Features & Controls

Canon's PowerShot SX30 features the worlds largest (as of 10-10-2010) zoom at 35x. With a 35mm equivalent of 24-840, there is not matching the amount versatility that you get from the two extreme ends featured here. This long lens completely folds up inside the body, protecting it when it is not in use. Canon's Optical Image Stabilization is powerful enough to allow you to capture handheld images (in descent lighting) without worrying about image blur from the extreme zoom.

Focus Range:

The SX30 IS's pop-up flash is very powerful for a compact camera, giving you a range of up to 19ft. It gives you all the flash modes you would expect to see from Canon, including Red-Eye Reduction, Auto, On, Off, Slow Synchro and more. With the large battery listed before, the recharge time on the flash is 10 seconds or less.

Flash Range:
Wide: 1.6ft. - 19ft. (50cm - 5.8m)
Tele: 4.6ft. - 9.2ft. (1.4m - 2.8m)

Framing and viewing your images can either be accomplished on the camera's 2.7-inch Vari-Angle LCD screen or its EVF (Electronic View Finder). Both the LCD and EVF have 5 levels of brightness adjustment and both display the same amount of information. The 230.000 dot LCD pulls away from the camera and swivels to just about any angle. This makes for easy shooting in any lighting conditions or situation.













Controls on top: on the left is the Flash mode button (not shown).  On the right side is the Mode dial with positions for Auto, Program, Shutter priority (Tv), Aperture priority (Av), Manual, Custom 1-2, Movie, SCN, Sports, Landscape, and Portrait. Next is the shutter release with the zoom lens control mounted around it, in playback mode the zoom lever functions as the index and magnified image control. Last but not least is the On/Off power button.












Controls on Back: Starting on the top left you can see the Video Record button which allows you to capture HD video no matter what shooting mode the camera is currently in. Looking to the right you can see the Framing assist button. This allows the camera to zoom out so you can find and follow you subject and the camera will automatically zoom back in when you let go. Under that are the playback button, to enter playback mode, and the AF frame selector so the camera can be set to focus exactly where you want it to. The 4-way controller lets you navigate menus and select images during playback, the FUNC/SET button accepts menu selections. It also gives you access to the Function shortcut menu, which has many settings (white balance, Color effects, Bracketing, Flash output compensation, Metering, Movie/Still Image quality and Image size, etc.) In record mode you press 'Up' to change to Exposure Compensation mode, 'Right' to toggle the sensitivity, 'Down' to change the Drive mode, and 'Left' to enable Macro focus mode. Mounted around the 4-way controller is the Control dial. This handy dial allows you to quickly navigate the menu, set aperture and shutter speed values, etc. The DISPlay toggles the amount of information displayed on the LCD and EVF as well as switched between the two. The MENU button calls up and dismisses the menu screens. You can also see the Movie mode Record button in the upper left hand corner.













I/O ports are located on the right hand side. On top is an HDMI out that allows you to view your images and HD movies in HD on your HDTV. Under that is the combination USB 2.0 Hi-Speed data and the A/V Output port, video is selectable for NTSC or PAL.















The SX30 IS accepts SD/SDHC and the new SDXC memory cards for the storage of you images and videos. With the camera's ability to capture HD videos, we recommend using a card with at least a class 4 rating to handle the data needed to capture these files. Here you can see the camera wiht an ADATA 16GB Class 6 SDHC card.

Image data

Large (L)

Medium 1 (M1)

	Large (L)		Medium 1 (M1)		Medium 2 (M2)
	F	N	F	N	F	N
File Size (KB)	3,597	1,719	1,897	902	558	278
4GB	1,058	2,194	1,978	4,022	6,352	12,069
16GB	4,334	8,985	8,101	16,473	26,010	49,420

	Small (S)		Widescreen (W)		Low Light (M)
	F	N	F	N	F	N
File Size (KB)	150	84	2,024	968	558	278
4GB	20,116	30,174	1,856	3,771	6,352	12,069
16GB	82,367	123,550	7,602	15,443	26,010	49,420

Movie data

	Standard, Color Accent, Color Swap
	HD: 1280 x 720	640 x 480	320 x 240
	30 fps	30 fps	30 fps
Video size (KB/sec.)	3,054	1,416	495
4GB	20 min. 43 sec.	43 min. 43 sec.	1 hr. 58 min. 19 sec.
16GB	1 hr. 24 min. 54 sec.	2 hr. 59 min. 03 sec.	8 hr. 04 min. 30 sec.

	Miniature Effect
	HD: 1280 x 720			640 x 480
	5x	10x	20x	5x	10x	20x
	6 fps	3 fps	1.5 fps	6 fps	3 fps	1.5 fps
Video size (KB/sec.)	573	287	143	246	123	61
4GB	1 hr. 45 min. 52 sec.	3 hr. 21 min. 09 sec.	5 hr. 35 min. 16 sec.	3 hr. 43 min. 30 sec.	6 hr. 42 min. 20 sec.	11 hr. 10 min. 33 sec.
16GB	7 hr. 13 min. 30 sec.	13 hr. 43 min. 40 sec.	22 hr. 52 min. 47 sec.	15 hr. 15 min. 11 sec.	27 hr. 27 min. 20 sec.	45 hr. 45 min. 35 sec.

Powering the SX30 IS is a large 7.4V, 1050mAh Li-Ion rechargeable battery. Canon claims that this battery is more than enough to allow you to capture up to 400 images when shooting with the EVF or 370 shots when using the LCD screen.