The “Break it Down” Blog

Introduction

I just purchased a Canon PowerShot SX 1 IS (not the SX10 — which has no HD video recording) to replace my existing Canon G9 (which is an excellent camera):

What I really wanted out of the SX 1 IS was the 1080p @ 30fps video recording and improved zoom for traveling. Unfortunately when the SX 1 IS was finally shipped and got to my door step, I noticed a few things that made me send it right back and keep my G9.

Keep in mind that all these issues were things I already “knew” about from reading reviews, but it’s still not the same as actually holding it in your hand and experiencing them for yourself.

Ok, let’s dive into the juicy bits.

Review

• Cheap feeling plastic body that can flex under pressure. If you are used to the Canon G9 (solid metal chasis) or any of the Rebel DSLRs or higher, Canon has this fantastic brushed/textured solid steel casing that they tend to use for their body chasis that feels great in your hand. The G-series uses it, but the SX 1 and SX 10 do not, they use a plastic chasis that feels cheap.
• The mini-DSLR form factor is uncomfortably small. When you are holding a camera like this, you need the leverage of full sized hand grips. I noticed the thumb-pad part of my palm on my right hand was always pressed against the adjustment dial in the back on the SX 1, hitting buttons as I held it:
  



• The 2.7″, fully-articulating screen on the back is too small and lower resolution than the beautiful LCD screen I have on my 2 year old Canon G9. It was annoying to use being used to such a nice large screen.
• We already talked about the cheap-feeling plastic body, but the frame around the fully articulating screen is also plastic and has a certain level of “flex” to it while you are manipulating the LCD. I’m sure this won’t break it, but it feels “Cheap” at best. I’m messing with an LCD screen, the last thing I want is for the encasement around it to be “flexy”… making atleast this part all metal would have been a smart move.
• The digital view finder is a gimmick and not useful. If you are wondering what this is (I didn’t know what it was), it’s essentially a really low resolution LCD screen inside the view finder view port that kicks on if you turn the screen around so it’s “off”. So you have a small TV screen in the eye view port that shows you the same thing the LCD on the back would show you — it’s not a real optical view port with overlayed information like a typical DSLR. The first thing that popped into my head when I saw this was “well that’s useless…”
• 20x optical zoom is excellent
• The popup flash is really bright — much more so than my G9 — I think I almost blinded my cats the first day I got it.
• Facial recognition is very fast and contiguous — I guess this is the Digic IV processor at work, but recognizing faces is really fast on this camera and tracks them in real time on the LCD accurately.
• Video recording is quick flexible/impressive. On the G9 when you started video recording you couldn’t zoom OUT from where you started recording (or in I think… I can’t quite remember). It’s very strange and super limiting. On the SX 1, you can zoom in and out completely (all 20x) as well as re-sample your focal point at any time by half-holding the shutter button even while video is recording.
  
• Full depth-of-field controls available WHILE video recording. This was awesome, you can actually get some awesome depth-of-field effects in your videos while recording video with this camera. I tried recording a tomato plant, and got really close to it so the leaves were blurred and hit the refocus button and it refocused on the individual leaves and the plant itself was all blurred out. Very slick.
• Stereo mics built into the face of the camera to capture excellent sound — was really surprised about this.
• The “video record” button on the camera is poorly placed and an annoyance. You might think “Oh, handy, an extra button JUST for video”, and you’d be right, except even when you put the camera into Video Capture mode, using the primary capture button STILL only takes pictures. Canon forces you to use this extra video capture button that is placed so far in on the center of the back-side of the camera, that you must free up and use your other hand to push it. And again to turn the video off — which likely means at the end of every video you have a slight movement of the camera away from the target as you push it in with your secondary hand. That is just annoying… why doesn’t the primary capture button start/stop movies like every other Canon camera while in video mode?
• Integration between video and picture captures is solid/seamless. You can snap a picture while in video mode, it will take the picture like normal, and introduce a small lag into the video where the picture was taken — a sort of freeze-frame effect. It’s a smart way to cover up the break in video recording, sort of stylish, without forcing you to break your video into clips every time a shot is taken since video recording isn’t stopped.

Summary and Suggestions

Overall the video recording on the camera was the big win for this model — which is why I got it. It was the only camera in the Canon lineup that did 1080p @ 30fps — I was sort of amazed about that. My hope is that more cameras in the Canon lineup later this year or early next add this ability. But unfortunately the integration of the stupidly placed “video record ONLY” button was frustrating enough to not make that seamless use, and the actual durability of the camera body had me concerned as I plan on dragging this thing across Europe in a backpack.

While I have no concerns about the G9 making that trip, I would seriously doubt that the SX 1 or SX 10 could make such a rugged trip without it’s own carry case.

If you are looking for a DSLR-form-factor camera for travel and durability is an issue, I’d recommend the Canon T1i whole-heartedly:

It’ll do 1080p video at 20fps which is kind of a bummer. If you really need 1080p video recording as a primary feature, like I want, then you’ll either need to wait for some refreshed models (I think a Canon G11 with 1080p would be a perfect fit for me) or just pickup a Canon VIXIA HF100 or HF200 camcorder. Unfortunately they aren’t that cheap, so if you could wait, I’d suggest waiting for your favorite form-factor of camera adding HD-recording soon enough… it’s the new trend anyway and should be here sooner than later.

Closing Thoughts

To sum it all up, the Canon PowerShot SX 1 IS would have been perfect if the following were true:

• Metal or much more sturdy chasis
• Better placement for video-specific record button AND better default behavior for primary capture button while the camera is in Video Mode
• Had the high-resolution 3.0″ screen from the other Canon models
• If the view finder was not digital and was instead optical with information overlays like normal DSLRs
• If grip-form-factor on the right hand side of the camera was a bit bigger so you could grip the camera comfortably without having the meaty part of your hand pushing all the radial buttons (NOTE: If you have small hands, this might be a perfect fit. I have average+ sized hands. Nothing huge.)

You’ll notice that this request list isn’t that big at all… it basically ends up looking like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, but given how much ridiculously awesome functionality this camera already had, it’s not that far from where it is now to rounding it out to being the perfect camera… and certainly no where near the $3,300 of the Mark II.

The SX 1 has a huge amount of potential, and I get the feeling Canon stopped just short of the finish line with it intentionally, so as not to ruin hopes of up-selling people to the T1i — the odd thing about that is the improved 1080p video capture on the SX 1 that already beats every other Canon camera out except the 5D Mark II… I can’t figure this one out.

Maybe the SX 2 will be what I want.