Long story short: with the SX230 HS I have finally found a camera that (almost) from A to Z like it.
To bring the criticism straight to the point:
- The battery is relatively weak. In my opinion, almost too weak for such a camera, here it is highly recommended to 1 or more to purchase replacement batteries. A bit stream can be saved through various settings that have been mentioned here in other reviews.
- The solution of the flash is often mentioned as not optimal. On the one hand he sits right where you actually had his left fingers while shooting, the other the flash pops ever made, even if he did not actually needed. You deal with that by collapses him or holding your finger on it that he does not even folds out, but generally this is not a nice solution.
- The camera tilts in daylight for overexposure. Here you can also take countermeasures with exposure compensation.
Otherwise, I am very satisfied, especially in terms of image quality. I have previously read many tests where the SX230 times comes off very well, sometimes it is just as mediocre. For my subjective impression, the pictures are good, the noise reduction works well and even the pictures in the automatic mode see still good. Sure, you might be alarmed if you then look at a picture with 300% on-screen, but that's my opinion impractical. In includes prints as photo and small to medium-sized posters, the image quality is sufficient and all the focus is pleasantly neutral. The AF usually sits and is quite fast, the optical zoom is generous and also to use over the entire focal length range. Also nice that you have a fully manual mode and so automatic and experiment settings can.
The video quality is also impeccable. Compared with the example of Casio ZR10 the video performance of the SX230 is much better. The AF is much better compression and also the chip tends to considerably less noise and appears to be even brighter. Very striking was in slow-mo videos, where ZR10 at room lighting has a large pulsation of light and a violent noise, whereas the image of the SX230 is much calmer and better. Also worth mentioning is that the entire zoom range of videos available.
For processing still following: the front and back are made of metal, the frame is made of plastic. Overall, the feel, and makes a good quality impression, by the somewhat higher weight is the camera nice and quiet in his hand. The image stabilizer as well as freehand pictures in telephoto zoom range are readily possible.
Bottom line, I would recommend the camera all who seek something more than a "snapshot camera" and sometimes want to intervene manually. While it still lacks some desirable features such as an ISO-limit for all modes, but you can achieve good results anyway.
