Canon PowerShot SX260 HS 12.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 20x Image Stabilized Zoom 25mm Wide-Angle Optical Lens and 1080p HD Video (Red) (OLD MODEL)

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Ive had Canon powershots for many years. Left my last one on a return flight from Alaska and forget it if the airline will make an effort to get it returned to you. Ive heard its finders keepers for the cleaning crew. So anyway...I tried a Sony Cybershot. But it was slow on start-up, and erasing images, and just slow overall. It took great pictures though. So, I decided to give that one to my daughter and ordered this Canon SX260. I took it recently on a trip to Utah and Yellowstone. And all I can say is WOW. It performed beautifully. Start-up is awesome for those quick shots you dont have much time to prepare for, the color saturation was incredible, it even did good on quick moving shots through the RV window! Took handheld pictures of a full moon with the camera set at 80x zoom, and they were incredible. You can make out the craters in finer detail than any other camera Ive ever had. It is small, compact, sturdy and solid. Buttons and programs are easy and explanatory. The Sony camera is better on the panorama feature versus the archaic style stitch-assist on the Canon. But I found I didnt use those landscape pictures much. Also, the "smooth skin" mode on the Sony is superb in comparison to Canons similar feature. Wrinkles disappear on the Sonys - not so with the Canon. I guess you cant have it all. But I do not regret getting this camera!

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I cant think of anything negative to say about this camera. For the price this camera just takes awesome pictures! We were in the market for a camera, went into Best Buy to play around with cameras and were told by the sales person that we wouldnt find a "point and shoot" that was capable of taking a decent picture of kids.....Um wow, totally wrong. We have a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old that are never still, yet I think weve only gotten maybe 2 blurry pictures out of the hundreds weve taken in the past month. It will also take a great still shot. Colors are great....just a great camera. So happy we found it and didnt drop the $1200 to get a DSLR. This is exactly what we were looking for in regards to size, price, picture quality etc. I would recommend this camera to anyone! Also even though it is a "point and shoot" if you feel like getting more technical those options are accessible to play around with. And the automatic flash is in an odd place (where I would normally place a finger) BUT Im confident Ill get used to it!

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I had a Canon 780 IS and I love Canon cameras. I wanted similar but with a super-zoom and still pocketable. I am a total amateur but when I go to a concert I want to zoom into the band and get some good closeups. I just took this to Black Sabbath concert and got amazing pictures! I love this camera. I dont want to think when I point & shoot, I just want good easy pictures. This is the camera I will use for several years. I dont buy cameras very often, maybe once every 8-10 years. thank you canon. I also seriously looked at Nikon 9500 but I did not want to learn a new system if you know what I mean. I was already familiar with Canons interface. BTW I chose black this time. My other Canon is a cool red but frankly after several years it is scratched up. I figured this black (boring) color wont look so bad after all the abuse I plan to put it thru over the next several years. Update: I wanted to add that I bought this instead of the 280 for a few reasons. The 280 has some problems from reading a lot of blogs. Also, this one is a lot cheaper. And I dont need the added features of the 280 such as wifi. Not needed plus I read it is not user friendly and hogs the battery. The 260 has everything I need.

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Very good camera. Lightweight and very full-featured. You can record full-HD video with the push of a button on the back of the camera. You dont need to rotate the settings knob from still images to movies. Take photos as you would, then push the record button and youre making movies. The best thing about it is the optical zoom while shooting video. Other cameras Ive used that record video do a digital zoom, which pixelates the image and makes it look fuzzy. Its not the smoothest, but if you want higher end video with smooth zooming, Id use a video camera and not a still camera with video capabilities. The focal length and image stabilization are excellent. If you want a lightweight camera that does good double-duty as a still and video camera, and fits in your pocket, I highly recommend this camera, But make sure you get at least 3 or 4 extra batteries. Shooting HD will suck batteries dry in minutes. Really, thats my only gripe with this camera.

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I have been using a larger Canon 7D for years and have sworn by Canon ever since. This camera was a present for my wife. It has the newer Digic 5 (my 7D has dual 4s) and seems to do a pretty darn good job! The SX260 HS has a built in GPS and Id recommend turning the logger function off if you dont want to drain your battery. If left on, the camera will continue to keep a track of your location even though the camera itself is off. When the tracker is off, the GPS will continue to set the EXIF data in your pictures with the current GPS location & time. The logger just keeps track of where you have been which may be useful if you are kayaking, hiking, biking etc. It can also tag peoples faces that it recognizes. I have not found this to work very well but I may just need to add peoples faces more often. One thing I have realized is it may be useful to have people smiling when you are adding to its recognition database since that is the way they look (hopefully) when you are taking their picture. 03/25/2013 Update: One neat feature I neglected to mention was this camera can be set to update its internal clock whenever it can get a GPS lock. This feature is especially useful after a daylight savings time change and you change all the clocks in the house but forget to set your cameras clock This camera does a pretty fair job in low light situations. One thing to be careful of is how you hold the camera as the flash will pop up (as needed) right where your left index finger usually goes while steadying the camera. The 20X optical Zoom is awesome especially for a small point and shoot that fits in your pocket! Its nice to have this reach without having to swap lenses when you need to get a quick shot!

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A little background: I have owned several film SLRs (Olympus OM1, Minolta XD11) as well as point and shoot (P+S) film cameras (Nikon, Minolta) and over the last few years, several P+S digital cameras (Canon, Panasonic). One of the most important things I have found is the need for a decent wide angle lens. For a P+S camera, I make sure it goes to at least (the equivalent of) 25mm at the widest angle. Otherwise, if I am standing close to a large object, I am unable to frame it properly. The lack of a 25mm wide angle is what prevented me from buying the earlier model of this camera, the SX230HS. The SX260HS addresses this issue by having a 20x zoom lens that goes from 25mm to 200mm. This covers a very useable range in terms of wide angle to telephoto. The quality of the pictures is excellent. The only issue, as others have noted, is that in low light, the auto focus isnt that great - it can take some time to focus. A minor inconvenience is that the pop up flash has been placed on the left side, where I am used to grasping the camera. This does take some adjustment and I wish they had placed the flash in the middle rather on the left side. However, like most P+S cameras, the flash is fairly anemic (doesnt go beyond 10-15 feet), so most of the time I end up turning off the flash anyway and just shooting using available light. Another thing to note is that, like many other P+S cameras, the battery is not very big, so it pays to buy 1-2 extra battery packs. This is the first camera in a long time that has got me passionate about photography again. The relatively small size allows it to be easily carried, while the very versatile 20x zoom lens allows for excellent closeups as well as wide angle shots. Another thing to note is that, using the publicly available CHDK software, the stock firmware can be temporarily bypassed, allowing for longer (e.g., 1 hour) videos, shooting in RAW mode, etc. All in all, the SX260HS is an excellent P+S camera that is small but versatile. Like any P+S, there are some design tradeoffs, and so the camera is not without its minor flaws, but all things considered, if you are in the market for a P+S camera, the SX260HS is worth checking out, especially considering Canon aggressively discounts the SX260HS compared to comparable cameras from Sony (DSC-HX20V, DSC-HX30V) and Nikon (S9300).

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Although I recently got my first smartphone (dont judge!) that takes excellent photos, I still prefer a good quality compact digital camera. Weve owned Canon digital cameras since the days of 2 megapixels! This 12 megapixel camera is small but surprisingly rugged and well built. It turns on faster than anything Ive ever owned. I dont mess with many of the presets and typically use the easy modes. I have to say I am impressed. Low-light is always an issue with these cameras, but this camera really handles it well. The key, of course, it keeping it as still as possible. Theres very little grain in low-light photos with this camera, compared to our previous model. The GPS feature, when it works, is nice…especially when I import the photos into iPhoto on my Mac. It plots the photos on a world map for easy location of where photos were taken. But if the camera is only on for a brief time, it doesnt have time to get its location (especially indoors) and doesnt record that GPS data on the photo. Ive recorded a little video on this camera and it was decent. I have a dedicated video camera for HD video recording of home movies, and this camera just cant compete with that. But in a pinch, it captures better than anything Ive had in the past (still cameras). This was my first SX model. In the past, weve had the A series of Canon cameras, and owned a G2 years ago. I think this SX model comes really close to the G series in terms of start-up speed and rapid photo taking.

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This little camera is great to carry around when youre going to be out and about with the family all day. Its light weight and the controls are easily accessible. Its done a great job getting clear, crisp pics. One of the two complaints that I have I finally found a solution to... The automatic red eye correction made eyes look dead. Creepily so. You can turn it off in the menu under flash settings. Id much rather do red eye correction in editing than have creepy, dead eyes! The other complaint is the flash location... and its a minor complaint because theres really not much other place to put it, but its right where you naturally put your left forefinger. Its quite comfortable when the flash is down but it does push your finger out of the way when it pops up and its not as comfortable to hold then but is absolutely doable. All in all I love this camera and the couple of complaints that I have dont at all subtract from my pleasure in the camera... Now that Ive figured out how to turn off the dead eyes that is! ;)

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I have had this camera for almost 4 years now. Moving shots are blurry, has a big delay time before the shot fires off.... by that time my kids move or blink... same for the animals, the flash gets on my nerves- you have to use the discrete mode to turn the flash off for every shot, otherwise turning the flash off is just for until you turn off your camera and turn it back on... then its back- which makes the pictures color strange in the daylight.... speaking of the pictures color.... its bad The photos turn out with a strange yellow color... and I have never messed with the color settings! :( I have to end up shooting off like 20 shots just to find the right color for my photo, even in the daytime! The battery :( on a hiking trip... better make sure you have 2 or 3 extra batteries with you (they dont last long and you cant use regular AAs either). This camera has let me down so many times. I have missed so many photo opportunities with it because of the battery. I have 2 batteries I keep charged and I get literally 2 shots off and it goes black and tells me to change battery! For the price I am so sad and find myself looking for another camera. I have used almost every setting possible for 4 years and I have taken at least 3,000 photos with it. I have not had the money to replace with another camera but I am hoping to next year! Please look at the poor reviews. I am shocked at the positive reviews on this camera! I dont believe it!

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I was a little concerned ordering this camera as some were quite negative about it. My experience has been very good. The GPS works flawlessly and bringing in the photos to Aperture on my iMac, the placement of the photos on the map is perfect. I havent yet tried the GPS log but will soon. The optical zoom range (20-1 with IS) is nothing short of spectacular and the pictures when blown up remain as sharp as to be expected with a 12 megapixel camera. Some have complained about the placement of the popup flash but while it is not optimal, it is easy to get used to. Others have complained about the battery life but this is quite manageable, especially if you carry a few extra batteries (which are quite inexpensive). Ive noticed battery life issues only when having GPS logging on and this is to be expected as you are running the GPS in the camera even when it is otherwise off. If you have a problem with that, just turn off the GPS logging. The controls are very simple, once you understand them. It took me a while (I had to look at the documentation -- imagine that) to figure out that the little ring around the function set has a purpose as a wheel. One feature that I especially love is the dedicated movie button. I have missed too many movie opportunities in the past while twisting a dial on other cameras to get to the movie function, often not quite getting to that function. And also the problems of then forgetting Im in movie mode when I try to shoot photos again. One thing that is important to know is that this is not the lightest of cameras. Its nowhere near as heavy or bulky as a DLSR but it is a bit larger and noticeably heavier that a typical point and shoot. But, then there is more in there -- the GPS and the very long optical zoom -- a small price for those features.

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