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The SX600HS is capable of reproducing detail, but if you check the image at 100%, you can see that areas of the image suffer from image smoothing and a painterly effect, something which is not uncommon for compact cameras at this price point.
Colours straight from the camera are bright and punchy, with pleasingly warm, but not inaccurate, tones. Click here to see the full resolution image.
The camera's metering system generally does a good job of producing well-balanced exposures. Click here to see the full resolution image.
It's possible to get shallow depth of field effects, even though the maximum aperture of the camera's lens is f/3.8, but the background has to be pretty distant and the focus point close. Click here to view the full resolution image.
Use macro focusing to get closer to subjects, but be aware that sometimes a false positive is shown and you may need to check focus has been acquired. Click here to view the full resolution image.
The camera's automatic white balance system copes well with artificial lights to produce accurate colours. Click here to view the full resolution image.
Using the camera's Creative Mode can throw up some interesting results, but you don't have control over what the camera will choose – instead it will randomly pick five different effects for you to choose from. It's a fun mode, if a little frustrating that you can't pick and choose your favourite filters. Click here to view the full resolution image.
At high sensitivities, such as ISO 1000 as shown here, then you will see noise and smoothing when examining the image at 100%. It's not too bad at normal printing and web sizes, and if you can't use the flash, is better than not being able to get the shot at all. Click here to view the full resolution image.
Digital filters
There are a number of digital filters which can be applied in Program Auto mode, as follows.
