Are you a vlogger? Looking for the best vlogging cameras under $300? Then perhaps the Canon PowerShot N will be on your wishlist. Featuring 1080p Full HD video capturing capabilities and decent photo quality, the PowerShot N is more than ready to broadcast your pretty face to social media and beyond. Do you have the right camera for your vlog? Check out our best vlogging camera reviews.
Why We Like It – Canon PowerShot N
Equipped with a 12.8-megapixel image sensor, and 1080p video resolution, it makes a valiant effort by encasing its performance in a unique body and easy-to-use functions.
- Records in 1080p FHD
- Plenty of features to play with
- Unique design
- Decent, but not great image quality
- Better options available
Performance
If you’re going to vlog, you might as well record at 1080p FHD; that’s PowerShot N’s biggest strength. Videos and photos greatly benefit from its 28-224mm wide-angle optical zoom lens, even at its furthest zoom range of 8x. With that zoom range, the video is bound to be unstable, right? Canon’s Optical Image Stabilizer allows for lens-shifting, which corrects any unwanted camera movement. If 1080p isn’t enough, we recommend the GoPro Hero5 Session, which records in 4K.
Related: Check out our Canon PowerShot ELPH 190 IS review
Battery life is decent at 200 shots, though battery-saving mode will net you an additional 80. The image quality is decent, however. The 12.8 megapixel CMOS sensor isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great compared to the Canon PowerShot SX730 HS, but does better than the Panasonic Lumix ZS50. Low light shots are particularly good, however, thanks to its high ISO settings.
Design
You can look all over the digital camera for an hour and you would never find the shutter button. Instead of a traditional shutter button, the PowerShot uses a ring system. Around the lens, itself are a series of rings; each ring doing something different such as the zoom ring and, yes, the shutter ring. It takes some time to get used to, but we really liked how this particular Canon camera handled things.
Related: See our Canon PowerShot SX610 HS review
Its 2.8-inch LCD screen was also nice considering it could be tilted and seen from the other side. As a vlogger, it’s nice being able to see how your face lines up with the camera; that information is invaluable. Navigating the rest of the camera is done with its touch screen such as using the Mobile Device Connect button for sharing videos and images over Wi-Fi. It’s better than not having Wi-Fi like on the Canon EOS Rebel T5.
Value
There’s a lot of value here the Canon PowerShot N has to offer, more so than other cameras, even the Canon PowerShot G16. While its focus is rooted in images, it does offer a small bounty of video options that are invaluable to a vlogger. Super Slow Motion Movie, for example, is one mode that records clips at 240fps, and then lets you watch in slow motion; Creative Shot mode applies various filters and gives you a series of variations to pick from the original image; Toy Camera adds a vignette effect around the shot.
Is it the best vlogging camera? Not quite. Its average quality is quickly beaten by the Canon PowerShot SX610 HS, which is $80 cheaper.
Canon PowerShot N Wrap Up
Regardless of the Canon PowerShot N’s shortcomings, it’s still a good camera in its own right. For one thing, it records in 1080p Full HD. As a vlogger, that’s invaluable. It leans more into capturing images than video, but does offer a few modes and filters to play with, should you make use of its video recording capabilities. It helps that it has a very unique way of capturing the moment.
