Canon has pulled out all the stops for the Powershot S120. The successor to last year's superb Powershot S110 has received several hardware upgrades that should make it one seriously desirable compact camera. We got to put one through its paces earlier this week so we could bring you our first impressions.
Externally, very little has changed from the S110 - the S120 keeps the same dimensions, pop-up flash, single control dial and function ring around the lens, which can be customised to adjust focal length, ISO range, aperture or shutter speed depending on which shooting mode you use. There's still a 3in touchscreen on the back, which makes up for the limited number of buttons.
The 1/1.7in CMOS sensor remains the same too, capable of capturing 12.1-megapixel stills with a 24mm wide-angle lens that includes a 5x optical zoom. An upgrade to the latest DIGIC 6 image processor should provide better image quality over its predecessors, and autofocus speed has been significantly improved too, with a 50% boost over the S110. The maximum aperture has also changed from f/2.0-5.9 to f/1.8-5.7, resulting in an extra third stop of light.
In fact, Canon is so confident in the S120's low-light performance that it has included a dedicated Star auto mode for the first time. Pre-sets will either capture starlight or star trails when shooting in total darkness, and there's also a timelapse mode that automatically creates short clips of the night sky.
We weren't able to test out that particular mode in London given the extensive light pollution, but out and about at the Greenwich Maritime Museum, the S120 proved its worth shooting in low light conditions. Even without a tripod, the integrated image stabiliser did an excellent job preserving details when shooting relatively long exposures freehand. The camera can shoot up to ISO 12,800, managing to avoid creating too much noise as high as ISO 3,200.
The high-speed burst mode captures stills at 12fps for the first five shots, then 9fps until you've filled your memory card - assuming you're using ultra-fast UHS1 SDHC or SDXC. We were also impressed with the built-in HDR mode, which doesn't need a tripod to capture high-contrast images. More skilled photographers will appreciate the inclusion of a full manual mode and RAW shooting.
The S120 is also adept when it comes to shooting video, thanks to 1080p60 recording. That's twice the frame rate of the previous model, making for much smoother clips. Other highlights include integrated Wi-Fi, which lets you upload images to a PC, smartphone or directly to Facebook, but you'll need to pair the camera to your smartphone in order to geotag your photos as there's no built-in GPS module.
Based on what we've seen, the Powershot S120 is a very capable premium compact that should provide a step up from anyone still shooting on a smartphone. At £449 it's verging dangerously into compact system camera territory, but if you're after something that can still slip in a pocket and aren't ready to move up to interchangeable lens cameras we think it certainly has its place.
The Powershot S120 is available to buy now. We'll be bringing you a full review soon.
All test images taken courtesy of The Old Naval College, Greenwich/The Greenwich Foundation
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