At last the Powershot SX260 has got its NZ release. Although they have been on Canon’s website for a while the release was delayed because (I presume) Canon wished to sell out of stock of the previous model, the SX230. Some places still have stock of the SX230 and are not yet receiving the 260.
I am looking at the SX260 for many reasons, including supplementing or replacing my Powershot S5. It is a much smaller camera because the lens almost completely folds into the body and it uses a proprietary Canon battery instead of four AAs. It has lots of bells and whistles like the 20x optical zoom lens, 12 megapixels, inbuilt GPS and full manual controls. The size of this thing means it will fit into the same belt pouch that I currently keep the A2000 in most of the time, although I have to get a new one as it’s falling apart.
I think this thing will do most of what I use the Powershot S5 for now, the exception being the hotshoe flash. However I imagine that in time I will buy a low end EOS to replace the S5 since my finances will now permit it better than before. Also I suppose the A2000 will get replaced at some point although I haven’t thought about it too much. With the SX260 being such a high quality in a small package it may well be the case that I will either keep the A2000 or replace it eventually with the bottom end model in the Powershot range like I used to do when I had the A460.
The A2000 has taken about 7600 pictures (as far as I can tell) and is still going pretty strong after three years of use. Usually I replace the cheapest camera every couple of years as new features come out, with the price around $150 for a bottom end model this is easy to do. I broke this pattern when I bought the A2000 because I needed a better spec camera that I could carry everywhere with me. Now that there are cameras like the SX260 out there which are quite pocketable I might go back to a cheap camera every couple of years. The GPS will come in handy when taking pictures outdoors, but it is not high sensitivity and will not totally displace a separate GPS unit. I am looking at replacing the eTrex H with a new model which can do mapping and won’t blow my smartphone data cap, so I expect I would carry a GPS with me more often when going on a photography expedition or train trip.
So here are some new camera stats:
- A2000: 35 months, 7600 images (217/month)
- S5: 44 months, 4500 images (102/month).
