Canon Powershot Elph 150 Is Digital Camera Blue
The Canon PowerShot Elph 150 IS ($149.99) is a compact camera with a 10x zoom lens and an attractive price tag, but its 20-megapixel CCD image sensor captures images that are very noisy, and it lacks Wi-Fi and other features that are now commonplace in new models. If you're shopping on a budget the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX80 ( at Amazon UK)(Opens in a new window) is a better choice, as it adds Wi-Fi and does a better job controlling image noise. Our Editors' Choice for compact cameras, the Canon PowerShot N100 ( at Amazon UK)(Opens in a new window) is more expensive, but its wide-aperture lens and larger image sensor make it a much more versatile compact.
Design and Features
The Elph 150 IS measures just 2.2 by 3.7 by 0.9 inches (HWD) and is light at 5 ounces. It's just a little taller, but sleeker, than the Elph 140 IS (2.1 by 3.1 by 0.9 inches, 4.6 ounces). The 150's face has the cool feel of metal, but the remainder of its exterior is hard composite. It's available in four colors, including the deep blue that we received for review, dark red, silver, and black.
The 10x zoom lens captures a 24mm field of view at its wide end, and zooms in to 240mm to get you close to the action. The f-stop is a reasonable f/3 at the wide end, but it narrows to f/6.9 when zoomed all the way in—that means that it only captures less than one-fifth of the light when zoomed in as it does as the wide end of its range. That's typical for a zoom lens, but pricier cameras can capture more light at the wide end. The PowerShot N100 opens up to f/1.8 at its wide end, which captures nearly three times the light as an f/3 lens.
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Canon doesn't try and squeeze a lot of controls into the Elph's compact body. The power button, zoom rocker, and shutter release are on the top, with the remainder of buttons on the rear to the right of the LCD. There's an in-camera help button, the Menu and play controls, and a movie record button, as well as a four-way joypad with a center Func./Set button. The directional presses of the joypad adjust the shooting mode, toggle the flash, change the amount of information displayed on the LCD, and toggle Canon's power-saving ECO mode.
There's an overlay menu that's launched by pressing the Func./Set button. If you're shooting in Auto mode its functionality is limited—it only gives you control over the self-timer, drive mode, and image and video quality settings. If you opt to use the camera in Program mode, you get more control over image capture settings. Additional settings include the metering pattern, white balance, ISO, exposure compensation, and macro focus mode. There are also a number of preset scene modes, including ones to shoot in snowy conditions, low light, and to photograph fireworks.
The 2.7-inch rear display is on the small size, and its 230k-dot resolution is equally disappointing. Images will look a bit blurry when you review them on the display, but appear much sharper when viewed on a computer screen or printed. Most budget cameras utilize a low-resolution LCD, but there are exceptions, like the Olympus VR-340, which uses a sharper 460k-dot display.
The Elph 150 IS isn't loaded with advanced features. It lacks Wi-Fi, and the Creative Shot mode that Canon includes in more expensive cameras like the SX600 HS ( at Amazon UK)(Opens in a new window) . You can add Wi-Fi using an Eyefi Mobi memory card, but you're better off moving up to the Sony WX80, which has that functionality built in.
Performance and Conclusions 
The Elph starts and shoots in a reasonable 1.4 seconds, but it's a little slow to focus, requiring 0.2-second to do so, and can only shoot a frame every 1.5 seconds in continuous drive mode. The Sony WX80 is a little slower to start (2 seconds), but it focuses faster (0.1-second) and it can capture a 10-shot burst at a brisk 6.7 frames per second.
I used Imatest(Opens in a new window) to check the sharpness that the Elph 150's lens and 20-megapixel image sensor capture. It scored extremely well, bettering the 1,800 lines per picture height we use to mark an image as acceptably sharp. It scored 2,582 lines on our center-weighted test, and even though the edges are noticeably softer than the center of the frame, they are still quite good at 1,924 lines. The inexpensive Olympus VR-340 only managed 1,733 lines on the same test—less than the outer edge score mustered by the Elph 150 IS.
Imatest also checks for noise, which is a major issue with the high-resolution CCD sensor that Canon uses in this camera. We consider an image to have an acceptable amount of noise at a particular ISO if it scores 1.5 percent or less our standard test. The Elph 150 IS shows 2.4 percent at ISO 100, and hovers around 2.6 percent at ISO 200 and 400, before jumping to 3.1 percent at ISO 800 and 3.8 percent at its top ISO 1600 sensitivity. I took a close look at images shot at each ISO on a calibrated NEC MultiSync PA271W( at Amazon UK)(Opens in a new window) display and saw that images at ISO 100 look a little grainy, and that image detail at that setting falls behind the 16-megapixel Elph 140 IS. Details start to smudge together at ISO 200 and ISO 400, and it gets worse at ISO 800. At ISO 1600 the fine lines in our ISO test scene have blurred together. The Sony WX80, which uses a 16-megapixel image CMOS image sensor, does a better job in low light, as cameras with CMOS sensors often do. It keeps noise under 1.5 percent through ISO 400 and shows just 1.6 percent at ISO 800.
Video is recorded in QuickTime format at up to 720p25 quality. The footage is detailed, but a little grainy even under bright studio lights. The footage isn't as smooth as you'd get with a camera that records at a faster frame rate, like the WX80 which records AVCHD video at 1080i60. The noise of the lens zooming in and out is audible, but not overwhelming, on the soundtrack. The only port to speak of is a micro USB connector to connect to a PC. The battery compartment houses the SD/SDHC/SDXC memory card slot, and Canon does include an dedicated external battery charger.
Despite its budget price tag, we can't recommend the Canon PowerShot Elph 150 IS for purchase. It does pack a 10x zoom lens into a small body and its images at low ISOs are quite detailed, but even at its base sensitivity image noise is a serious issue. Despite boasting a 20-megapixel resolution, its images show less fine detail than the 16-megapixel Elph 140 IS at ISO 100. If you're on a budget, you're better off buying the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX80, as its CMOS image sensor handles low light situations better, and it adds support for Wi-Fi image transfer. If you can afford it, you should also consider the Canon PowerShot SX600 HS for its longer zoom ratio, or our Editors' Choice compact Canon PowerShot N100 for its larger image sensor and brighter lens.
Canon PowerShot Elph 150 IS
The Bottom Line
The Canon PowerShot Elph 150 IS packs a long zoom lens into a small body, but its images have way too much noise.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/canon-powershot-elph-150-is
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