Canon Powershot SX70 HS user experience 23 February 2019

I have to confess  a weakness for superzoom bridge cameras which use the 4.55x6.17mm (diagonal about 7.7mm) sensor size. The camera makers refer to this as the “½.3 inch” size presumably to ensure no potential buyer could readily figure out just how tiny the sensor really is.

These cameras present a very enticing specification.

In one compact, light, inexpensive package you get an amazing zoom range, a full suite of shooting modes, nice handling, good handle and thumb support, EVF and articulated monitor, 4K video, a long list of features and capabilities and much more.

The main downside is image quality which varies from acceptable to hideous.

I suspect the reason I keep buying these things is the challenge of trying to coax good picture quality out of the mess of luminance noise produced by the small sensors.

The imaging capability of the (presumably Sony made) sensor in the SX70 is no better than any 7.7mm sensor I have used over the last few years in 12, 16, 18 or 20 Mpx versions in Sony, Panasonic, Nikon and Canon bodies.

It seems development in this sensor size has stalled.

Over the years I have owned and used:

Panasonic Lumix FZ70, 80, 200, 300. TZ60, 70, 80, 90.

Nikon Coolpix B700, P900.

Canon Powershot SX20, 60, 70.

I would have tried the Sony Cybershot HX400v if it enabled RAW capture.

To date the only one of these cameras which I could recommend to a prospective buyer is the Lumix FZ300, provided the short (relative to the other models) 600mm equivalent focal length lens is not a problem.

Anyway  I recently bought a Canon Powershot SX70 HS and have been putting the camera through it’s rather limited paces.

How does it fare ?

Well, my copy of the SX70 is better than my SX60 was, that’s for sure, but I found the SX60 disappointing in almost every possible way.

So “better than the SX60 “ is not much of a recommendation.

The SX70 has many good features which together could make the camera appear quite appealing.

Best of all is the concept of the thing. It is  compact, light, inexpensive, nice to hold and use (with a few notable exceptions) and has a huge zoom range.

If specifications were the only guide to desirability the SX70 and similar bridge models would rate close to ideal with almost all the features most photographers could desire wrapped up in an easily carried, easy to use package.

Getting to the details we find:

* A nicely shaped inverted L type handle makes the camera comfortable and secure in the hand. The thumb support is optimally angled and shaped adding to the comfort and security of the hold.

* A well placed front dial and a rocking saucer type D Pad, both easy to locate by feel and operate.

* A decently good looking EVF with no blackout after each shot and a fully articulated monitor, also providing a clear, pleasing image preview and review.

* There is a microphone port, which would be appealing to vloggers.

* The camera is relatively easy to set up. This is partly due to the limited feature set and partly to the generally well designed menus with a user configurable My Menu.

* It has an effective auto pano feature which is not restricted to the widest focal length.

* The lens is of decent optical quality throughout most of the zoom range, being softer at the wide end  at the frame edges.

* Autofocus is reliable and accurate if not particularly fast, and works well in single shot mode on still subjects and servo mode on moving subjects.

* The image stabiliser works very well at all focal lengths. You can see in the viewfinder how it grabs the image and holds it still. As a result of this the pictures are very consistent in sharpness shot-to-shot. I can take 10 shots of the same subject and each frame will look the same. This means the AF and IS are working consistently.

Some other cameras are not so good in this regard. With both copies of the Lumix FZ80 which I have used the image was not consistently sharp. One would be quite good, the next blurred with double imaging. I suspect the reason for this unacceptable behaviour might be a stabiliser which is not up to the job.

* Macro capability is very good.

So the camera has plenty going for it. Unfortunately…….

The issue which bugs me most is the clumsy method for changing the position and size of the active AF area.

To change AF Area position the user must first find and press the AF Point Selector button on the thumb support, then move the right thumb down to the D-Pad to move the AF area with the up/down/left/right keys. That might not sound too difficult but in practice I often find myself searching for the AF Point Selector button then searching for the D-Pad with my thumb. Sometimes it seems easier to drop the camera down from my eye so I can see the buttons and move the AF Area to approximately where I think it will be required.

On most cameras I have used, well the Panasonic and Sony ones anyway, once the AF Area is active it is easy to change AF area size by turning a dial somewhere.

But on the SX70 there are only two sizes available and selection requires a visit to the Q Menu. And if [AF Method] was not the last item visited (menu resume operates) then more button pressing is required to scroll up to that submenu.

And yes it matters. If I want to photograph a bird it is almost always necessary to select the smaller [Spot] size. But in general photography the larger size [1-Point AF] is required as the camera will sometimes fail to focus with the [Spot] area.

There are numerous other annoyances, none major but in sum they are a significant impediment to efficient and enjoyable operation.

To mention just a few:

The EVF and monitor are adjustable for brightness but not contrast or color.

Neither the EVF or monitor can be configured with key camera data beneath the preview image on a black background. This data is always overlaid on the lower part of the image where it is more difficult to see.

If you want to fit a lens hood or protective filter you must buy a separate adapter and even then you can have one or the other not both.

When using Servo AF the AF area disappears during the shooting sequence.

There are no zebras.

There is no ability to set a minimum shutter speed.

The AF Lock system is clumsy. You can allocate [Focus] to the [*] button but not focus lock. But you can have exposure lock, go figure. The only way to lock focus with the [*] button is to hold it down during a sequence of exposures.

You can engage a kind of quasi focus lock by pressing the left D button while holding the shutter button half pressed. This jumps the camera into manual focus mode from which it has subsequently to be extracted.

Most cameras I have used allow you to focus and lock in one step by pressing a back button then unlock and return to normal operation simply by pressing the button again.

The main problem with all the small sensor cameras including the SX70 is a disturbing abundance of luminance noise even at the lowest ISO setting.

One is always trying to manage images with a very low signal to noise ratio.

This adversely impacts picture quality either due to the noise directly which prevents the rendition of details or noise reduction strategies used in RAW or JPG images in a mostly unsuccessful attempt to manage the problem

On my tests I can always achieve a more pleasing result by processing Raw files than the camera can achieve with JPG files which use excessive noise reduction to the point that subjects take on the appearance of melted plastic.

To make matters worse there is no facility for user control of noise reduction in JPG files.

My iPhone 6s which was released in 2015 makes much better JPGs than the SX70.

The people who buy and use one of these models are likely to be snapshooters who leave the Mode Dial on Auto thereby ensuring sub standard results most of  the time.

The users who might be able to extract half way decent results from these cameras will be experts who shoot Raw and post process carefully. But not many such users bother themselves with cameras of this type.

To anyone contemplating the purchase of an SX70 or any other camera using the little 7.7mm sensor is: Don’t.

For the same money right now you can buy a new Lumix FZ1000, a much better camera albeit with a shorter zoom range.

At a higher price point the FZ1000.2 will be available “soon” whenever that might be.

And for the top performing bridge camera ever the Sony RX10.4 can be had for about the price of three SX70s.  If that sounds like a lot remember you buy once, use often.

I am old enough to have been using cameras for 66 years. I have no connection to any person or organisation which makes or sells photo equipment and I have no favourite brand.

For about three decades, from the 1980s through the first decade of the 21^st Century, Canon was top dog in the camera industry, as a result of bold and innovative decisions made around the onset of the autofocus era.

In that period I used Canon SLR and DSLR cameras because they appeared to be the best available or at least equal to the best available.

But then two shifts occurred.

The first was that Sony, Panasonic, Fujifilm and Olympus began to innovate with new, interesting products of advanced design with powerful processors and…………

The second was that Canon lost its corporate drive to innovate and morphed into a marketing organisation. I doubt Canon execs would agree with this but as a consumer that is the way I see the situation.

The cameras became less and less interesting. Their performance stared to lag behind products from the big electronic corporations.

Increasingly we started to see models from Canon lacking features which had become  commonplace on Sony and Panasonic offerings.

In the last few years I have bought and used:

G1X, G1X.3, SX20, SX60, SX70, EOS M50.

The words which come to mind as I seek to describe these cameras are  “mediocre” and  “half baked”. Some reviewers have described them as  “crippled”.

The guy on Camera Conspiracies YouTube videos does this in a way which is funny but also gets the message across.

Some commentators have tried to explain this as Canon (and Nikon, by the way) deliberately denying their EOS-M range, mirrorless and fixed lens cameras a host of features in an attempt to “protect” their DSLR territory.

One thing I do not understand here is that  Canon's current offerings advertise having the DIGIC8 processor. But the EOS-R models have many more features, capabilities and performance than the EOS-M or Powershots. Is the DIGIC8 name just a marketing tool ?  If they really do all have the same processor why are the capabilities so different ?

Right now I think Canon is riding on the goodwill carried by the brand from its glory days of several decades ago.

But the products, paticularly the EOS-M and Powershots have been disappointing underperformers  for several years. If this continues Canon’s number 1 market position for stand alone cameras will give way to Sony.

Note: I see reported in the photo press recently this may already have happened.