't disappoint is the lens - 35x zoom is the longest on any Canon superzoom. The lens gives you a range of 24mm-840mm – wide to telephoto. At 24mm, aperture is f/2.7 but at 840mm it goes down to f/5.8.
Interface
The mode dial offers instant access to a bunch of different shooting modes, which can be further controlled via the digital menu, also similar to Canon DSLRs. Apart from Scene modes, there are also a selection of creative filters as well as a full Auto mode. Unlike the Olympus SP-810UZ I reviewed a few weeks ago, there's a lot more manual control on the SX40. There's Av (Aperture priority), Tv (Shutter priority) and Program and Manual modes. There are also two custom modes which can be preset by you and used in an instant – quite convenient.
The filter effects are pretty cool, and include Fish-eye effect, Miniature effect, Colour Accent and Colour Swap. If used well they can create some quirky photos and are a feature that I'm sure even pros wouldn't mind using once in a while.
What I really liked about the camera was how easy it was to access the most important controls. The directional pad has shortcuts to ISO, Exposure, Timer and Macro functions and allow you to make changes fast. It was fairly easy to adjust shutter speed and aperture in the manual modes, although it doesn't give you the same degree of ease that a DSLR offers. Within each manual mode, you can change the colours you want your photo to take on, so for instance, in Program mode you could choose from Vivid, Black and White, Positive Film and many others, depending on how you want your photo to look. It's just another optional level of customisation that the SX40 offers, but one I ended up using quite a lot to enhance my shots.
A big flipside of the camera is that it shoots in only JPEG, so pros won't get the advantage of RAW images. However, the Digic 5 processor makes for a visibly faster performance especially in burst modes, taking 8 photos in 2 seconds. You can also choose the aspect ratio of your photos, so in the 1:1 and 16:9 range you can shoot at 9 megapixel, 3:2 at 11-megapixel and 4:3 at 12-megapixel.
Results
The superzoom lens is one of the best I've used so far, and even at maximum zoom very minimal detail was lost and photos looked relatively sharp. The 24-840 zoom you get is optical, which explains the good image quality. There is additional digital zoom which takes the total zoom up to a whopping 140x, but image quality is heavily compromised. The built-in image stabiliser does a good job, and shake was visibly reduced when the lens was completely extended.
The macro mode was also excellent, and let me focus on subjects when they were so close that they almost touch the glass. It's a dream come true if you're trying to capture detail, and you get that lovely depth of field even when you're zooming into a subject. This is a big plus for wildlife photos, when you obviously can't shoot from too close to your subject. The photo of the green bug was taken in macro mode at about 24x zoom, and I was quite happy with the result.
When shooting crowded frames, cameras often have difficulty focussing. I faced a similar problem when I was shooting the garden chameleon hiding in a bush, but the camera is quick to learn. All I had to do was zoom out a bit (the zoom framing assist button was helpful for that) and the camera automatically focussed and stayed focussed when I went for a closer shot.
The only real worry I had was the ISO, which maxes out at 3,200. It's fine up to ISO 800, but at ISO 1,600 you begin to see a bit of grain creeping in. Another hindrance is that in manual mode, you can't adjust ISO post 1-second exposure.
The camera shoots video in 1080p Full HD at 24fps, and you can shoot in most of the manual, scene or filter modes that you've chosen. I got a pretty cool result with shooting a video in the colour accent mode. If you're shooting a video and there's a frame you want to capture, you can take a photo mid-recording, and it won't affect your video.
Our verdict
The SX40 is undoubtedly one of the best superzooms I've handled recently, and has the perfect mix of pro and fun features. It's not really a substitute for a DSLR – superzooms use way smaller sensors than DSLRs so the difference in quality is huge – but it comes close. I would recommend it for photographers who are willing to experiment with more manual functions, because it would be a waste to use the camera only on auto. The Canon SX40 would make a good present for the photographer in your family this Christmas.
Love: Wide range of the lens, fantastic image quality
Hate: Average ISO range, no RAW capability
Rs 28,995
Check out our video review here , on Smartbuy's new YouTube channel
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