Canon PowerShot SX600 HS 16MP Digital Camera - Wi-Fi Enabled (Red)

This is a repurchase of an identical camera for my assistant and it is the best I've found. I've been in my current business where I take between 200 to 400 photos every week, sometimes more, and this camera carries the weight well. The video feature is very helpful as well. It can either video continually or it will provide a video clip prior to a photo snap, which is helpful for my business to be able to attach a verbal note to a pic. Sturdy, zooms well, takes nice clear pics. Battery life is really good as well. I just keep a spare and rotate them. Highly recommend this one!

Did a lot of research before I bought a camera. I settled on this one. 18x optical zoom, 16 megapixel, 1080 video. This camera is so easy to use it's almost idiot proof. It has all manual settings if you want to mess with that stuff. Lots of features and options I will never use but just in case I want to I have the option! I really, really like this camera and I've barely begun. I bought it for a trip overseas. Very happy!

I have several other Canon digital cameras, and slowly retire old ones to replace them with new ones, all the while keeping three or four of them active. I like the consistency of Canon's user interface, since let's face it.....many digital camera have user interfaces that you will forget how to use if the manual is not handy. I have one of the ELPH series, which is a gorgeously nice looking camera that is both small and light weight, and it takes nice pictures. But it is reluctant to focus properly in many situations, and is fond of taking photos that look OK on the LCD screen but are actually a bit soft in focus. It also will not adjust focus or exposure during the taking of videos. So, nice but still lacking in some ways. Then I have a big S3IS which I love, but it is growing a bit long in the tooth in terms of its small LCD screen size and relatively low resolution. However, it excels are being able to take still photos while in the process of also taking videos, something I find very useful, and its ability to freeze action during sports or other 'active' scenes surpasses any other camera that I currently own. Then there is one PowerShot that I bought a year ago because it takes two AA cells for its battery, as opposed to requiring a proprietary Canon battery, but I see Canon has discontinued that camera line. So I was looking for a replacement for the ELPH in my lineup.....a basic point-and-shoot with good specs, pocketable size, strong optical zoom, and ability to take camcorder-quality videos including auto adjustment of focus and exposure as the subject of the video changes. The choice came down to the PowerShot SX600 HS and it's mate the SX700 HS, a price difference of about $100. The major differences are that the SX700 has a better image processor and a much stronger optical zoom (30x instead of 18x). After discussing my needs with a Canon product specialist (and Canon remains excellent for how easy they make it to reach real people for getting questions answered, and these people are not in a foreign call center reading from a script), I decided on the SX600. After taking a few photos around the house to make sure it worked, I took it along as a backup to my S3IS camera on a recent vacation trip. Now that I am back from the trip, I have to confess that I never pulled the S3IS out of the bag, and did all stills and videos using the SX600. The SX600 is a typical size for its class, measuring 4" wide, 2.4" tall, and 1" deep front to rear (not counting the zoom lens which sticks out quite a ways when the camera is turned on). This is a comfortable pocket size, but the weight of about 6 oz is noticeable and I would not call it exactly light weight. The camera feels substantial and sturdy. Even though the SX600 uses a typical proprietary flat Canon rechargeable battery, the camera case sports a small bulge in front to help you keep a good grip on it while shooting with only one hand. I found that this bulge was useful, but still just a bit too small to really afford a secure one-handed grip. Still, I applaud Canon for providing anything to help in this regard. The camera case is all plastic; mine is the black finish and it is a simple matte plastic texture. The other color options appear to provide different textures, but I cannot comment further on that. The front of the SX600 is dominated by the large lens assembly; this is a generously large optical device for a small point-and-shoot, and it is one of the main selling points for the camera. In order to get the lens 'unpacked' for use, the internal motorized mechanism has to go through a series of maneuvers, but this is automatic and quick so you hardly notice it. The same applies to stowing the lens when you turn the power off. The automatic lens cover works very well. The rear of the SX600 is taken up with the large 3" diagonal wide-viewing-angle color LCD display and the set of buttons and selections. I will not go into detail of the user interface since the SX600 shares the conventional and well established Canon philosophy and controls layout. The only part of this that I found to be different from my other Canon's is the addition of a three-position slide switch that allows changing from normal AUTO picture taking mode to either of two specialty modes. The most notable of these modes is the so-called "Creative Shot" mode, where immediately after you take the intended still photo, the camera automatically takes several more of the same subject in quick succession, each with different 'special effects' settings applied. I found this to be a totally useless feature for anything like normal camera use....not sure who would be likely to appreciate this feature. I like the pop-up flash. If you push it down, the flash will not fire regardless of the settings, and if you think you might want to have the flash work, you press the button that allows it to pop up, and it will then fire automatically as needed. I much prefer this to having to go into a menu somewhere to turn the flash on and off. The image sensor is 16 megapixels, which is very good in this price range. You will not even notice this for most normal photos, but if you zoom in to the limits of the optical zoom and then keep zooming in, the extra resolution will help prevent the image from getting grainy. While the SX600 is both a camcorder and a still camera in a single case, it does have some limitations as described below. STILL: - You cannot shoot still photos while the camera is taking a video. However, pressing the shutter button (as if to take a still photo) will immediately stop the video and pressing the shutter a second time will take the still photo. Then press the red VIDEO button again to immediately resume shooting the video, and hopefully you only lost a couple seconds. - Not as many ways to fine tune the resolution and JPEG compression settings to use for still photos, when compared to my other Canon cameras.....this camera will always take larger sized image files than what I desire for most casual photography. VIDEO: - Focus adjusts on the fly as you pan around while shooting videos, but exposure adjustments seem to be sluggish in response (compared to the quick way the camera is able to automatically adjust otherwise). - The SX600 has effective image stabilization for still photos while zoomed in, but it seemed to me that the image stabilization did not work very well while shooting videos (and maybe the camera does not even have this feature....the manual was not too clear about it). - Full zoom is possible during videos. - Unlike still photos, it seems there is no adjustment to how the videos are taken. The aspect ratio and resolution appear to be fixed as 1080p (1920 x 1280) full HD widescreen. - Unlike still photo mode, where I never experienced a failure to focus perfectly, I encountered many times (but still a small percentage of videos I took on my vacation) when the camera simply refused to focus after I pressed the red VIDEO button. I needed to stop the video, tap the shutter button to 'wake up' the auto focus system, then press the red VIDEO button again to restart the video. No good reason that I can think of for this to happen. - Unlike a real camcorder, the SX600 automatically creates new video files every few minutes, as opposed to making a single huge video file if you keep on recording without a break. If you edit the separate files together on to a DVD or something like that, it appears that nothing is lost. But it can be alarming to look at the video status on the display when you have been recording a video for maybe 12 minutes, and the counter shows only 2 minutes and 5 seconds, for example (because it already closed off the first 10 minutes as a separate video file). As with all Canon cameras, you cannot recharge the battery while it is in the camera. You must pull it out and place it in the included charger. I got very long times out of the battery, lots of time with the display on and zooming going on, etc; Still, I recommend buying a second battery in case the first one runs out of power in the middle of something important. It takes a few hours to recharge each battery but I found that one charger could easily charge two batteries overnight (if I set an alarm to wake up and change the battery at 2 AM). Based on my experience, don't waste your time with generic or third-party batteries....just plop down the money for the real Canon battery if you want the same kind of battery life that the included one gives you. The SX600 has Wi-Fi, and you can use this to send photos and videos to your smart phone or to Wi-Fi equipped printers, computers, etc. However, I have not used the Wi-Fi feature and cannot comment on it. One cute aspect of the Wi-Fi is that you can apparently use your smart phone to remotely trigger the camera to take a photo; useful for group shots and so on. The SX600 is fairly basic in terms of special features and being able to shoot in unusual situations. It is primarily a basic point-and-shoot. However, you can get some access to basic manual controls if you are so inclined to use them. Based on my experience so far, filling up six SD cards of 8 GB each on my vacation (lots of than being video), I have few real complaints with the SX600, and it has become my main camera for everyday and vacation photography and video.

I like to travel with a "real" camera in my pocket when I go for walks or on bike rides so I started looking for a nice light weight point n shoot camera. After shopping around the Canon SX600 HS caught my eye. The camera is just the right size and weight for me and it fits nicely in my pocket. The camera features a generous 18X optical zoom, built in flash, imagine stabilization, and a big bright LCD screen. I find the zoom to be quiet and fairly fast. Another feature the SX600 HS has that I was looking for was Wi-Fi for picture transfers. It's not completely easy to set up Wi-Fi picture transfers and sharing but it's not impossibly hard either. The software needed to set up Wi-Fi between the camera and your phone or computer (Windows or IOS) must be downloaded from Canon's online website. However, for those who don't want to fuss with setting up the Wi-Fi you can still transfer pictures the old way with a USB cable or card reader but you miss out on the polished picture transfer interface provided by the Canon software. The instruction manual that comes with the camera is pretty bare bones but for anyone who has owned a digital camera before operation of this camera should be simple. So far I find that the camera takes excellent pictures in in most lighting situations. I recommend the Canon SX600 HS camera to anyone looking for a nice value priced Wi-Fi enabled point n shoot pocket camera.

I am liking this camera alot. Excellent zoom, very good for quick shots. Good crisp photos. Very good anti-shake for both stills and video. Easy to carry in my pocket. The only detractor is that it is a little difficult to get a firm grip while operating the zoom and pressing the shoot button using only one hand. For legal reasons I can't tell why I need to do that😊. I found the "Camera Access Point Mode" option very useful. I could transfer photos directly from the camera to my tablet without a wifi router. A couple button clicks on the camera to select it, then connect the tablet to the camera like you would to a wifi router and use the Camera Connect app on your tablet to select and download any or all photos from the camera.

I think this is probably a really nice camera. It certainly has a lot of features, but I have no idea how to use them. It came with a "Getting Started" booklet that told me how to put in the batteries, turn the camera on and off and which button to push to take a picture. I could have figured that out for myself. What it did not come with is a manual What I cannot figure out is how to use the features. I cannot delete a picture from the camera, I do not know how to turn the flash off and on, I cannot always find my pictures after I have taken them. I push buttons on the back at random and all sorts of stuff comes up that is a total mystery to me. There is a bunch of cute little icons on the back of the camera. I can tell when the battery is low and that is about it. There are pictures and numbers that are meaningless to me. One number is 137' 10". Really? I have no clue why my camera would tell me "137 feet 10 inches" There is a little hand that looks like it is telling me not to do something. It is a just very expensive point and shoot camera if you do not have a manual for it. I could find nothing on the Canon website about obtaining a manual. I have emailed them about where to obtain one and if they get back to me and I get a manual, I will change my rating and review. What kind of a hare-brained company sends out a camera and assumes the person receiving it has to be told how to put batteries in and how to turn it on and off, but will know how to use the advanced features?

PROS: The camera itself is good for people who don't want to fiddle with settings. I left it on auto mode for a trip to Europe and was mostly happy with image quality in all light levels. The SX600 performs especially well in low light, but the default settings also tend to over-expose in bright sunlight or with backlit subjects, and captures a lot of lens flare (J.J. Abrams fans rejoice!) CONS: The camera is Wi-Fi ONLY. This means you cannot connect it to your PC with a cable for transferring images! You have to install Canon's camera software which makes changes to your PCs media sharing and WiFi network settings. For a camera that is otherwise very easy to use, getting the images onto the PC is a hassle, has poor documentation, and should not require network security changes. Transfer speed is also highly dependent on proximity to your wireless access point, so if you experience really slow file copying, put the camera right next to your router. This would have been a 5-star review if the software had been as simple to use as the camera.

I used this camera a lot on my recent two week vacation and the pictures and video were always excellent. The video on my big screen looks outstanding, which was one feature I really counted on from this camera since my old 12MP Canon still took great pictures after 6 years. The other features I wanted that were not available combined prior to this release in one Canon point-and-shoot camera along with the Full HD video were 18x zoom, 16MP and the WIFI. The only knock would be the battery life is not as good as it could be, but then the recent reviews on other new Canons warned me about this, so I merely bought a second knock-off which was well worth it. Don't let this affect your decision to buy this camera. I can only guess that some bad comments are related to reviewers that wanted to knock this camera for their own reason...some comments are so ridiculous they can be quickly dismissed. Please do and go buy this camera, you won't be disappointed.

Nice and slim. Fairly simple to start taking pics. Haven't had much chance to use it yet

It's a very good camera. Just meet what I need.

Rápida, con buena resolución, fácil de manejar y con un buen programa de ayuda para la captura de fotos. Sumamente recomendada para quien desee tomar fotos por diversión.

A great camera with a decent price point.

Buena relación calidad-precio, es sencilla de manejar y toma buenos videos. Se requiere leer el manual para que el flash funcione adecuadamente.