Canon PowerShot SX20 IS

The Canon PowerShot SX20 IS is my camera of choice. This camera really packs a punch for the price. It has 20x optical zoom, 720p video capability, great image quality, and awesome battery life.

First, let's cover the zoom. The 20x optical zoom is a great feature, but I would recommend using a tripod if you're planning on taking very many pictures zoomed in more than 8x. After the 20x optical zoom, you can keep zooming in using digital zoom, but as with any camera, the picture quality will degrade as you zoom in.

Next up is image quality. This camera shoots great stills at up to 12.1 megapixels. It's great for most daylight and indoor lighting conditions, but images tend to get a bit grainy when shooting in very low lighting conditions. One of my favorite things about this camera is the quality at which it can shoot macro and super-macro photos. Unlike many point-and-shoot cameras, this camera can focus on a subject that's less than 5 centimeters away. 

Video quality is also great on this camera. It shoots HD video at 720p, it's not full 1080p HD, but in my opinion it's good enough to keep you from carrying around a video camera. I shoot most of my YouTube videos with this camera, and I have no complaints about the video quality. My only complaint about recording with this camera is that my SD card fills up rather quickly. On an 8GB SD card I can only record about 40 min of 720p video (my Sony Webbie HD MHS-CM1 can record 2 hours and 40 min. of 720p video with an 8 GB SD card).

The last thing to talk about concerning this camera is battery life. This camera takes 4 AA batteries. From my usage, I can get about 100 min. of 720p video recording or around 1000 pictures out of 4 AA alkaline batteries. This camera can also use rechargeable batteries, but they don't seem to last as long as the alkaline batteries. With 4 2650 milli-amp hour AA rechargeable batteries, I can get about 40 minutes of 720p video or around 450 pictures.

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