Although the Canon PowerShot SX60HS (549.99 USD) is the most expensive superzoom camera on the market it still manages to win Editors Choice awards for superzooms exceeding 50x. The 65x zoom lens can cover an impressive range. It has a 16-megapixel sensor that is capable of taking images in Raw format and 1080p60 video. There's also integrated Wi-Fi. At $550 the SX60 HS is priced on the high side, but if you're set on a lens that enters überzoom territory, it's the one to get.
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Design and Features
Like all cameras in this class, the SX60 HS ($479.00 at eBay) looks a lot like an SLR. The camera is only available in black. It has a viewfinder and hot shoe. When the zoom lens retracts, it's not much larger than the one included with entry-level SLRs. It measures in at 3.6 inches by 4.5 inches by 5 inches (HWD), and is 1.4 pounds. The SX60 is slightly heavier than the Nikon Coolpix P600 (Amazon: $200.98) (3.4 by 5.4.2 by 4.2 inches; 1.2 pounds), which is a long zoom camera that has a 60x lens.
We've never seen a lens with a greater zoom ratio than the SX60. It boasts a 65x zoom ratio. Its equivalent 21-1,365mm (equivalent to f/3.4 to6.5) zoom can cover one of the most extensive angles possible with fixed lenses. And it has extreme telephoto reach, which allows for zooming in to take pictures of distant objects. The zoom's breadth is obvious.
This image shows Madison Square Garden at its widest angle. Below, you can zoom in on the shot of the goalie. Only the Panasonic Lumix FZ70 ($249.00 Amazon)has a wider zoom and its 20-1200mm lens just barely makes it wider.
It's not easy to track a moving subject when you zoom in to 1,365mm. Canon has a framing assistance function that can be activated by pressing the Framing Assist Look button on its lens barrel. This will help to solve this problem. To focus on moving objects, you can press the button and hold it down. This will back the lens out of the way. A box appears on the Live View feed that shows the zoomed-in frame. The button can be released to return the zoomed-in position of the lens.
The button is located below the one at the barrel. This allows you to use the optical stabilizer system to keep your subject in focus, even when the camera moves a bit. These two functions combined make tracking and framing distant subjects much easier than with superzoom cameras.
You can configure the secondary function via menu. This button automatically zooms in on portraits using face detection. You can set it to capture the entire body or just the face. It worked well and was able to track the subject's face. Although the practical uses of the function are not extensive, they could be helpful for parents who need to photograph their children in school plays.
Additional controls are located on the rear and top of the camera by Canon. On the top plate, you will find the shutter release and zoom rocker, as well as the Shortcut button and power buttons. Rear houses standard Wi-Fi and delete controls as well as a Record button. This button allows you to adjust active focus, exposure compensation, flash output and macro focusing modes. The layout is very intuitive and the location of the button to adjust the focal point was great. It can be found right beside the rear thumbrest.
You can make additional shooting adjustments via the overlay menu on-screen, which is accessible by clicking on the back Func./Set button. The screen has a column that displays control options along its left side, and each option is displayed in a row at the bottom. This menu allows you to adjust various settings, such as the ISO, white, metering, self-timer and dynamic range, shadow correction and image quality, video resolution, and self-timer.
It is attached to a hinge so that it can be tilted outwards in order to view the rear from either the front or the sides. The display can also sit flush against the rear, facing in or out. A 3-inch LCD displays are very bright thanks to its 922k dot resolution. There is no reason for concern. It is possible to activate the eye-level EVF via either the Display button, or by simply closing the rear display, so the LCD is not visible.
The EVF is slightly larger than that of the Panasonic FZ70's 202k dot EVF, but sharper at 922k dots. To get an even better EVF, you will need to upgrade to a premium bridge camera like the Panasonic FZ1000($897.99 on Amazon).
Wi-Fi comes standard with cameras at this price range. Canon's CameraWindow for Android or iOS can be used to send JPG photos and videos to your tablet or smartphone. Raw transfers are not supported. It is very easy to connect an iPhone with the camera.
The SX60 has a button that shows the outline of a smartphone. Once you have pressed it, the phone will connect to the network broadcast by its camera. You can link your Android phone to NFC by touching the NFC sensor on the left.
Images can be uploaded directly to many popular Web services like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. To upload images to Canon Image Gateway, you will need to first connect your SX60HS to a network. Once that is done, the camera can be used to post from any network connected. There's no in-camera GPS, but if you enable the CameraWindow location logger, you can add location metadata to photos over Wi-Fi—just be sure that the time on your phone and camera are synchronized.
Remote control via your tablet or phone is also possible. Controls are limited—you can zoom the lens, set the self-timer, control the flash ouput, and fire the shutter, but that's it. You can't select a focal point or control any other settings. This is a huge disappointment for a camera with full manual control.
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Performance and conclusions
It starts up in 1.8 seconds and can capture an image with in-focus in 1.8 seconds. This is quite good for a camera of this quality. The focus speed of the SX60 HS is very fast at wide angles, at 0.1 seconds. However, it slows to 0.6 seconds when zoomed in. It's slower than the Panasonic FZ70's (0.4) second, but this is still a lot faster than the Nikon P600's (1.7 seconds).
The file type and the focus setting will affect how fast you can continue shooting. The camera does its best when capturing JPGs with fixed focus—it manages 6.3 seconds there. It drops to 1.4fps when you shoot Raw and then slows down to 1.2fps when you shoot Raw+JPG. If you enable continuous autofocus—focus between every shot—the camera manages 3.7fps in JPG mode and 0.8fps in Raw or Raw+JPG mode.
Imatestwas used to test the sharpness of the SX60's zoom lens at certain focal lengths that we can check in our lab. It scores 21,180 lines per picture height in a center-weighted sharpness testing, which is better than our 1,800 line criteria. This quality is good for most of the frame. However, we noticed some softness around the edges. They show only 1,351 lines.
With an average score of 50mm at 2,040 lines, the edge-weighted score improves to 1,651 lines. The camera has 1,889 lines at 115mm and 1,862 lines at 200mm. In both cases, the edges exceed 1,700 lines. This is not the best score for a long zoom camera. The Fujifilm FinePix S1 at Amazonscored 3,375 lines at the widest angle. However, this sky-high score could be due to images sharpened by the JPG engine.
Imatest can also check images for noise. This may reduce detail or add a grainy look to photos with higher ISO settings. SX60HS maintains noise levels below 1.5 percent for ISO 400 and just 1.7% at ISO 800. The noise score is only one part of the story. Too aggressive noise reduction can cause image details to be lost. To see the performance of each ISO setting, I examined images taken from ISO 400 on an NEC MultiSyncPA271W ($999.00 Amazon).
The fine lines of our ISO 400 test scene can still be seen, however they begin to blur together at ISO 800. They've become blurred at ISO 1600, while they are almost impossible to see at ISO 3200. Although the Panasonic FZ70 is able to preserve detail at similar ISOs, it does not have some of the useful features found in SX60.
Raw image capture is also possible with the SX60HS. Raw images can retain more information than normal, allowing you to adjust exposure and make other adjustments after the photo is taken. They also don't include noise reduction. ISO 800 is the best setting for raw image details. ISO 1600 has some blurring, however images can still be used.
The smudging at ISO 3200 has taken over the details, however images that are shot at the highest sensitivity can be shared on the Web. Raw images may require some extra sharpening, beyond the 25 adjustments made by Lightroom.
The video can be recorded in MP4 format at 1080p60 resolution. Video is sharp and clear with great detail. Camera's microphone picks up sound clearly. There is no noise coming from zooming in, stabilization systems, focus, or any other components.
Although there are some minor motion artifacts due to the camera's rolling shutter and quick pans at extremely long focal lengths, they are not a major problem. Stabilization does an excellent job of keeping the handheld video stable. While I experienced some jittering while shooting at 1,365mm in our test studio, it was not distracting to shoot in the field.
If you are serious about your video, there is a microphone input. You can mount your mic to the hot shoe. It can also hold a Canon Speedlite flash. A wired remote can be connected to an HDTV or mini HDMI. Images can be offloaded to a computer using mini USB. Canon also includes an external charger for the SX60HS. The camera has one card slot and supports SDHC and SDXC cards.
The reason we haven't given an Editors Choice award to any new crop of bridge cameras breaking the 50x threshold is that we had not yet seen one that provided the complete package. Although the Nikon P600 was a great camera, its zoom speed at close inspection was sluggish. The Fujifilm FinePix S1 was weather sealed and fast to focus but had too much purple frosting to be awarded top marks. And the Panasonic FZ70 simply did too little to win the Editor's Choice award.
Canon PowerShot SX60HS combines all the elements. The lens is sharp and covers an impressive 65x zoom range. The camera has a vari-angle LCD display, a great EVF and a fast focus. Wi-Fi can also be integrated. Although it doesn't have as many details at higher ISOs than the Panasonic FZ70's, there isn't a great deal of difference between them.
The SX60HS's additional features make up the difference. This model is for you if you are looking for a zoom range with such a wide variety. Although it is a bit pricey, if you are willing to live with a smaller zoom, then there are other options.