Canon PowerShot SX220 HS Digital Camera - Grey (12.1MP, 14x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD

I wanted a replacement for my old Canon PowerShot A75, so went looking for something a bit similar - its modern day equivalent (auto and manual options etc) and with a better zoom. My brother had the Canon SX200 and my Dad has the Panasonic Lumix FZ38, pretty similar in terms of zoom and available functions. I liked both but I like the true coloring that Canon cameras give, producing good blues and greens. I was also more familiar with it as a Canon owner and found it harder to figure out the Lumix and its strange AF tracking. Its taken me a couple of weeks to get to know the SX220, figure out the menu's etc (yes I admit I'm no expert!!) and although I could do with printing out the manual and carrying it round with me, my photos are definitely improving. I love taking sports and action shots and the AF tracking, quick burst options are great for this. The favorite option is a bit pointless unless your lending it to an eejit or drunk in charge of a camera. Overall, takes a bit of studying and homework but some really good results. The 14x zoom is great and the image stabiliser means you can actually get sharp shots. Lots of quirky options for silly photos are quite fun too. The purple colour is rather lovely too... oh and its tiny, fits easily in my pocket.

I bought this camera back in April 2011. I have a Canon dSLR camera but wanted something smaller to take to concerts or places where larger cameras aren't allowed or a pain to carry around. My starting point for buying a camera was for something that would shoot well in low-light and this absolutely fits that bill. The flash can be a nuisance as it always pops up when you switch the camera on. But I'm so used to this now, I push it back down as part of the switch-on routine! I'm often out and about taking photos when dusk kicks in and this camera will carry on shooting good photos when a friends camera just won't play ball anymore. I once videoed a group of people making a music video in a tunnel, the quality is good for the light and the sound and I didn't use a tripod. I mainly take photographs and taking movies does use up more battery power. I will take about 300 photos in one session and sometimes I do have to switch to a second battery. I always carry plenty of spare batteries so this isn't a problem for me. I think if you are always switching the camera on/off (which I do on many occasions!) then this will wear down the battery more but then any camera that has a display will do this to the battery. If you are out and about and only have one battery, don't keep reviewing photos/videos if you don't need to or you will just wear your battery down. This camera has a good 'wide-angle' on it. I'm often able to get a whole subject in one shot, whereas a friend has to take a couple of shots and 'stitch' the photos together. The other great thing with this camera is having a 'Manual' mode. So many of the compact cameras don't have this, so I'm able to take some shots the normal point and shoot modes won't allow you to do. I recently dropped my camera and debated about bothering to get it fixed or not. I decided to fix it as it was cheaper than me having to read dozens of reviews to buy another one which I couldn't afford! The problems I had were the zoom decided to do what it wanted to do and the battery housing kept complaining that I needed to change the battery pack! (actually a friend has a different Canon camera and that did the same too with the battery). I sent the camera to [...] (I got their website from the Canon site). It cost me £80 this included spare parts, general service & re-calibration. I really missed my camera while it was in the workshop and was very glad to get it back again! At the time of writing this, I see the camera is £122, I think this is a bargain for the camera that it is, even though it's been superseded by newer models.

I've had mine about 5 months. The picture quality is very good, and to get good quality 14x optical zoom at this price is astonishing. I've been taking photographs since 1957 with various cameras and now feel this is is all I need. (Only my Canon EOS SLR's gave better results, with dedicated long & macro lenses for wildlife when I was younger and better able to get out & about, but my remaining EOS is pre-digital & therefore gathering dust). The video quality is superb - too good for my computer, which won't play the true HD back properly as I have only a 1.3ghz processor (you really need 2.8ghz or higher). But converting movies to a lower resolution still gives very impressive results. Be aware that HD movies will be very large files: if you want to shoot movies longer than 2 or 3 minutes, it is well worth going straight for a 32gb card. I paid £32.62 for the card, inc delivery, which was money well spent. The camera has no internal memory, which is now not unusual, so a card is necessary and while a low-capacity one such as 4gb might just be enough for stills for some people, it wouldn't do for video. As everyone says, the flash popping up every time you turn on the camera is a minor nuisance, but you get used to it. Unlike some, I wouldn't advise holding a finger over the flash to prevent it popping up: you can hear the camera making slightly nasty noises - sort of fighting with itself for a moment. Better to allow it pop up, then just press it back down again. I get best results using Program AE mode with the flash suppressed, and tweaking ISO or exposure compensation if necessary. Reverting to Auto mode will give acceptable results if you're in a hurry. Battery life is reasonable when shooting stills, but if shooting movies it's pretty well essential to have a spare battery available. A cheap Lowepro case gives good protection to the camera & has a pocket which carries the spare battery. I haven't installed the software, as previous experience suggests camera software slows down transfer of pictures to the computer and uses resources unnecessarily. Windows Camera Wizard does the job quickly and easily. My only complaint is the difficulty of getting a mains adapter & lead. I wanted one so that I could leave the camera on a tripod & shoot myself playing guitar - longish vids so I could edit out the bad bits. Two and a half months later I was still getting apologetic messages from Amazon saying they hoped to get the mains adapter to me soon - I gave up & cancelled that order. But everything else has been fine and I'd choose the same camera again.