Canon PowerShot SX200 IS

Auto Mode

The Canon PowerShot SX200 IS offers several different automatic modes, each of which gives you more control over the camera. The easy mode is meant for beginners; here the camera will take care of just about every adjustment for you. Auto mode gives you a bit more control and works by trying to analyze the scene and pick a proper scene mode to match. Program mode is for more advanced users. Here the camera will take care of exposure for you, but you can still make all the adjustments you want to settings like ISO, white balance and exposure compensation.

Movie Mode

One of the Canon PowerShot SX200 IS's big upgrades over its predecessor is support for 720p HD video, with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 720 at 30 frames per second. HD video has been taking off in the last year or so and we're glad to see Canon make this upgrade with the SX200 IS. We're also happy to see them using the H.264 codec, which is more efficient than the motion JPEG found on some other cameras. Even with this more efficient codec we recommend you invest in a larger SD card if you expect to use the SX200 IS's HD capabilities a lot though, 2GB of storage will only get you about 11 minutes of video capture. Video capture is also available at 640 x 480 and 320 x 240 as well.

The SX200 IS brings 720p video to the ultrazoom lineup.

Drive/Burst Mode

The Canon PowerShot SX200 IS offers both continuous and continuous auto-focus burst shooting. Don't expect too much, however, as the burst mode tops out at only 0.8 frames per second.

Burst mode can be accessed via the Function Set menu.

Playback Mode

You enter playback mode on the Canon PowerShot SX200 IS by pressing the dedicated playback button just above and to the right of the 4-way control. Once in playback mode you can move between photos using left/right on the 4-way controller. You can change the information available on the display using the display button, which gives you several options, including the information-packed view you see below. You can use the zoom toggle to either zoom into the selected photo or zoom out into a thumbnail view. Your editing options include rotation, red-eye correction, trimming and resizing, as well as a variety of image effects you can apply.

Use the  Display button to see all the information you might want.

Custom Image Presets

The Canon PowerShot SX200 IS offers a nice variety of scene modes. Canon has made use of all the spots on the mode dial to provide access to some of the scene modes it thinks you will be more likely to use. These include Indoor, Kids & Pets and Night Snapshot. All the other scene modes are available by moving the mode dial to the special Scene setting. From here go into the Function Set menu to select from the available options. These are Foliage, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Fireworks, Aquarium, Night Scene, ISO 3200, Color Accent, Color Swap and Stitch Assist.

Most scene modes are available by switching to Special Scene on the mode dial.