Canon Powershot Zoom digital monocular camera

RRP: £289.99 – or use our deal-finder for a competitive price:

Basics: Canon Powershot Zoom camera

The Canon PowerShot Zoom is a compact telephoto camera. Designed for birdwatchers or sports spectators, the zoom capabilities mean you get much closer to your subject than a conventional camera or smartphone. It would also be great for family days out with children.

First impressions

This camera is very lightweight and small – perfect to slip into a coat pocket while going for a walk.

From the moment you turn it on the Powershot Zoom is ready to use – as you can just hold it up to your eye and start shooting. If you want to explore some settings you can connect to your phone to see more of a settings menu.

Testing outdoors

This camera works using an optical zoom, allowing you to zoom close to your subject. If you like watching birds in your garden and want to capture your pictures from a distance without disrupting them, this camera could be great.

Is the lens any good?

Photo and video quality is pretty good for such a small camera. The lens on the Canon Powershot Zoom is limited in its capabilities, though. The Powershot capture-quality is a maximum 30p, which is half what we would recommend for a high-quality video. If the quality of the imagery and video is your priority, you might want to look into other options for a more advanced camera with a zoom lens.

Another notable feature of the zoom is that it jumps from 100mm to 400mm and 800mm focal lengths, so it is quite fixed in its zoom distances, whereas with a more manual camera you would have more control.

The camera comes with built-in stabilisation but once you have reached the maximum zoom it becomes harder to keep it stable. This is especially noticeable with video.

Is the Canon Powershot Zoom good value for the price?

The camera does a good job for its cost and size – but you can achieve better quality on a mobile phone like the iPhone 14 pro.

If you are prepared to spend a little bit more there are other cameras that Canon offer that will produce higher quality images, have more features and record HD video.

Best used for:

It would be a great first camera for a child who is discovering a love of nature and photography, or for someone who loves spotting birds in their garden and wants something with basic functions that are simple and easy to operate.