Choosing an inexpensive camera for home use in a budget class is not as simple as it seems. After all, it is the affordable segment that is overflowing with almost identical products under different brands, the choice of which will be the buyer. In such cases, professionals recommend trusting the reviews of owners of digital devices who managed to test the camera, identify its advantages and disadvantages, leaving the corresponding review in the media. Canon PowerShot SX400 IS occupies a leading position both in sales in the domestic market and in the number of user feedback, which is why this article is dedicated to it.
Famous brand
Canon is known worldwide for its products, and its customers have never had any complaints about their quality. By purchasing any digital camera under this brand, the user, along with great functionality, convenience and high quality, will receive many other useful additions. Firstly, we are talking about providing an official two-year warranty on all digital technology. Repair of Canon cameras in most cases is free of charge at any service center of the company.
The owner of the device will not have problems with spare parts for repair or modernization of equipment. Having an official warranty card, the user can always purchase the necessary parts through a Canon representative in his city. On the website of the official manufacturer, the owner of a digital device can always find the necessary software, as well as updated firmware for his gadget.
First meeting
The Canon PowerShot SX400 IS digital camera is a representative of budget- class devices designed for home and creativity. Although apparently, judging by the numerous reviews of the owners, it looks more like a reflex camera. It is this feature of the gadget that attracts the attention of many potential buyers. The digital device is equipped with a full grip and thanks to it it is very convenient in the photographer’s right hand.
Build quality and plastic material cause only positive feelings. The case does not creak during operation, the backlash of the camera components is completely absent, all mechanisms are operational and do not cause discomfort. True, in many reviews, owners complain about the soiled plastic case - it quickly collects dust and fingerprints.
Excellence Score
Many competitors can envy the standard equipment of the manufacturer: the Canon PowerShot SX400 IS camera, battery and charger are supplemented with a lens cap and a strap for transportation. Also in the box, the user will find a lot of paper documentation: instructions, recommendations, advertising brochures and quality certificates. It would seem that there is nothing to complain about, however, demanding customers have discovered a number of minor flaws:
- there is no USB interface cable for connecting a compact digital device to a personal computer, because somehow you need to transfer images;
- not included and a video cable for viewing photos on a TV screen;
- some users would like to see a spare battery in the kit, but this is clearly too much.
Button Control Challenges
Many potential buyers who want to own a digital device that looks like a SLR camera are faced with problems controlling the gadget. The abundance of control buttons on the device’s body, which provide the camera with great functionality, is to blame. The manual that comes with the package will help you figure out how to control the digital device Canon PowerShot SX400 IS.
Only the lack of a touch screen in a compact camera deserves negative reviews. It is extremely inconvenient for many users to manage the menu settings using the four-way joystick. Especially when you consider the huge set of functions that can be controlled only from the main menu of the device and are not tied to buttons. However, just such functionality is practiced in expensive mirror equipment. But the shutter release under the index finger of the right hand appealed to all owners of this camera.
Full automation
Functionality with which the camera is endowed often indicates that a digital device belongs to an inexpensive segment. The compact Canon PowerShot SX400 IS is fully automated and does not provide the user with a single opportunity to influence the exposure. Yes, the owner can increase the brightness of the picture, remove noise or improve the quality of shooting at night, but the main components (shutter speed and aperture) are not available to him.
But this does not mean that the compact digital camera has become less functional, rather, on the contrary, the device is controlled by an intelligent system and to obtain a high-quality photograph, the user only needs to press the shutter button. A lot of reviews, both positive and negative, on this topic. Even many professionals believe that controlling shutter speed and aperture increases the range of camera capabilities - without them, a Canon product is less attractive.
Grandiose deception
The Canon PowerShot SX400 IS, whose price in the domestic market ranges from 8-10 thousand rubles, looks very similar to representatives of the expensive line of SLR devices, and the manufacturer claims high quality photos that can be obtained using a 16-megapixel sensor. Together, all of these advantages can attract a stream of customers to a digital device, however, only one indicator bothers even beginners who are poorly versed in digital technology.
And we are talking about the size of the matrix, which has no differences from those installed in cheap "soap boxes". After all, the era of racing for megapixels is long over, and all buyers know that the smaller the matrix, the worse the image quality. It turns out that only one review can stop a potential buyer: Canon PowerShot SX400 IS is an ordinary compact soap dish in a beautiful case.
Decent optics
However, unlike cheap devices from a budget class, the compact camera is equipped with a huge lens, which hints to future owners about the creative features of the gadget. And here the manufacturer has something to be proud of:
- the lens has a hardware image stabilization that allows you to take pictures in motion;
- there is an optical 30x zoom, which is complemented by a digital zoom of up to 60x thanks to the ZoomPlus pixel division function;
- the focal length of the lens is 24-720 mm (35 mm equivalent);
- uses TTL focusing with 9-point metering and face detection.
The autofocus control menu will appeal to even the most demanding user. Here the compact Canon PowerShot SX400 IS camera is unlimited. The owner of the camera can monitor the auto focus during shooting, choosing the desired exposure, change the focus itself, controlling the metering points and make objects move away and closer in the process of determining the exposure.
Another popular indicator
An important factor determining the convenience of controlling the camera is performance. The Canon PowerShot SX400 IS digital gadget has decent performance. The device is equipped with a very powerful processor, which is equipped with many system cameras that work with high resolutions. Instant shooting is complemented by the same fast video shooting that starts in a few seconds after turning on the digital camera.
In their reviews, many users note that it was easier for them to take unique frames with this compact digital device - they pressed the power button of the device and you can immediately get to work. Equipped with a camera and energy-saving function, because a powerful processor requires a lot of electricity. However, in the “ECO” mode, which is proposed by the manufacturer to save battery power, the camera does not work as fast as many owners would like.
Respect for your digital device
In the media there are a lot of positive feedback from users about the work of service centers that performed camera repairs. All, without exception, the owners of the digital device claim that the company representatives as soon as possible solved all the problems of users, including replacing the lens, or installing a new matrix. On this side there is not a single question for the manufacturer.
Confuses another fact - the compact digital camera is very fragile and fails when dropped or hit hard. Cheap “soap dishes” and expensive SLRs do not have such problems. Professionals in their reviews claim that everything is to blame for the size of the device, which does not correspond to the electronic filling built into the camera. The presence of emptiness in the case leads to the fact that upon impact, the components simply move.
Press the button - you will get the result
The mentioned system of intellectual image processing actually controls the whole camera, which deserves a positive review from all owners. Canon PowerShot SX400 IS theoretically duplicates all the functionality of a digital SLR device. The only difference is the lack of rights to intervene in the shooting process with the owner of the budget device.
Digital effects that are implemented in the gadget at the hardware level deserve special attention: fisheye, toy camera, miniature, poster, and many other useful functions. Recently, these effects are gaining popularity again, so the manufacturer tried to provide his product with all the necessary functionality.
Finally
In terms of price-quality ratio, it is rather difficult to find a negative review in the compact digital technology market. The Canon PowerShot SX400 IS meets the needs of most undemanding buyers. Let it not provide a “shoe” for installing an external flash, which is constantly mentioned in the media. But the built-in flash has no analogues among budget devices - a guide number of 7 meters and a response speed of 1/1600 seconds.
If we are talking about video shooting, which is negated by many buyers due to the lack of support for FullHD, then it will immediately become clear to anyone who is partially versed in physics that the quality of video recording from Canon will still be several times better than any representative of the budget devices. Indeed, for video shooting, the quality of the lens is not in last place. Having a desire, you can negate any advantages of digital devices, but to eliminate the negatives you will need the knowledge that all owners of a compact Canon PowerShot SX400 IS camera have.