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Powershot sx20 or smatphone camera ? What is better

Started Jul 2, 2019 | Questions
zbynek smetana New Member • Posts: 1
Powershot sx20 or smatphone camera ? What is better

Sorry for language mistakes. I have old camera (2009) "Powershot SX20 IS". Is it wise to take picture by this camera in 2019 ? I mean is  this camera is better than middle class camera from smartphone ? I am an amateur.

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nevada5
nevada5 Forum Pro • Posts: 15,553
Re: Powershot sx20 or smatphone camera ? What is better
1

zbynek smetana wrote:

Sorry for language mistakes. I have old camera (2009) "Powershot SX20 IS". Is it wise to take picture by this camera in 2019 ? I mean is this camera is better than middle class camera from smartphone ? I am an amateur.

Your smartphone camera can't zoom (well, not properly.)  So yes, take the SX20 out and enjoy it.  I had one back when it was new.  It was a pretty decent camera and nothing about it has changed.

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sueanne
sueanne Forum Pro • Posts: 21,078
Re: Powershot sx20 or smatphone camera ? What is better
1

Both ate good 

nevada5 wrote:

zbynek smetana wrote:

Sorry for language mistakes. I have old camera (2009) "Powershot SX20 IS". Is it wise to take picture by this camera in 2019 ? I mean is this camera is better than middle class camera from smartphone ? I am an amateur.

Your smartphone camera can't zoom (well, not properly.) So yes, take the SX20 out and enjoy it. I had one back when it was new. It was a pretty decent camera and nothing about it has changed.

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Luis Gabriel Photography
Luis Gabriel Photography Senior Member • Posts: 2,607
Re: Powershot sx20 or smatphone camera ? What is better
2

Depends on the phone but there are focal ranges no phone will be able to match. Yet for other more common focal lengths , phones like the mate 20 pro will outperform the camera with it's 3 lenses (having a 16mm ,mm 27mm and 85mm) so having both should be better

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Rudy61 Forum Member • Posts: 94
Re: Powershot sx20 or smatphone camera ? What is better

Zbynek,

The SX20 got a gold award from this website back in 2010 for good reasons:

https://www.dpreview.com/products/canon/compacts/canon_sx20is

And it received positive reviews from many other sites as well. It has an HDMI connection port so you can play back images and videos directly on your TV. It also has a pretty good aperture range (2.8 to 5.6 or 5.7 if I remember correctly), even compared to some other newer superzooms.  An excellent attribute of the SX20 (in my opinion) that you can't find any longer is the CCD sensor. Canon stopped using CCD sensors in their SX compacts with the SX30, I believe. In good light, those CCD sensors give excellent resolution and apparent sharpness, and good colors. Pay attention to your exposure because in these older cameras with older sensors and processors, you don't have a lot of latitude (tendency to clip the highlights). Otherwise, it is "behind" newer models only in some features that are really just little luxuries that don't affect image quality (screen size and resolution, viewfinder resolution, etc., speed of operation, etc.)

Enjoy the SX20 and make the most of it! Developing your understanding of exposure, composition, and what modes to use for different situations will make much more difference to the quality of your photography than the equipment itself. This is equally true for photography with smartphones.

Best regards

Rudy

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