Made in Japan and amazing! I was looking for a compact camera that is quality built with lots of manual controls. Canon came through with this fantastic camera. I'm used to the super compact Canon Elph line and was somewhat skeptical about going larger. I'm also accustomed to professional DSLR's but wanted to have a small compact for convenience.
The Canon Powershot SX260 HS is a great compromise since it has an amazing 20x Canon UA lens with an amazing wide angle zoom 25mm - 500 mm (in 35mm terms), Canon Optical Image Stabilizer and the ability to record Full HD movies at 24fps. Wide angle is important especially in tight spaces. The macro lens also did a great job focusing close up.
The pictures are very vibrant, clear and sharp. The DIGIC 5 processor does an incredible job creating incredibly sharp pictures at 10fps high-speed burst shooting.
This is a solid built camera with a predominantly metal outer shell compared to the all plastic competitors. This camera will withstand the rigors of everyday life and will keep on shooting. It has many magical features and GPS.
Compared to the Sony HX20,Panasonic ZS19,and Nikon COOLPIX S9200 this camera takes far better pictures, easier to use and built super solid.
The negatives are the pop-up flash that gets in the way of handling the camera with my big hands, lacks one-touch Panorama mode (although it has Panorama assist mode), no HDR and it does not come with a touch screen.
Overall, great easy to use camera, high quality Canon UA zoom lens, wide angle, solid built with a lot of features and pretty compact. I am very satisfied with this beautiful artistic tool.
Pro's
Zoom - very long for a subcompact camera 20x optical, total 81x combined (yes 81 times!)
Image Stabilizer - Excellent (far superior than the DSC-HX9V); Even at 81x the picture did not come out of focus, but of course not as sharp. I think it's still acceptable
Scenes - A few scenes; I think the portrait, sepia, B/W works real well (the Portrait+ suppose to blur the picture a bit, but it's not to my liking) It has a few effects (fish eye, toy, miniature) that's very effective and can be fun for creative shots.