PHOTO QUALITY. This 16-megapixel advanced point-and-shoot camera captured images with very good quality. Pictures were sharp though not as much as the better models, which means you can see much but not all details and subtle patterns in the image. In low-light situations without a flash, pictures were not quite as sharp as those of most recommended models. We judged this model good for outdoor performance, such as shooting landscapes in the daytime; very good for indoor performance, such as photographing a well-lit basketball game in a gym. And good for low-light performance without a flash, such as capturing a birthday party. Photos taken in our low-light performance tests displayed little image noise; subjects retained most of their correct detail and color.
FLASH. The PowerShot SX60 HS captured flash shots that were very good. In our distance test, we found the camera's flash could illuminate subjects very well, both near and far. The flash also has very good, even coverage.
LENS. It has a very long 65x zoom lens that can be great for travel and sports shooting when you need to zoom in far to capture your subjects. The lens also has very wide-angle (21mm) capability that's very useful for landscapes and group portraits, although you may notice a bit of distortion when you're shooting faces up close, for instance.
IMAGE STABILIZATION. This is an important feature with a long zoom lens; taking hand-held shots at the telephoto end of the zoom range can generally blur or soften images due to the slight movement of your hands. Shooting zoom set at 4x in well-lit scenes, this model did a good job of minimizing the effects of camera shake. In low-light settings, it performed excellently and almost never produced blurry photos. Overall, the shake reduction results from our tests were very good.
SPEED. In terms of performance, the Canon PowerShot SX60 HS powers up very quickly.
VIDEO. The Canon PowerShot SX60 HS takes good video. It captures full HD video at 1920 x 1080 60p. As for sound, it captures very good audio in stereo.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. Like most advanced point-and-shoot models, this camera does include an electronic viewfinder, which means you have flexibility when composing your photo or video; this viewfinder has very good quality. The display also swivels; this can be helpful when shooting self-portraits or hard-to-reach shots. This advanced point-and-shoot is much bigger, thicker and heavier than most in its class. Although this model has many features and controls, this advanced point-and-shoot is bulky and heavy, which may not make it the best model if you travel a lot.
