Canon recently announced the Powershot SX260 HS as the replacement for the SX230 (the GPS equipped superzoom compact with manual controls). This will probably be my next camera whenever it gets to NZ. It is interesting Canon have kept the 12.1 megapixel sensor. The lens has been increased to a 20x zoom and GPS is fitted. The non-GPS edition is the SX240, replacing the SX220, which for some reason has not been widely available here. The more recent pricing of the SX230 has been around $550 retail, now it is end of line there is a $50 cashback offer. It will be interesting to see if the SX260 is much dearer. I wouldn’t want it to be as it would be too much to spend on a camera that I would carry around with me everywhere. The SX240 will probably be about $50 cheaper. After all, the idea when I bought my first pocketable camera, which way back in 2005 was an A400, was to have the cheapest model in the range as a second camera to the much more powerful S1. I sort of carried on that way with an A450 and A460 (the 450 had to be replaced prematurely due to getting dust inside the lens) and then when I bought the A2000 I sort of dropped that idea with the jump in price. I imagine the SX260 is probably similar in size and weight to the A2000 and I will give the matter of whether to buy it as my go-everywhere camera some serious consideration.
The new A4000 is the logical successor to my A2000 (which is a bit old now for me, considering I buy a new camera every couple of years). It has 8x zoom instead of 6x and 16 megapixels rather than 10. One of the major differences is the use of a proprietary battery, so at the higher end of the Powershot range, this is more and more the case that AAs are not used any more. This is of little concern to me (the SX220-260 models are the same) since many of my AA sets need replacing due to loss of capacity. Why the A2000 didn’t get replaced last year (I bought it June 2009) is of course due to earthquakes and financial strain especially when I had to move house and almost doubled the weekly rent. As of now I have taken around 7400 pictures with it.
Review: http://www.digitalcamerainfo.com/content/Canon-PowerShot-SX260-HS-First-Impressions-Review.htmAnnouncement by Canon NZ: https://canon.co.nz/About-Canon/News-Events/News-Press-Releases/PowerShot-SX-and-A-series
