General
The camera is becoming the kind of device that everyone already owns. If not as a separate device, then as part of a phone. Pictures are increasingly taken with phones rather than with actual cameras. For example, the most popular camera on Flickr in 2015 has been the iPhone. Canon comes in a distant second and Nikon holds third place.
But what might today's basic cameras have to offer? Is it even worth considering buying one to accompany a mobile phone?
This means that traditional camera manufacturers are starting to have a hard time with their basic compacts, and perhaps with other models too. But what might today's basic cameras have to offer? Is it even worth considering buying one to accompany a mobile phone? So I tried it out, and the point of comparison for Canon's compact was the iPhone 6S Plus.
Traditionally the sensors of compact cameras are tiny, 7,7 mm in size. Cameras with a short or long zoom, large or small body, have then been built around these. The Canon under test is small, but it has had a zoom lens squeezed into it whose focal length range corresponds to a 25-450 mm angle of view in full-frame terms. The small 7,7 mm sensor size makes it possible to get the package to pocket size.
Getting started
The camera comes with a battery, a separate battery charger, the charger's power cable and a wrist strap. The mini-USB cable intended for transferring pictures has been left out, but these can usually be found at home. Computers also usually have card readers. Presumably Canon thinks that the pictures are transferred to the computer using the wifi integrated into the camera.
After switching the power on, you have to set the date and time zone. Canon could make some changes to this view.
It is difficult for a Finn to set the right time zone, because the menu has no Helsinki or Finland time zone. You have to guess, or look up, that we are in the Cairo time zone. With other brands the time zone is usually conveniently tapped in from a map.
If it were summer time, then after setting summer time the clock goes an hour wrong. Then you have to go and correct the time you just set back to the right one.
The camera does not ask for a language but directly selects English as the default. The other language options, including Finnish, can be found in the menus.
Feel
The SX610 HS is a small camera that slips easily into a pocket. The finger grip on the front wall ensures that the camera stays in your hands and does not slip to the ground. With the included wrist strap you get further assurance that the device stays with you. This feels like other similar Canons, or other compacts in a similar price range in general.
There are not very many control switches and adjusters, but buyers of this type of camera hardly miss them anyway. It is enough that you can take the picture. The menus are clear and the desired item is found there quickly. The right place for the shooting-mode selector is down at the bottom all the time, unless all kinds of fancy tricks interest you.
There are not very many control switches and adjusters, but buyers of this type of camera hardly miss them anyway.
In use
The Canon works practically flawlessly and its functions are quick. The autofocus is fast enough, at least for stationary subjects. In burst mode the resolution drops, and the autofocus can no longer keep up in the dim light of a Finnish winter day.
The auto mode exposes reasonably well, but exposure compensation is needed. This function is found through the function menu and is not very quick to use. The same menu also has other settings of interest to a photographer, starting from image size and compression.
If you want to shoot with shutter speeds of several seconds, the longer time has to be selected from the function menu mentioned above. That way you can try tripod shooting with the camera in dim light. The ISO sensitivity should then be set as low as possible.
Manual exposure is not selectable, but this is probably not a big shortcoming for the buyer base. In some situations it would be an advantage, though. I did take one product photo handheld with the help of slave flashes. The lack of manual exposure made the shutter speed long, but the stopping power of the flashes still made the picture acceptable. Exposure compensation had been set to the maximum negative amount and sensitivity to 80.
The battery lasted over 300 frames in mixed shooting. Some of the pictures were taken in freezing weather, so the battery life seems good.
The camera can be controlled with a phone or tablet over wifi. In practice this worked splendidly. Over wifi the pictures can also be sent to a mobile device, from which they can be shared onward when needed.
Image quality
The lens speed of the lens is modest, f/3,8 - 6,9. As a result the ISO sensitivity tends to rise very easily to high values. Even so, the shutter speeds are on the long side, so the camera's optical image stabilizer comes into its own.
The ISO sensitivity tends to rise very easily to high values.
Even if you switch the image quality setting to the best position, the picture does not withstand closer inspection even at the lowest sensitivity. Compression causes artifacts at high-contrast edges and noise covers flat surfaces. Absolutely sharp pictures simply cannot be had in practice by any means, if one can use such a term.
Quality degrades steadily as sensitivity rises. The camera's noise reduction removes details at the same pace. The camera does do its best to keep the sensitivity at low values by lengthening the shutter time.
Even if you switch the image quality setting to the best position, the picture does not withstand closer inspection even at the lowest sensitivity.
Normal indoor lighting is a bad situation for this camera, and clean results are hard to achieve. Moving subjects in particular are poison. The dimness of a winter day is not this camera's friend either. The best results come in sunshine, when the sensitivities stay low.
Normal indoor lighting is a bad situation for this camera, and clean results are hard to achieve.
Canon PowerShot SX610 HS vs. iPhone 6S Plus
What about a comparison with a modern smartphone camera? If you have a new higher-end phone in your pocket, it probably reaches parity with a basic compact in image quality, or perhaps even surpasses it. Mobile phones simply have no zoom, with the exception of Samsung's K Zoom, but that is not much of a drawback for general shooting. With a zoom lens you easily lose lens speed, which is really needed with small and modest sensors.
Canon SX610 vs iPhone flower
Canon PowerShot SX610 HS vs. iPhone 6S Plus
If the pictures are examined at pixel level, the Canon's picture is noisier compared with the iPhone's. Contrast, sharpness and dynamic range also seem to go slightly in the iPhone's favour. This is not a scientifically precise analysis, but it is indicative nonetheless.
If you have a new higher-end phone in your pocket, it probably reaches parity with a basic compact in image quality, or perhaps even surpasses it.
Otherwise both devices handle shooting handily. The iPhone's exposure compensation is neatly combined with the selection of the focus point. The small compact has the advantage that you can take the picture without taking your gloves off. But taking other things into account the scales tip in the phone's direction. And there are smartphones with a separate shutter button too, in which case you can take the picture with gloves on without unlocking the phone.
Canon SX610 vs iPhone Iin Hamina
Canon PowerShot SX610 HS vs. iPhone 6S Plus
20 megapixels, 18x zoom
Don't let megapixels and zoom factors intoxicate you when shopping for a camera. As this test also showed, pixels and long zooms do not yet make a camera good. Usually less is more. The lack of lens speed at the long tele end makes using it difficult, if not impossible. The lens speed of such a camera barely suffices even at wide angle in indoor lighting.
Pixels and long zooms do not yet make a camera good. Usually less is more.
The pixel count, along with the zoom factor, has for years been used in marketing as the most important feature. The pixel count is imagined to bring sharpness and quality to the picture, but in this case too the majority of the pixels drown under optical and electronic shortcomings. Probably with a more moderate pixel count a better camera could have been made from this very sensor.
The pixel count is imagined to bring sharpness and quality to the picture.
You often hear people say that they do not need a fancy camera because they are not professional photographers and do not know how to use a camera's complicated adjustments. The same people may then lament the poor technical quality of their pictures. I would argue that the quality of their pictures would also improve with a better camera. The advantages of a better sensor and fast optics do show, even if you shoot in full auto.
The content of the picture is then another matter. Whether the camera is good or bad, it cannot go to the right place at the right time by itself, nor find the right angle or the decisive moment. The photographer is responsible for that.
Whether the camera is good or bad, it cannot go to the right place at the right time by itself, nor find the right angle or the decisive moment.
Summary
The Canon PowerShot SX610 HS is a handily sized pocket camera with quick functions and wifi. Unfortunately the image quality leaves a lot to be desired, and a better phone can do the same, if not better. The long zoom is attractive on paper, but the lens speed, or rather the lack of it, makes using the tele end less appealing. Even at the wide end the lens speed is enough indoors only for stationary subjects.
But the situation is not quite as bad as the text might suggest. If an image is viewed at a small size or on a small display, the shortcomings in image quality are not so obvious. By looking at the pictures in the gallery below you can judge for yourself how the image quality, or its shortcomings, appear to you.
If I were nevertheless buying a compact, my eye would definitely turn to a large-sensor camera with a short but fast zoom. Canon has such cameras too, even a whole model series. There will be an article about such a camera at some point.