Canon PowerShot SX130IS 12.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3.0-Inch LCD (OLD MODEL)

The Canon PowerShot SX130IS was my first camera, and it still one of my favorites. It has the power and features available in larger, pricier cameras but the portability to go anywhere, and it's quite resilient to damage. So, then -- list time: PROS: -Compact and portable, will easily fit into a pocket. -Excellent Zoom, puts my Eos Rebel T3i to shame. Doubles for a pair of binoculars now and then. -A Macro function, which is a special point of interest for some. It won't match dedicated macro lenses or cameras, but having it certainly makes a difference in your photos. -Around 9000 other features. Not literally, but this camera can handle a good variety of challenges and be set to perform quite a lot of functions, from portrait to landscape shots. -For its price point, it takes good photos and video. Pricier cameras would take better photos and video... but you would have to go more than double on the expense for that to happen. -There aren't any weird tints to your photos with this camera. -Runs on two AA batteries, which is great when you're traveling. -Having a wrist strap, while common to many cameras, is still a pro when the camera is small enough to fit in one hand. -You can control the entire camera with your right hand. CONS: -You better have a lot of AA batteries. Battery life, depending on use, can range from 3-7 hours... unless you are taking photos very quickly or taking video, in which case two hours would be impressive. -Ten minute video length, max -- you can take as many videos as your memory card allows, but none of them will be longer than ten minutes. -If dust gets into the (irremovable) lens (it will,) you will know. And may the force be with you in trying to remove it on your own. -Some people won't find the video or sound quality up to snuff. Additionally, trying to play a video on some computers will often necessitate a download of the Combined Community Codec Pack. Windows doesn't like MP4s, for some reason. -It's a little slow, especially under low-light conditions. -The LCD screen is built-in to the camera -- it doesn't flip out. -It's also your viewfinder. This particular Powershot is my favorite of the series. It's never let me down, it can go anywhere with me, and it lets me photograph moths and landscapes with equal success. It has a myriad of features, and most of them aren't novelty gimmicks. Especially for it's relatively low price, this is both a great travel-camera and an excellent beginner camera. It won't disappoint you.

I hemmed and hawed for months about getting this or a higher end camera and for the price I ended up with this one. I am so glad I made the purchase I did. I love to think I'm going to use all of the settings and options to make artistic photographs but it rarely happens. However the options are there for when I do have the patience and the time to think about what it is I'm going to do. The on screen directions help tremendously for those occasions since I can easily forget what the different settings are designed for. The quality of the pictures are fantastic and the handling of the camera feels natural. This was a camera purchased to take pictures and video of our new baby. We knew we needed something that would preserve good quality pictures and take video when we needed it. Both have been excellent. The video is very clear, movement is smooth and the audio is great. There are no tinny sounds or problems with the mike in any way. The options for various settings allows us to put it in "squirmy kid" mode and leave it there for when we need it. I hesitated for a long time because of all the negative reviews on the battery life. I wanted a camera that took standard batteries but, obviously, didn't want to change those batteries every time I used it. I have to say I have not had an issue with the battery life being short, and we take waaaaaayyyyy to many pictures. That being said I do use rechargeable batteries and that might make a difference. But, if I remember correctly the cheapo batteries the camera came with didn't do so bad either, they went fairly quickly but it wasn't the same day or anything. Bottom line I'm glad I saved the money and got this camera, it's got everything I need, extremely user friendly, high quality and is fairly durable.

I bought this camera mainly because it was reviewed as having good pic and video quality, it has HD video, and it takes AA batteries. So far it's been superb all round. The AA batteries bit is a really big deal for me. I so nearly bit the bullet and got a camera that uses a proprietary battery pack -- as, tragically, they almost all do now -- only to discover, when trying to get 2 spare packs, that they're basically unobtainable! This makes such a camera useless for me, as on a long trip (e.g. weekend hike), once the battery is dead, you're stuffed until you find a 110v outlet to charge from. I understand that AAs are more bulky for a given charge, and presumably that's why the SX130 only takes two. I'd personally take a larger handgrip to make room for two more batteries, but the bottom line is, it doesn't really matter. Just take along spares, and change them out as needed. Use NiMH batteries for best life (conventional batteries like Duracells simply can't handle the loads of a digital camera), but in a pinch, you know that more charge is almost always going to be easily available. And when rechargables wear out, getting new ones is a snap. So anyhow... I basically love the camera. It's compact and light, and easily fits in a jacket pocket, so it's always handy for a snapshot. It takes great pictures, and superb clear 720p movies. The stereo sound is good, but with built-in mics, wind noise will always be a problem if there is much wind at all. You can zoom while filming, but the noise is quite audible on the soundtrack (though subtle enough not to be really annoying, mostly). I've started using a separate sound recorder for projects where I care about the live sound. The reason for dinging one star is the one niggly point I've found to date: video capture is limited to 9 mins 59 seconds per clip. This is a hard and consistent limit; I guess it's to avoid the 2GB file size limit. It's never been a problem for me so far, but I could see where it could become an issue for some types of filming. Battery life isn't great, but like I said, just carry two or three (or ten!) sets of spares, easy. For the record, here's what I got on a single set of Eneloops, taking continuous 10-minute video clips until it died: battery warning came on at 80 minutes; batteries died at 110 minutes. One 16GB memory card stored 85 minutes of video, averaging 186 MB per minute. I'm using a 32GB card now (class 10), and it works great. In case you're wondering what it records in the .MOV files it captures, ffmpeg tells me that the video format is: Video: h264, yuv420p, 1280x720, 22301 kb/s, 29.97 fps Audio: pcm, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, s16, 1536 kb/s So overall, great. I do wish there was more choice of cameras taking standard batteries; but this one fits the bill nicely.

watch and read the reviews on the 130, and then the 140, 150, 160, and you'll note: they are not as glowing as the 130... the 130 has a tremendous lens, with supreme color for the price, and has the best stabilized low-light setting of any point and shoot I've found. This low-light setting allows you to capture natural-light photos indoors and out with fair to excellent clarity, in situations where you don't want to use the flash, or can't. Fantastic camera - there's a reason that this camera still retails for nearly the original retail price, while the newer models are $20-50 cheaper. I had to order this camera THREE TIMES, because the first two orders, they shipped me the newer model, even though they said on order they had the 130 in stock. I sent them back - they are NOT equivalent. No one can believe the great quality shots I get with this. NOTE: I recommend doing test shots with the "portrait" ("head" icon), landscape, and auto settings, as i find the Portrait setting is often the best speed and clarity for most shots, better than the Auto setting in many cases, and the Landscape ("mountain" icon) setting is great not only for actual landscapes, but when you are capturing pictures out of a moving train/plane/car to get a clear distance shot and avoid having only the window in focus! The "parrot" icon - color saturation - often gives a more realistic sunset color rendering than other settings, and the low-light setting ("candle" icon) not only does a good job in low light, it's also perfect for shots where you want a quick shutter speed but don't want to go manual, even in good light. Finally, manual controls are there for when you want to really get creative, and there are fun settings like "posterize", "miniaturize", and others. Please Canon - bring back the 130 tech specs in the newer versions... I've had 2 of them, and they're simply the best.

I have the SX110is and love it for the same reasons that I love this one, the SX130is. My father is a professional photographer, so I know a thing or two about cameras. Actually, of course, every year they make the cameras better and entice buyers like me. This one has the HD video, and the 12x zoom, and 12.1 megapixels. Both features sold me. The SX110is now goes to my wife who has a fine collection of fairly new electronics that I discard annually. The quality of photos is spectacular. The color is far superior to any camera in a comparable price range, especially a simple point and shoot. My 3 week old daughters skin tones show up amazingly realistic. HD video is a plus. I am not sure how much I will use since I have an HD camcorder, but still, in a pinch it is nice. My only issue with the camera is the placement of the 'video' mode, so far from the 'auto' mode on the dial selector. This makes it inconvenient to switch back and forth, which is the main reason why I will probably not use the video mode as much, and the reason why I proclaim that this camera is 'very close to perfect', and not just perfct. Canon has never let me down. The AA batteries make me happy. I hate running out of power on a camping trip with no options. The screen size is magnificent and bright. This is a great purchase, until next year when they add a feature that I MUST HAVE!!

I have been a big fan of the Canon powershot cameras, going back to the A20. I still have my A20 and now use it for underwater shots, inside the very sturdy Canon waterproof case. I have owned the A20, the SX110IS, and the SX10IS. Many of our family members have powershots, including the SX20IS and the older A40. We have all been very pleased with our Canon cameras. One of my favorite features of the powershots I've bought has been the fact that they use AA batteries. Yes, it means shorter battery life, but it also means never being unable to use the camera on a trip away from home -- all you have to do is buy AA batteries at a gas station and you're good to go. Well worth it to me to give up some battery life for that convenience. I have been very happy with my SX110IS - beautiful still shots, good movies, travels well. It has some annoying features like very slow flash cycling, but overall it's been a great camera. Well, I gave my SX110IS to a family member as a gift, planning to buy myself this SX130IS as a replacement. I assumed I'd get the same great camera, but now with HD video and a few extra megapixels as a bonus. I am **VERY** disappointed in the SX130IS. There's something not quite as good about the still shots, but that's not my primary complaint. My main complaint is the video mode. It is absolutely awful. Constantly goes in and out of focus while filming. I noticed this immediately on using the camera, so I returned it to Amazon as an exchange for the exact same model, figuring it was just a flaw with that one camera. Not so. The replacement has the exact same problem. I've gone through all the possible settings, and the problem persists. The only thing that helps is to use manual focus, but then you have to, well, focus manually, which isn't always an option for real-world filming, and is not easy to do with this camera. I even shot the same scene with this camera and then with my SX10IS for comparison, and the older SX10IS shot perfect video, while this new camera blurred in and out of focus the whole time. I've sent back the second camera, this time for a refund. I have no intention of trying again with this model, especially now that I've noted several other reviewers here and on other sites complaining about the same problem. I hope this isn't the last Canon powershot I ever get to own -- as noted above, I've been a very big fan for many years. But this model is garbage. Buyer beware. I'm now trying to decide whether to buy one of the few remaining new SX120IS models, or just get a used or refurbished SX110IS to replace the one I gave away. Very disappointed in Canon. This may be the last they see of this once-loyal customer. ------------------------------------ Update: I decided to get one of the SX120IS models. Works just fine. Looks like I will continue to be a Canon customer, but I am still convinced there is something wrong with the SX130IS as I described above.

I have had this camera for 18 months. I used it occasionally. It replaced an older SLR camera. I am an experienced photographer. The camera takes excellent quality pictures, or at least it did until recently. I noticed that the pics I took in August seemed slightly out of focus and I thought I must have done something wrong on the day I used it. However I just got out the camera again to take to a lacrosse tournament where my grandson was an outstanding player, and I wanted to get some good photos of him and his team, both still shots and during the action. I was horribly disappointed to find that the pictures were in sharp focus on the right side of the picture and fuzzy or blurry on the left side. My grandson played in the championship game in the Yale Stadium last Saturday and the pics were useless--and there is no way obviously to replace the situation. I contacted Canon, they pointed out what I already knew, that the camera was out of warranty (even though it was shortly after the warranty expired that the problem showed up) and that it would cost $139 to have it repaired plus parts if needed, when I paid $169 for it new. I was shocked at Canon's attitude and extremely disappointed that this camera failed after so short a time. So I have learned a valuable lesson. Canon is not what it used to be and the quality is just not there any more now that these cameras are made in China and their service is just not up to their reputation any longer. Updated November 24, 2013. After reading a lot of reviews about this camera I thought I should comment on some issues. First, battery life. I did not experience the poor battery life that some have reported, and I always used standard batteries. Second,I never had any problem with the zoom. Third, I spent a lot of time yesterday attempting various solutions to the image focus problem, using various settings (with autofocus, and manually) to see if I could find any combination of settings that would make any difference, and regrettably, nothing would make any difference--the left side of photos (when in horizontal position) were just slightly out of focus, just enough so that I can see it looking closely. I have never experienced this sort of problem and I have no idea whether it is a software problem or whether the lens itself is the issue.

I received my SX130IS yesterday (one day earlier than Amazon's estimated delivery) and I absolutely love it! I know... one day's not enough time to accurately judge its functionality and reliability over the long haul, but in terms of appearance, this camera looks great. It's expensive looking, giving off an aura of prestige and power (like driving an Audi A8). When you point this Baby at somebody, you look like a serious photog [:-) Yeah, it's a little bulkier than a lot of other P&S cameras, but it'll fit in your shirt pocket, and I find the larger body easier to hold. All the controls seem ergonomically perfect for my hands, the big 3" LCD helps me quickly focus on my subject, and the 12X zoom is amazing. It powers on and is ready to shoot fast enough for my amateur photo needs, which are typical family/home subjects as well as product photos for eBay and Craigslist. Because my other camera is a PowerShot A560, I'm familiar with Canon's menus and was taking photos right away without having to learn a new camera's idiosyncrasies. I know this review is not very technical, but I wanted to let everyone know that for less than $200, this is one powerhouse camera that you'll probably like a lot too. Unlike Free's ridiculous review below, more intelligent reviewers have pointed out some important considerations about using this camera: 1) Ever heard the acronym RTFM? It's too vulgar to spell out, but it can't be repeated often enough. Probably 80% of the problems people whine about in their 1 and 2 star reviews could have been resolved by RTFM. 2) Forget about using regular alkalines in this camera... buy AA NiMH rechargeables and a charger. For my A560, I bought Powerex batteries and their MH-C204F charger, which processes 2 or 4 batteries at a time. There's a newer model of the 204F--the 204W --or you can buy the more functional MH-C801D that charges 1 to 8 batteries at a time. Check out the Amazon reviews of these products for more information. Ansmann and Eneloop batteries also get good reviews. 3) The SX130 will function much faster with a class 10 memory card. I bought SanDisk for my A560, and it's functioned flawlessly for 3 years. For my SX130, I bought a SanDisk Extreme Class 10 card. Check out the Amazon reviews and you'll see that the class 10 cards are a much better choice for a digital camera. Note that cards in the "bulk" package cost less because you're not paying for the retail box with all the plastic packaging. I plan to update this review in the future if I experience any problems you should be aware of.