Canon officially announces the Canon PowerShot ZOOM

[SteveC]

I noticed this as well. I'm sure its supposed to be .39 inch. If it were true, it would be bigger then my living room TV! XD

When I owned a rental property I could truthfully tell the tenants that their TVs (often well over 60 inches) were bigger than mine. That did a lot to convince them I wasn't made of money, because they couldn't imagine someone who had money not having the biggest TV they could buy.

 

[Bert63]

Just pre-ordered two of these little buggers.

It's not like I've ever been left standing on a dark, dreary street corner in the rain by a Canon pre-order before, right? If the release date is in November I'm bound to have it by bikini season.

 

[Bert63]

I wonder how it performs in situations other than bright daylight.

Peeping Tom much?

 

[Bert63]

I love the concept of this product, and I want one, but I think I'm going to wait for reviews to see if the quality is good enough to make it more than just a novelty item.

Ordered from B&H. If it looks like I'll return it.

 

[Jethro]

Hmm - Xmas is coming.

 

[scyrene]

It's intriguing and a nice way of keeping compact cameras relevant in the face of smartphones, but I have to say the image quality of sample photos on DPR were disappointing - and I don't enjoy being negative. Still, for record shots of birds it could be an alternative to phonescoping.

 

[stevelee]

I've been watching for an alternative to heavy and expensive image stabilized binoculars for a trip to Costa Rica that I hope to reschedule some day. This could be it.

In the '80s when Halley's Comet was around, I would go out at view it through my binoculars. Then I would look at other things. I looked at Jupiter one night and saw three little dots that I confirmed from a chart that they really were 3 of the moons.

I'm obviously much older now, but I don't think of myself as being a lot shakier. The other night I took the binoculars out and looked at Jupiter. I couldn't hold the binoculars steady enough to see the planet well, much less see any of its moons. It is just a 7x, not anything high powered.

I don't know if this would help me.

 

[brad-man]

I'm obviously much older now, but I don't think of myself as being a lot shakier. The other night I took the binoculars out and looked at Jupiter. I couldn't hold the binoculars steady enough to see the planet well, much less see any of its moons. It is just a 7x, not anything high powered.

I don't know if this would help me.

 

[Bert63]

In the '80s when Halley's Comet was around, I would go out at view it through my binoculars. Then I would look at other things. I looked at Jupiter one night and saw three little dots that I confirmed from a chart that they really were 3 of the moons.

I'm obviously much older now, but I don't think of myself as being a lot shakier. The other night I took the binoculars out and looked at Jupiter. I couldn't hold the binoculars steady enough to see the planet well, much less see any of its moons. It is just a 7x, not anything high powered.

I don't know if this would help me.

I bought my dear wife a pair of Canon image stabilized binoculars a couple of years ago and they are fantastic and a complete game changer.

They work normally until you press a little button and then IS kicks in and boy oh boy are they nice.

Just a thought.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I preordered one just now. I do wonder how you replace the internal rechargeable battery, in my quick browsing of the description, I saw nothing about how to replace it.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

My question was answered by the hands on review at DPR. It definitely has its limitations and a later version may iron out some of the interface issues. The battery is non removable, so maybe a trip to Canon when it dies?

Hands-on with the the Canon PowerShot Zoom

Ready for a closer look at one of the more unusual new cameras we've seen in a while? Good, we are too. Let's get weird.

www.dpreview.com

 

[Joules]

My question was answered by the hands on review at DPR. It definitely has its limitations and a later version may iron out some of the interface issues. The battery is non removable, so maybe a trip to Canon when it dies?

Hands-on with the the Canon PowerShot Zoom

Ready for a closer look at one of the more unusual new cameras we've seen in a while? Good, we are too. Let's get weird.

www.dpreview.com

I would guess you are meant to buy a new one if you manage to use the device so much that the battery actually becomes unusable.

 

[AlanF]

Specs include 1/3" sensor (= 7.2 crop factor), f/5.6 at 100mm or f/6.3 at 400mm equivalent, 1/8000-1/30s. = useful fun.

 

[stevelee]

View attachment 193366

My old binoculars don't have a way to hook to a tripod that I know of. Maybe I could use duct tape. That's the usual fix here in the South for anything that isn't fixed by WD-40.

 

[stevelee]

Or I could just dig out my telescope.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I would guess you are meant to buy a new one if you manage to use the device so much that the battery actually becomes unusable.

Typically, Lion batteries don't become unusable, they fade away. A new one has 150 CIPA shots claimed, so the question is when does it drop to a life of say 100 shots? Life of a Lion battery is said to be when it reaches 70% capacity. How many would a person need before a 2 hour recharge?

If you don't use it, the battery dies even quicker. Batteries reduce in capacity as a function of recharges (300-500 typical life) and time. So, in 2-3 years, the likelihood of a dead or greatly reduced capacity is to the point that enough will need batteries to make it significant. I have a number of electronic gadgets that need new batteries after 3 years. I would not buy a device that needed replacement after 3 years or even 5 just because the battery was dead. There must be a way to replace it. Likely, it will be a $100 charge from Canon. Maybe I should sell every 2 years and get a new one? My credit card offers a additional year of warranty so I'm covered for 2 years.

I wear a Cochlear implant which uses Li-on batteries. They fully discharge and must be recharged every day. They fit demonstrate the validity of the 300 recharge cycle range for smaller batteries nicely, I need a new one every year. They will keep going for much longer, but the capacity continues to drop so eventually a charge just lasts just 2 or 3 hours and that is impractical. The battery in the Canon device is not going to be fully discharged and recharged every day, so 500 charges might take 10-50 years if it weren't for the tendency to fail over time as well. I'd bet that around 25% will need batteries in 5 years. By then, of course, the value of the camera may very well be less than the cost to repair it.

There is a very good article about life of Li-on batteries here:

How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

Discover what causes Li-ion to age and what the battery user can do to prolong its life

batteryuniversity.com

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Its not clear, but it may operate with either a PD or a standard 5V 3A charger. A 1.5A will charge it but not run the camera.

Canon's charger is priced out of sight. I have the Canon one that came with my Grip for my R(it might be worth more than the grip! I also have a inexpensive Anker. Its good to see that Canon also mentions it.

Apparently, it will charge from a standard 2 amp USB charger, its not so clear.

You can shoot while connected to a charger, so a power bank might give a long battery life or even be used when the battery loses most of its capacity. I assume you could charge from one while traveling. It sounds like operation from a PD supply is similar to my R5.

I always wonder how many PD-E1 adapters they will sell at $190. Its in the list of accessories.

 

[SteveC]

My old binoculars don't have a way to hook to a tripod that I know of. Maybe I could use duct tape. That's the usual fix here in the South for anything that isn't fixed by WD-40.

I would hope you don't just try WD-40 first then go to duct tape. The algorithm is "If it's doesn't move enough, WD-40, if moves too much, duct tape."

 

[stevelee]

When Al Kaline died, I realized why batteries remind me of Detroit, since there are also Li-on batteries.

 

[David_E]

usa.canon.com: "Macro functionality not provided." That kills it for me.