Postman delivered my new "everyday" camera today: Canon SX 130 IS, bought second-hand as Warehouse Deal from "that one well-known online shop", because new ones aren't scheduled to arrive until about two months from now. After four hours, all I can say is: for the price point, handling and image quality sure is OK, zoom range is impressive, video is nice but seems to always use auto white balance and auto exposure (need to look into that, I hate it if cameras can't forgo the full-auto), and I don't get how people manage to complain about the camera's battery life. I fed it two Eneloops, and it kept shooting and filming for as long as I needed. Any kind of battery alert never came up. YMMV, of course. Maybe it's worse with alkalines. Then again, who uses these deliberately if rechargeables are around?
So, nice and useful, if not for one catch: A single red "hot" pixel in each and every photo and video. Guess I found the reason why this particular camera got sent back in the first place. 🙁
Therefore, hooray for 14 days money-back return. It's back in its cardboard box and carries the return/refund sticker. Since big A doesn't offer swapping for items bought as "warehouse deals", I'm back to square one re: something that does autofocus, wide-range zoom and reasonable HD video at an affordable price.
Apart from this sensor issue, I was quite happy with the SX130. So I ordered the same camera at another retailer (claims to have some stock remaining), but new instead of "slightly used". Let's see if this one is going to deliver... meanwhile, enjoy this little collection of test shots from today:
