Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

The Canon SX120IS follows up last year's SX110IS model - itself an update of 2007's popular long-zoom SX100IS model. Compared to the SX110IS, Canon has again upped the resolution slightly, taking the SX120 from a nine megapixel sensor to a ten megapixels chip of identical size. The Canon SX120's body is nearly identical to that of its predecessor, the only noticeable change beyond the different labelling being the removal of the print button adjacent to the top left of the LCD display on the rear panel. As was the case with its predecessor, with dimensions of 4.4 x 2.8 x 1.8 inches (111 x 70 x 45mm) and weighing in at 10.7 ounces (302g) including battery and flash card, the Canon SX120IS won't fit comfortably in your shirt pocket, but isn't unreasonably large.

The Canon PowerShot SX120 combines its ten megapixel sensor with a 10x optical zoom lens, which offers the range from a somewhat tight 36mm wide-angle to a useful 360mm telephoto. Maximum aperture varies from f/2.8 at wide-angle to f/4.3 at telephoto. As the "IS" in the SX120's name would suggest, it retains Canon's Image Stabilization technology, helping fight the effects of blur from camera shake - particularly important at the longer focal lengths. Images are framed and reviewed on a 3-inch color LCD display with 230,000 pixels - not surprisingly for a long-zoom camera, there's no optical viewfinder on this model. The most significant change from the SX110 can be found in the Canon SX120's image processor. The earlier camera used an older generation of Canon's DIGIC processor, which the SX120 has now replaced with the current spec. DIGIC 4 processors started appearing in PowerShot cameras last year, and should offer improvements in the areas of image noise, autofocus and autoexposure.

The Canon PowerShot SX120 IS offers not only a selection of scene modes and a Program auto mode, but also the ability to control shutter and/or aperture manually. Canon's implementation of face detection is included, and the face detection functionality is linked not only to the autofocus system, but also to the exposure metering and white balance systems to ensure correct exposure of portraits as well. When focusing in dim light, a very bright orange LED provides for AF-assist. For the more experienced photographer, there's a wide range of adjustments and customizations on hand, including a range of ISO sensitivities (from 80 to 1,600 equivalent), metering modes, autoexposure and flash exposure locks, flash output control, white balance options, and adjustable image sharpness, contrast, and color options. Compared to its predecessor, the PowerShot SX120 also offers slightly increased flash range when the ISO sensitivity is under automatic control, with a maximum reach of 13 feet at wide-angle, or 8.2 feet at telephoto.