Introduction
Design & Appearance
The Canon SX130 IS is extremely compact, considering how much it offers. If you line up the last several generations of PowerShots, you'll see a trend towards rounding out all the corners. This time around, even the buttons on the back got the rounding-out treatment so they rise like bubble wrap from the surface. Overall, it's an attractive, slender camera.
Tour
The lens extends forward when you power the camera on
The back has an LCD, but no viewfinder
There's just a button-type battery on the left
The right side houses the ports
The top has a mode dial and shutter button
The batteries and memory card load from the bottom
Handling
Ease of Use
The Canon PowerShots SX130 IS is an easy to use camera, despite all its features and settings. Newbies who've never used an advanced camera before may be dazzled by some of the choices in the menu, but that's what the Easy mode is for, which is clearly labeled on the mode dial. The camera also has a Hints & Tips feature that prods you into making changes to improve your pictures.
Size & Handling
The Canon PowerShots SX130 IS is fairly compact for what it delivers, and you'll have no problem fitting this in a large pocket. It's a far cry, however, from the much thinner Canon Elphs. Measuring 4.46 x 2.88 x 1.80 inches (113.3 x 73.2 x 45.8 mm), it's about the same size as the other ultracompacts in Canon's PowerShot line-up.
Modes
Auto Mode
The Canon PowerShots SX130 IS has several auto modes, as well as an idiot-proof Easy mode. Any of the auto modes are simply removing one or more camera settings from you and making the decision itself. In Program AE mode, the aperture and shutter choices are made for you. There are Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority modes, and many specialty scene modes (described below in Custom Image Presets).
Movie Mode
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS shoots 720p HD video. The LCD has a preview of 30fps, so it looks just like a camcorder when you're setting up your shot. When in video mode, the menu offers several options. Resolutions include 1280 x 720, 640 x 480, and 320 x 240. You also have control over white balance, focus, exposure, Color Accent and Color Swap, and the newly popular Miniature Effect (also known as Tilt Shift).
Playback Mode
In playback mode, you can get information on all the camera settings that were used for that shot, as well as a histogram for exposure data.
Custom Image Presets
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS has many custom image presets: Smart Shutter, Low Light, Super Vivid, Poster Effect, Color Accent, Color Swap, Fish-Eye Effect, Miniature Effect, Beach, Foliage, Snow, and Fireworks. Most of these are carry-overs from legions of other Canon cameras
Drive/Burst Mode
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS offers Single, Continuous, and Continuous AF drive modes.
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Controls
Manual Controls
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS offers many settings for image control. It's an advanced point and shoot, with more user control than the Elphs, but not quite on the level of the PowerShot G11. There's are Aperture and Shutter Priority modes, a Program AE mode, and a full Manual mode.
Controlling shutter and aperture is similar to many point & shoots. There's a single dial on the back of the camera. Scroll that dial to shift shutter speed, then push in on the dial to switch the function to aperture control. Larger cameras and many DSLRs have two dials, which definitely makes for a more precise and faster control.
Focus
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS allows you to manually focus, but it's always tricky with point & shoots that don't have a dial around the ring. Because of this, the camera offers many different types of auto focus (AF) features. You can increase or decrease the target zone for the AF. You can target and lock on to certain areas, even if you or the subject moves around the frame. To speed the AF before you take the picture, you can push the shutter button down halfway and prime AF.
If you're dead set on manual focus, the camera offers yet another feature called MF Point Zoom that automatically previews a digital zoom so you can see the subject better.
ISO
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS has an ISO range of 80 to 1600.
Aperture & Shutter Speed
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS has an aperture range of f/3.4 to f/5.6 and a shutter speed range of 1/2500 to 1.0 second.
White Balance
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS has several white balance presets: Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Fluorescent H. You can also make a manual white balance and store it in the camera's memory.
Exposure & Metering
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS offers an exposure compensation of +/-2 in 1/3-stops. You have some limited control over the metering, as well. The standard options are here: evaluative, center-weighted average, and spot metering.
Other Controls
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS offers a few other manual controls that don't fit into any of the above categories. The i-Contrast feature is basically a setting for shooting backlit subjects and tries to pull detail from both the highlights and the shadows. The camera has Face Detection, and can track faces as they move across the frame. An expanded function of Face Detection is a newer Blink Detection that won't take the picture until after a subject blinks.
Image Stabilization
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS has optical image stabilization. There are three settings: Continuous, Shoot Only, Panning, and Off.
Picture Quality & Size Options
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS has four image sizes: L (4000 x 3000 px), M1 (2816 x 2112), M2 (1600 x 1200), S (640 x 480), and W (4000 x 2248, widescreen). Any of those sizes can be set to Fine or Normal quality.
Picture Effects
Like any Canon point & shoot, the Canon PowerShot SX130 IS has a number of picture effects. On Canons, they're called My Colors, and they include: Vivid, Neutral, Sepia, B&W, Positive Film Lighter Skin tone, Darker Skin Tone, Vivid Blue, Blue Red, Vivid Green, and Custom Color.
Hardware
LCD & Viewfinder
The has a 3-inch, 230,000-pixel color LCD on the back. There is no viewfinder.
Flash
The flash must be pulled up manually to operate. There's no motor that pops it up automatically. In the menu, you can set the flash strength to +/-2. There's also a red-eye reduction feature.
Jacks, Ports & Plugs
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS has a minimal number of ports, presumably to keep the body small. On the right side there's a single flap that covers a shared USB / AV-out jack, and a DC power jack. On the left side is a removable, button-type battery. The SD card and AA batteries load from the bottom.
Battery
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS uses two AA batteries, which are a lot easier to replace than a proprietary battery. The batteries load from the bottom.
Memory
The Canon PowerShot SX130 IS record to SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, as well as MultiMediaCard, MMCplus card, and HC MMCplus.
Conclusion
Meet the tester
David Kender oversees content at Reviewed as the Editor in Chief. He served as managing editor and editor in chief of Reviewed's ancestor, CamcorderInfo.com, helping to grow the company from a tiny staff to one of the most influential online review resources. In his time at Reviewed, David has helped to launch over 100 product categories and written too many articles to count.
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