Canon Powershot SX10 IS or Sony DSLR A200

[Mike Jarvis]

Last year I lost my Canon Powershot S3IS (in a taxi in Hong Kong) and bought a Sony A200 twin lense kit. I love the camera but the lenses are very ordinary. The 75-300 doesn't get as photos as sharp as the Canon used too. And despite being a huge lense, is only effectively as 7 times zoom compared with the 12 times zoom the Canon gave me. I would love to get a 50-500 Sigma and x2 tele-converter to get me a 20x reach... but the $2000+ is out of my reach.

I'm considering selling the Sony and buying a Canon Powershot SX10 IS which has a 20x zoom (around $750 in Australia).

I would appreciate any comments and opinions from birdwatchers with experience with either camera.

Thanks

[postcardcv]

You need to be careful not to confuse optical zoom ratio with focal length. Your S3IS had a 36-432mm equivalent lens (the long end is 12x more than the short end), a 50-500mm lens has a zoom ratio of 10x but has a longer focal length at the long end (more reach). The SX10 has 28-560mm eqivalent (20x ratio) so will give you slightly more than the other two but not as much as the '20x optical zoom' might suggest.

As for which camera the SX10 or the A200 only you can tell which will suit your needs best. Personally I perfer the speed of a DSLR so would probably stick with what you have, the A200 is a very capable camera. That said if I was to buy a superzoom the SX10 would be at the top of the list for me, all the reviews suggest that it is an excellent camera.