Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3-Inch LCD (Red)

Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3-Inch LCD (Red)..

GET Canon PowerShot SX280 12MP Digital Camera with 20x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom with 3-Inch LCD (Red) By Canon

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297 of 305 people found the following review helpful.
Great Camera! Love the Wireless!
By Telemachus
I've had a number of PowerShot cameras. Really impressed with the picture quality of the camera and the overall speed. Colors and picture quality are quite good and the low-light performance is superior. The previous review focuses nicely on the picture quality, so I wil stick with the human factors.

Manual control and adjustment are simple to master, so you won't need to rely on the automatic settings. My only concern with the camera is hat the wifi settings are difficult to set up. I'm pretty good with wireless technologies and it took me quite awhile to figure it out. Make sure you run the set up disk. Unlike many other consumer wireless gadgets, this one requires that you run the setup software. Couldn't just turn on the camera and connect it to the router. As much as it pains me to say this, I should've read the directions prior to jumping in to try to set it up! :-)

Once it's setup, it works great. I've been transferring files to iphone, ipad, and laptop; and transferring to the Canon Image site. All directly from the camera. Even emailed my wife a link to a photo directly from the camera. Camera IS a bit of a battery hog, but I was expecting it.

Update: Since I concentrated on human factors in my review, I thought I would weigh in on flash location interfering with handhold
position. Personally, I didn't notice it until I read the other reviews. I've had other cameras with pop up flashes, so I think I just automatically adjusted to it. That said, I can see how it would annoy some people. The flash is located in the front left-hand corner of the camera, but there IS sufficient space behind the flash to place your finger. Could be a problem if you have large hands, I suppose.. Motor is also strong enough to remind me to move it when it pops up.

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Update 20 May:: There is a glitch that's been widely reported that shows that the battery is drained when in video mode. This is a glitch in the indicator, not the actual battery life. Cannon has acknowledged the problem and is working on a fix. Expect the next firmware update to address the issue.
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Update 5 June: New Firmware Released Today!! Details Firmware Version 1.0.2.0 incorporates the following fixes and improvements:

1. Increases the duration of movie shooting by 20% in cases where the optical zoom is used compared to cameras running Firmware Version 1.0.0.0 or Firmware Version 1.0.1.0 through a reduction in the power consumption of the optical zoom.

*Time under default camera settings, when normal operations are performed, such as shooting, pausing, turning the camera on and off, and zooming. (based on conditions established by Canon).
-Under some shooting conditions, the recording time may be shorter than mentioned above.
-Recording time with a fully charged battery.

2. Fixes a phenomenon with cameras running firmware version 1.0.0.0, in which the low battery level warning is prematurely displayed while shooting in movie mode.

Firmware Version 1.0.2.0 is for cameras with firmware Version 1.0.1.0 or Version 1.0.0.0. If the camera's firmware is already Version 1.0.2.0, it is not necessary to update the firmware. Please note that, once the camera is updated to the latest version, it cannot be restored to a previous

I installed it with no problems.

443 of 462 people found the following review helpful.
A Great Campact Camera
By Just Another Reviewer
Enough said about how good this compact camera is in the other reviews. Only two quick comments: It is an excellent compact zoom camera complimentary to my SLR camera/lens collection on the road for quick shots (photo & video) without lens changing. Case Logic DCB-302 Compact Case provides good protection and a perfect fit with room for extra battery and SD card.

Update 5/8/2013: Per Canon technical support, the battery inside the camera cannot be charged via USB port like your cell phone when connecting to PC or outside USB power source.

Update 5/13/2013: When using "AUTO" on the dial as well as ""AUTO" ISO" in "P", "Tv" and "Av", the ISO is automatically selected from 80 to 1600, not to 3200 or 6400. To manually select ISO 3200 or 6400 in "P", "Tv" and "Av", you need to select "FUNC. SET" and then choose the 3200 or 6400 under the"ISO" list.

Update 5/19/2013 The flashing "low battery" warning in the video mode is indeed a design fault of the battery indicator not the battery itself. With a freshly charged battery, I can take either around 200 photos or about 30 minutes video (1080p 30fps). The low battery warning comes in about 2 minutes into the video shooting after some zooming.

Update 5/20/2013 Per Canon technical support, Canon is trying to resolve this "low battery" warning issue in the video mode. Decided to return this wonderful camera. Will buy it when the issue is resolved.

Update 6/5/2013 Canon just published a firmware update for SX280 to fix the low battery warning issue in the video mode at this web link: ([...] Click on "Drivers & Software". Select your computer's Operating System and OS Version. Click on "Firmware". Download the firmware zip file and unzip the file. Follow the instruction in the PDF file to update the firmware.

Update 6/7/2013 I repurchased a new SX280 with the hope that the low battery warning issue has been fixed by this firmware update. I updated the new camera to the new firmware 1.0.2.0 from 1.0.1.0 following the procedure in the PDF file. The premature low battery warning in the video mode for the updated SX280 has improved but not fixed.

260 of 274 people found the following review helpful.
Terrific Camera Overall
By J. Malinsky
Hi there

I've replied to a few reviews of this product before choosing to write my own, while keeping in mind everyone's opinions (especially about the battery) thus far.

Out of the way, I too noticed "problems" when shooting video on a not-fully charged battery. I put the word in quotes, because in my experience/view, it's really a software problem that can be fixed with an upcoming firmware update. It just flashes red prematurely, and you can certainly repeat steps to have that happen consistently. Also, you'll only get about 30 minutes or so of 1920/60fps HD video per charge (keep in mind the battery will likely be flashing red most of the time). But keep in mind, its really just a bug. When you power up your camera, the true charge is shown on the indicator.

I took the camera with me today to shoot a typical days worth of exciting things with my kids. I took about 35 photos, and a combined 7 minutes of full HD/1920/60fps video. I also transferred a few images wirelessly to my Android phone. After all that, my battery is still showing as fully charged and does not do the 'premature red battery' even if i take it to video. So that seems like a decent day for me, and it doesn't show a dent (and rightly so). I'll just have to remember to charge the battery fully before I take it out.

In the end, I do recommend the camera because of what I bought it for: excellent, truly best-in-class images from a camera under $400. This camera is my '2nd' camera, for times when I don't feel like dragging my DSLR around. The images aren't as good as a DSLR (no surprise) but they are by far the best images I've taken with a point-and-shoot. The 20x optical zoom is truly incredible, and the true/natural Image Stabilization (*not* digital) is fantastic: you can actually take a 20x zoomed picture without it being blurry! Not only that, the IS during video shooting makes it smooth-as-silk on playback, especially in truly stunning 60fps mode. Shutter-lag isn't as good as a DSLR (because the concept doesnt exist with mirrors), but it's miles ahead of my last 2011 P&S and also faster than my 2013 smartphone camera.

I can see why the video/battery issue is so frustrating: the video from this thing is truly amazing (stereo, Image Stabilization, and did I mention 1920 and 60fps yet??!) and you *want* to shoot a ton with it. It's also in ultra-convenient mp4 format right out-of-the-camera. And it does a superb job of focusing as you zoom on video (my older p&s wouldn't let me zoom in video mode at all). But if video is really your mojo, get a camcorder for the same price and be happy. If you're after stills, or shooting video "shorts", this is your bet. And hopefully the short-ish battery on video will make better videographers out of people by forcing them to cut down on the extra crap they shoot that nobody watches anyways :)

Touching on a few remaining things: I love that the camera has a metal body, love its hefty weight (remember when cameras felt like cameras and not TV remotes?) and dig the wireless. I'm not a GPS guy because the privacy issue freaks me out, so I don't run the GPS. As mentioned by other reviewers, the wireless is a bit tricky to set up if you want to go camera->computer wirelessly - you'll have to run the software on the CD (it retrieves the latest version from the net automatically). The easiest set-up is camera->smartphone; as long as they're on the same network, transfers are easy. If there's no wireless where you're shooting, you can actually use the camera as an access point itself and connect your smartphone/tablet to the *camera's* network. Keep in mind that the wireless transfer is *not* eye-fi: you have to *select* the images you want to send, after they've been shot (photos aren't automatically transferred wirelessly as you shoot). Believe it or not, you can actually tweet from the camera itself. That being said, I think the omission of Flickr is a drag, but perhaps that's because they are pushing their own "Canon Image Gateway" service for photo sharing/storage.

Also, I appreciate the restraint in megapixels... the filesizes and document sizes are realistic and appropriate for people who aren't blowing photos up to large dimensions. Focusing on image quality instead of megapixel count is a much welcomed approach in my opinion, and I hope the ridiculous megapixel race slows down in order to focus on the sensor quality/lenses that can be crammed into a P&S size camera.

Also, coming from DSLR world, I'm actually pretty happy with the amount of customization offered. The manual (on the CD only) is chock full of information, including how to use the self-timer in "wink" mode (wink to take the shot!!). All modes I shoot on (M/AV/TV/P) offer *center only* focus. I haven't seen that mentioned too often, but that is *exactly* what I like - in fact the first thing I do on my DSLRs/new cameras is turn off the 'smart autofocus' to use center-point only). It means you might have to take a moment to frame the shot you want (focus then frame), but to me it cuts down on silly camera "intelligent" errors when it focuses on things with contrast instead of the content that matters.

I don't find the position of the pop-up flash an issue; my finger fits behind it. Also, consider that the pop-up flash reduces red-eye quite significantly by being further away from the lens. Not only that, but this camera is *great* in low-light for a point-and-shoot - ease up on the flash and enjoy the great new processor!

This camera does exactly what I want it to do, and does it *really well*, but if I was planning on a day of really heavy shooting with video, I'd buy a spare battery. And I'm looking forward to a firmware update!

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Canon PowerShot S110 12MP Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD (Black)

Canon PowerShot S110 12MP Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD (Black)..

Grab Now Canon PowerShot S110 12MP Digital Camera with 3-Inch LCD (Black) By Canon

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339 of 373 people found the following review helpful.
So Much Canon Goodness Packed Into This Tiny Fella!
By Marc Jordan
As we all know, Canon's S90 - S100 models have pretty much set the bar in The Advanced Point And Shoot market for the last 4 1/2 yrs... Until recently ( With the advent of The Sony RX100). Canon sales more cameras than almost all other brands combined, this does not indicate, however; that they are the best in all categories, but that they are either the best over all, or at least in the top 5 for most classes of cameras.

I have owned many Canon Cameras and printers over the years, and I have been very happy with most of them, but I also place a lot of stock in fellow Amazon customer's reviews. For many months, I noticed that every other review, or updated one, for The Powershot S100 indicated a nasty lens error. That said, this time around researching advanced P&S's, I decided to see what other Brands such as: Nikon, Fuji, Panny and Sony were offering... What I found was this, Other brands have really took notice of The Canon S and SX line's success and or offering very stiff competition!

Sony has, IMHO, set the New Standard with the almost perfect Advanced P&S, The RX100. My coworker owns one, and it stomps all others in this now crowded class! Only problem is that it cost over $650.00, but the image quality, and low light rendering are truely amazing! Needless to say, Sony discounts its products about as often as Apple discounts its products... NEVER! The Panny Lumix LX5 and LX7, Nikon P300 and P310 and Fuji X10, are all now offering very good to excellent image quality in this class. You saw correct! I did include The Nikon Coolpix P310! Nikon has really stepped their game up with The Coolpix Line, in fact; this was the only model that came close to The Canon S100 and S110's Bang-For-Your-Buck. Price, it is $200 less than Canon S110, $450 less than The Sony RX100, while offering excellent I.Q., pocketabillity, low light performance and manual controls... Sans Raw mode. Came so close to getting The Nikon P310, before you judge me, just take a gander at the online sample shots of this camera!

In the end, I came back to The Canon S110. Chose The newer S110 over The S100 in the hopes of avoiding The Lens Error (Fingers Crossed). So happy with this camera! The S110 looks identical to The S100, but let me tell you, Canon has made some huge improvements with The 110. Canon has improved upon the sensor and auto focus speed of this model, added usable ISO, WiFi and touchscreen functionallity. Low light performance is a lot like that of The S95 and S100 combined. Allow me to explain. Sometimes The S100's colors would be a little off in low light, casting an orangish hue... as if shot in sepia. The Powershot S95 rendered sharp, detailed and very accurate colors in lowlight, but the lens was a bit slow under these conditions. I don't know what Canon did, but there is almost zero lag in AF, despite others claim that this is a slower lens or sensor than its predecessors. Color, contrast and sharpness are spot on! I predict that the next S model will have a larger sensor to be competitive with The Sony RX100's lowlight performance, but until then, I have to say that the S110 is very close in low light image quallity and will surpass the Sony, although at the cost of a higher price point and perhaps a larger form factor because of the larger sensor.

Battery life has never been an issue with me, because I rarely took over 100 pictures in a day and never used GPS tagging or logging. I also rarely shoot video clips longer than 10 min. in a day,also buy cheap aftermarket Batt.s as back-up. Canon's addition of WiFi to The S-Line is really cool and useful; I use it way more than I thought I would! It is implemented very well with this camera, much smoother and faster than using Eye-Fi's top of the line card... That's an $80 dollar value right there! Lol Also, I already own a Canon SX-230HS and many extra batteries. The S110 uses the same battery ( NBL-5) as The SX-230. Yes! Winning! WiFi connection with your smartphone or iPhone is almost instantaneous, once the App. is opened on the device, or printer turned on. GPS functions are combined with these WiFi transmissions between your phone and camera, and they are thus also instantanious.

The WiFi operates very efficently, and a cool, bright, blue LED lights up on the top of the camera when it is connected. It flashes when busy. The Camera asks if you would like to geotag or log your location while connected to your phone or computer. It is a 2 second affair, so GPS no longer drains your battery. Built-in GPS and Eye-Fi cards do not work nearly as seemless as this! I had issues when first setting this connection up, because I thought I could bypass the step where you connect the Camera to a computer via USB cable and run software CD... You have to do this step! I think you may have to also Register your S110 for it to properly set up initial WiFi.
Touchscreen: Very Responsive, and can be adjusted.... Nuff said on that.

CONS: The things I don't like about The Canon Powershot S110 are pretty much all ergonomically based. These things are true of the entire S series, and perhaps the indicative of the entire Class of these type cameras. They are not easily handled or operated... even on Auto! EXAMPLE: A friend, family memb., or pedestrian says, "Hey, YOUR NAME HERE, I noticed you are taking everyone else's picture, would you like me to take yours with the group?" You have to explain that this really tiny, hard to press button turns the camera ON. When it turns on be careful, because the flash is going to come up over here. If you want to zoom in it's the tiny switch here next to the shutter button. Now, you only want to press the shutter button halfway to compose the shot... it'll beep when ready, then you push it all the way down to take the shot. See? Some ergonomic issues have gotten better with this version of The "S".... others the same or worse. 1. Front grip is gone. 2. As on all The S Models, power button is way too small and recessed. 3.Mode wheel blocks index finger from shutter button. 4.Flash makes camera hard to handle with left hand. 5. if touchscreen shutter is on, camera will take picture if finger contacts screen before you are ready. I guess some things have to be sacrificed for a small form factor, but I feel comfortable giving anyone my Canon Elph 300HS and it is the smallest P&S ever produced!

There is no loud knocking noise when zooming in video, but there is a slight wherling sound when I zoom in video. Hard to notice and can only be heard when passage is very quiet during playback, but it's there... none the less. Wish Canon would get that worked out. All and all EXCELLENT IMAGE QUALITY and cool added features, deffinately recommended! The White is very cool looking and although glossy does not show prints as much as I had anticipated. The Black/Mat is sleek and modern looking like a stealth plane.... was a hard decision to make! UPDATE: Have now taken close to 400 shots. Still going strong! There are a few points that I should add to my review. Some I forgot, and some are new discoveries.

1. Wifi connection.: I own a Huawi Glory/Mercury Android smartphone which is still running Gingerbread. The S110 connects flawlessly with this phone, but what I found out is, you must be near an open WiFi network or hot spot for it to work. The Camera's Wifi will not work over 3G or tethered to your phones mobile hotspot. Also, The S110's WiFi will not connect wirelessly to Windows7 Basic,Starter or any OS older, such as XP or Vista. It won't work on Macs older than OSX 10 or whatever Apple's answer for Windows 7 was. I was told by a Canon Rep. that it works well with full versions of Windows 7, and extremely well with Windows 8. We will see. Waiting for Black Fri. to snag a Windows8 computer.

2. Touchscreen Shutter: Amazingly, the touchscreen functionallity of The S110

has really impressed my friends and family. It really comes in handy when I

give The S-110 to someone, in order to get in the picture myself or for

some one to swipe through the pictures, using their finger to preview.

3. Price Point: I purchased The Powershot S110 for $390 used, and it came

new, in box with all contents still sealed in plastic. Nice! The main reason

I purchased the S110 over the S100 was it was only $38 dollars more at that

time, and I felt that was a small Diff. to pay to hopefully avoid The Lens

Error. I really am happy with this little camera. The functions and menues

are very easy and quick to access with the lens ring and touchscreen. Before

I was using Auto way too much... Now, I am truely learning, in a fun easy way

about F-stops, apperature, ISO, white balance, shutter speed, etc. Things

that I already kinda knew about with my Eos T3 and even my S95, but seemed

to much trouble or laborious, are now fun and easily implemented to play

around with. I am having, "A Ha moments," where I think aaah, that's why

that turned

out good or bad with my DSLR... The S-110 is the perfect learning tool to

whip out of your pocket, purse, or Camera Case and start learning and capt-

uring. I also played around with The Canon G15 and G1X. Salesman at camera

store told me that G15 used pretty much the same sensor,lens and processor

as The Canon S100 and S110. The Powershot G1X really impressed me with its

image quality though; seemingly better than even the more expensive, Sony RX

100! I understood why when he told me it had an SLR sized sensor. The G1X is

a beast, though! Holding it, it felt the size and weight of my T3 without the

lens! Way too large, but may be Canon's answer to The New Sony, Panny, Fuji

and Olympias in this class. He offered it to me at the same price as the G15

$550 plus Uncle Sam's cut (Tax), but it still was more than I could afford.

So here I am. A happy S110 owner. Lol

76 of 82 people found the following review helpful.
Touch screen and other thoughts
By Peacefrog
Been using my new white S110 for a few days now and my initial impressions are:

Build Quality - Very good, nicely finished has the look and feel of a quality product

Features: Touch screen is responsive, AF is speedy even in low light, knurled front ring makes adjustments easy and fast, typically good, easy-to-follow menu system and initial setup. LCD is bright and visible even in Florida sunlight. Auto white balance seems pretty good. The Auto function works surprisingly well choosing a scene mode and applying image parameters. With the Auto mode, I have not witnessed any unexpected blown-out highlights and shadow detail is pretty good. Image stabilization appears to work very well, perhaps 3 stops worth. Conversely, wireless setup is a monster nightmare that involves Canon Gateway, registering, modifying your network settings and then just maybe it will work. After almost 30 minutes of tinkering, I was able to transfer 16 photos to my laptop but it took almost 15 minutes to accomplish the transfer. Much easier to just use a card reader and then upload photos to social media sites, email, etc. Canon has not made this feature user-friendly. I will not be using the wireless capability.

Image Quality: Very good up to 800 ISO - little noise, good detail, and color. 1600 is still good. 3200 perhaps for small prints only.

Overall: Good camera; however, Canon's engineers made the wireless curse-worthy. Build quality, image quality, handling, ergonomics are all above average. My only caveat involves the price...kind of pricey for a couple of features over the S100. If you can find an S100 with a serial number above 42xxx (infamous lens error problem), you'll have basically the same camera as the S110 sans the touch screen and the wireless features at a much less expensive cost. I plan to keep my S110 since it is so very pocket-able, fast, and puts out very decent images especially at lower ISO levels. Canon states that the S110 has a newly designed lens. I am just hoping they have rectified the frequent lens error problem of the S100. Time will tell.

139 of 159 people found the following review helpful.
You'll Regret Purchasing This Camera
By Zero Cool
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RB2DMHJRNA9WD While the S110 has great features, it suffers from the fatal lens error that has become synonymous with Canon's Powershot S line of cameras. This Powershot S110 failed with a lens error during a family vacation - leaving me with just my lousy smartphone camera. I had it for only 20 days when it failed.

I've owned the S10, S80, S95, and now this S110. With the exception of the S95, ever single model has had a lens error. Until now I've just dealt with it (returned / repaired) because of the excellent image quality and features. I can no longer ignore these lens issues and I will no longer be buying Canon cameras. Frankly, I feel like kind of a fool for giving Canon so many chances.

Do yourself a favor and search for Powershot lens errors. Most importantly, don't ignore what you find! This is a great camera when it works - which is why there are so many 5 star reviews. Read the 1 star reviews to get an idea how common the lens error is - then decide if you want to take a chance on this camera.

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