Canon PowerShot SX170 IS 16.0 MP Digital Camera, Black (discontinued by manufacturer)

bought for 12 year old

Technology marches on. I am an avid amateur photographer with 50+ years of experience with every film and focal plane technology ever created. This camera is my latest "pocket camera" to have with me 24/7, it's for those unique unplanned shots that always pop up when you least expect them and when your DSLR is just not an option to lug around with you all day.Some have criticized the change from AA sized batteries to a Canon propriety battery pack. Hogwash. Technology is going to move forward and the use of a battery pack simply does not mean this camera is any less useful. When you travel into the great whatever with an older camera you thought ahead and took extra batteries with you. Now you think ahead and make sure your battery is charged and yes if you will be away from an outlet you take as many extra battery packs as you need. I am guilty of not thinking ahead plenty of times with the AA technology with no means of stopping into a store to buy more, this camera is no different.The feel and user friendliness of this camera is outstanding. The controls are simple, the instructions (PDF on-line only) are clear and easy to follow, and the image quality is great. You are not going to shoot that perfect close-up shot of a running back diving across the goal line with this camera, but for every day snapshots it offers a nice, cost effective solution to carry in your pocket every day.It's not a DLSR. If you want a full featured high performance camera you'll need to spend a lot more money!9/30/2013 addition- the more I use thus camera the more I like it. The autofocus feature is very fast, and images shot at max optical zoom are beyond my expectations, far superior to earlier Canon point and shoot products.

I returned this camera after a couple of days use. The images all seemed to have an over-smoothed, anti-aliased quality coming right off the camera. I tried photographing stationary subjects outdoors, the camera hand-held, in bright early day broad daylight, with Image stablization both activated and then turned off.The results weren't blurry or out of focus. Yet I could tell this camera would apparently never achieve tack sharp focus. The deal-breaker for me was that another very cheap camera that I have at hand -- the Fuji JV100 -- produced sharper/better images of the same photo-op. The Powershot SX170 might well be an adequate camera for the arena of low expectations: for production of icons, thumbnails and small images on the net. But keeping it honest, as an upgrade to a low-end $70 Fuji, this camera fails to measure up.This is not even getting into the battery debate. I am strictly commenting on the quality of images it produces.One thing: Where my latest camera before the SX170 has an image default dpi of 72 (with image widths of 55 inches at 12 mp) when I open pics in Photoshop for post-processing, this camera produces images of 180 dpi at smaller dimensions as a starting point. This difference got me to wondering about how much and what kind of interpolation is taking place with my old camera versus this one.Perhaps the interpolating is where things are being bungled by the camera. Or maybe it is the anti-aliasing filter on the image sensor. All I do know for sure is that I am going to be looking at aspects of new cameras carefully (suspiciously?) that I hadn't considered before -- including, now, any image smoothing (so-called) that a camera may include. At general info sites, this specific information is scant; maybe specialist sites will be able to help.Cannot recommend the Powershot SX170. I had very high hopes for it, but the image quality is just too soft. My experience with this camera makes me wonder if the same could be true of all newer generation Canon 16 and 18 MP cameras within a hundred dollar range of this one. Anyone?If you want to know more about digital camera "anti-aliasing filters", look up "Optical Low-Pass Filter". This is definitely a subject for further research, one on which opinion is divided. But the SX170 earns a definite "No" from me.

LOVE:-Compact Size. Fits great in my purse to carry around.-Amazing zoom capabilities.-Great battery life.-Solid 'feel' of the camera. The plastic does not feel cheap and the body feels very well put together and solid-Good camera body shape. It is comfortable to hold, unlike many small cameras which are too tiny and square to hold correctly.-Love the convenience of a flash that doesn't come on unless you manually pop it open. I never really need or want the flash and I like that this isn't another annoying button on the back to keep track of turning off.-Love the setting that keeps a rule of thirds grid on the screen. This really helps me use the principle to best effectCOULD IMPROVE:-Screen is horrible! I have no idea what my photos will look like until I get home and put them on the computer.-I went into this knowing there was no viewfinder, but I really wish I hadn't accepted that. With the very low resolution screen I wish I had a viewfinder, especially when it's very bright out.-Can't get the control I want from the 'aperture priority' setting. I like to blur the background of some images but I never notice any difference when I've used the setting vs. just in auto mode. Sometimes auto will give me the blurred background I want, but not always; sometimes it blurs the background instead which is what I wanted in focus.Overall I love this camera for it's portability, but as I get more serious about photography I think I'll need to be quickly upgrading for a camera with more artistic control. This is amazing for quick shots but not much photographic control.

Very happy with the SX170. It meets my needs, it is light, compact, good zoom, life on battery better than I expected. My only complaint is the removal of the "isolate colour" in the features menu. I was able to create some incredible photos with the sx150 model.

La qualité photo laisse à désirer, à refaire j'opterais pour un autre modèle assurément.

Great little camera! Takes good photos and has a pop-up flash.FYI this camera does not come with a USB cord or a memory stick. Also, it has a rechargeable battery (NOT AA batteries as the listing says).

Bought this for my wife and she like it. It is easy to use.

Loisirs