Well now at last I have my hands on one so I can start enjoying photography at a different level with a camera that is small enough to fit into a pocket.
Here is the front view alongside the Powershot A2000. As you can see they are a very similar size and shape. The SX260 fits easily into the pouch I use for the A2000. The main differences you can see in this shot are the top panel, where the SX260 is missing the top mode dial. Like the Powershot A400 / A450 / A460 cameras I used to own, this dial has been moved onto the rear panel of the camera. The SX260 also has a popup flash instead of the fixed in place flash on the A2000. One of the biggest differences is that the SX260’s outer casing is nearly all metal, with the top panel and battery door being plastic.
This is a comparison of rear views of the cameras. The major difference on the back panel is that the SX260’s mode dial occupies the upper rear control panel. The layout of the four way controller with its FUNC button in the centre, and the DISP and MENU buttons is similar but the upper two buttons are different. The four way controller is different because it has a turn ring around the outside of it which can be used as an alternative to pressing the controller buttons to scroll. The screen is slightly larger because it has adopted the widescreen format. The camera can take photos in a variety of aspect ratios including the regular 4:3 format and the SLR 3:2 format. On the bottom of the camera is a battery and memory card shared compartment. Due to the use of a proprietary battery held in place by its own clip, gone are the days of battery doors having to be compressed closed against the battery springs – the door is lightweight plastic that easily opens and closes. Replacement batteries are $85 and I intend to purchase a second and perhaps third battery in a month’s time. The battery has to be taken out of the camera to be charged.
My first impressions are of the camera being able fit so much into a small package like a 20x zoom lens. It is a bit dearer than the A2000 was at the time – about 40% more. Still uses a Mini USB port even though officially that design has been deprecated in favour of the Micro USB. One reason for this being that Canon has modified the Mini USB port on its cameras of recent years to double also as a video playback port with a special cable. The camera does not come with this cable nor with a detailed manual or any kind of memory card but you do get the battery and charger and a standard USB cable. Creatively some of the best functions which have been added are the aperture and shutter priority and manual exposure modes. Flash performance will be nothing to write home about, but at night you can’t rely on flash for the kinds of photos I try to take anyway. The camera like the A2000 and S5 has very good features for taking photos creatively at night anyway. Here are a few photos I took on my way home with it (as it was dark when I left the shop).
I would say these are pretty good photos for ones taken under ambient lighting at night, with no flash being possible. The second shot is the Busfinder as I waited to catch the bus home, and the third shot is an interference pattern visible through two side panels of a bus shelter at the Central Station, where the last photo was also taken.