Company:
Canon U.S.A. Inc., www.powershot.com
Price:
$500 street

Spec Data:
5.0 megapixels; 3.6X optical zoom; 3.8 second boot time; 2.4 second recycle time; 1,300 line average resolution; 2.5% transition pixels

Pros:
Sharp images and lots of features. Lamp-assisted autofocus. True wide-angle lens (28 mm). RAW capture support.
Cons:
Complicated menu structure. Merely okay flash performance. LCD could be brighter.
Bottom Line:
The 5MP Canon PowerShot S60 is a feature-laden, lighter, and faster replacement for the Canon PowerShot S50. It takes crystal-clear pictures and is an Editors' Choice in the compact class.

Review
The Canon PowerShot S60 is Canon's leaner, quicker replacement for the PowerShot S50. The S60 is boxy and large for a compact model but has excellent wide-angle capabilities, and it captures beautifully crisp images with its 5MP sensor. The 1.8-inch LCD is easily washed out in direct sunlight, however.

The S60 offers aperture and shutter priority, program, and fully manual modes. Menus are a bit complicated but worth the effort to learn: Among other things, you get an impressive nine white-balance choices. The S60's lamp-assisted AF system is dexterous and includes focus bracketing. The camera can capture images in uncompressed RAW format as well as JPEGs. Video capabilities, however, are limited to 10 fps for 30 seconds.

On our lab tests, the S60 clocked a middle-of-the-road boot time and a quick recycle time; it also did very well on our resolution and transition pixel tests. Our daylight-simulated still life was detailed and clear with accurate colors and excellent exposure. The flash shot was clear, but the flash fell a little short of the subject matter on automatic setting.

Click here to read our full review of the Canon PowerShot S60.

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