To save 20% off the market price, I even got a "grey set" at $529.
The camera was put to the test immediately during this festive season.
Other than missing a gathering with friends on the 22nd, this camera was used for several occasions during the past 2 weeks:
a. Hayley's First Haircut
b. Photo archival of Caeden's old Art and Craft projects
c. Christmas parties
d. My cousin's wedding
e. Caeden's Birthday at school
f. Family Outing to SSC
g. Friend's Kid's Birthday
After using it these weeks, here are my key observations of the SX20:
1. HD Recording
I really liked this function. The movies came out gorgeous even in normal indoor lighting. The stereo sound came out crisp and clear, especially those taken indoors. Light-years ahead of the mono recordings that I had from the mju 850.
However during my boy's birthday celebration, which was held indoors under normal lighting, the camera had trouble focusing and kept searching for a focus lock (I could see the dust on the lens during the focus search due to its macro function) for an extended period of time.
This "problem" happened only when I was recording the singing of the birthday song (although the camera did search for focus from time-to-time but recovered it in less than 1-2 seconds). I suspect the yellow uniforms that the kids wore could have confused the sensor but haven't been able to replicate this issue though.
2. 20x Optical Zoom
I didn't really believe some of the reviews that I read on the Web about the ability of the camera to capture stuff that were actually too far for the eye to see.
I caught some butterflies flitting in the trees just outside my home one morning and took a couple of shots at wide-angle (28mm), 20x optical (560mm) which are displayed below. These were taken handheld.
The third picture is a crop from the optical picture showing a close-up shot of the butterfly.
The butterfly pic is obviously quite grainy (On Sports Setting - 1/640 f5.7 ISO640) but still presents some fine details that would have been missed if such a zoom capability was not present.
3. Shooting at high ISO settings
I like natural lighting and try not to use flash whenever possible. But one of the issue that I faced during these few weeks whilst taking pics using natural light is that I had to use high ISO in order to obtain proper exposure. Reviews on the SX20 stated that the noise levels increased drastically once ISO was set above 200.
I found myself using ISO 800-1600 most of the time at low shutter speeds (1/15 to 1/30) when taking pictures:
Judge for yourself if these pics came out well.
I also wanted to find out if the resolution at which the pictures were taken could affect the noise levels, so I did several shots at 12mp, 8mp, 5mp and 2mp of my son's cupboard:
Can you see any difference in the pics?
In my opinion, not much unless you want to enlarge pictures beyond A4-size (which I don't most of the time) or crop your pictures to improve their composition (which I also don't normally do).
4. Handling and Ergonomics
Weighing in at about 700g (1.5lbs), it is not exactly featherweight when compared to the FZ35 that I had been evaluating before choosing the SX20. In spite of the heft, I found the large grip of the camera fairly easy to hold and the four-way buttons were quite ergonomic and intuitive to use.
I also liked the articulated LCD as it allowed me to take pictures at hip level (without bending over) to take shots that would otherwise have been difficult to compose.
That being said, trying to take pictures (and waiting patiently for a nice shot) whilst taking care of an extremely active four-year old and an "expectant" wife with a five-month old daughter is never an easy task.
5. Power Supply
The SX20 uses 4xAA batteries, which is a double-edged sword. Some people swear by Lithium-Ion batteries as these provide the highest density and result in lighter cameras.
But I think they'll do fine as the manual states that more than 300 shots can be taken with the LCD on. I've yet to reach the point where my batts run dry as I pop them into the quick charger just before leaving home.
It's probably easier to obtain AAs that proprietary batteries when overseas (or even inside our own country). I've yet to hear anyone say that they couldn't find AA batteries. Besides, I have a four year old kid that loves trains and cars; so I have plenty of rechargeables lying around that I can quickly swap whenever battery juice runs low.
Conclusion
Given the amount of money spent, I think the SX20 is great value and I'm quite pleased about its performance. I'm looking forward to use it to record valuable moments so that I can view them again when my memory fades with time.
