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DEAL WATCH: Keurig K-Express | 22% off $69.99

Keurig has changed the face of coffee, and snagging one of these for less than $70 is a solid deal. Read Review

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  • Introduction

  • Design & Appearance

  • Tour

  • Ease of Use

  • Size & Handling

  • Modes Overview

  • Auto Mode

  • Movie Mode

  • Drive/Burst Mode

  • Playback Mode

  • Picture Quality & Size Options

  • Focus

  • Exposure & Metering

  • ISO

  • White Balance

  • Image Stabilization

  • Other Controls

  • Lens & Sensor

  • LCD

  • Flash

  • Jacks, Ports & Plugs

  • Battery

  • Memory

  • Conclusion

  • Sample Photos

  • Specs

  • Introduction
  • Design & Appearance
  • Tour
  • Ease of Use
  • Size & Handling
  • Modes Overview
  • Auto Mode
  • Movie Mode
  • Drive/Burst Mode
  • Playback Mode
  • Picture Quality & Size Options
  • Focus
  • Exposure & Metering
  • ISO
  • White Balance
  • Image Stabilization
  • Other Controls
  • Lens & Sensor
  • LCD
  • Flash
  • Jacks, Ports & Plugs
  • Battery
  • Memory
  • Conclusion
  • Sample Photos
  • Specs

Introduction

Design & Appearance

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The look of the 320 HS is more angular and sharp than the 300 HS, similar to what we saw from the 530 HS. Corners are sharper, and the aesthetic has been updated to match what seems to be the trend for 2012. Of course the biggest difference is the huge new touchscreen residing on the rear panel, which is accompanied only by a single key for playback.

Tour

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Ease of Use

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Before our hands-on time with this camera, we handled the more expensive 530 HS, and found its touchscreen suffered from extreme sluggishness. The 320 HS has no such problems however, and we found its operation identical in design yet superior in implementation.

Size & Handling

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With nearly identical weight and dimensions, the 320 HS handles quite similarly to the 530 HS.

Modes Overview

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Shooting modes are identical to the 530 HS.

Auto Mode

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Movie Mode

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At the risk of appearing lazy, video features are also identical to the 530 HS.

Drive/Burst Mode

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Like the 530 HS, the 320 HS receives a downgrade in the area of continuous shooting. It's only capable of 1.9 shots per second in Program mode and 5.2 in High Speed Burst mode. The 300 HS was capable of 3.4 and 8.2 respectively. At least the downgrade isn't quite is surprising this time, since this camera's resolution is greater than its predecessor.

Playback Mode

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The 320 HS' playmode mode reminds us of another recently announced camera.... Yes, the 530 HS.

Picture Quality & Size Options

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Maximum resolution is 4608 x 3456 and four different aspect ratios are available: 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, and 1:1. RAW encoding is not available but JPEG compression may be set to either Fine or Superfine.

Focus

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Minimum focus distance is 2 inches during normal shooting, but the available Macro focus mode pushes that specification down to 1.2 inches. These are excellent numbers for a point-and-shoot.

Exposure & Metering

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Aperture cannot be controlled manually but its range is f/2.7 - 5.9. Shutter speed ranges between 1 and 1/2000th of a second, though the new Long Shutter mode allows exposures of up to 15 seconds. Exposure compensation is standard: +/- 2 stops in 1/3-stop intervals, and the three most common metering methods–Evaluative, Center-weighted, and Spot–are all available.

ISO

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Just like the 300 HS, the 320 HS has an ISO range of 100 to 3200, with no extended options available.

White Balance

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Aside from automatic white balance, five presets are included in the 320 HS: Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Fluorescent H. There’s also a very intuitive custom white balance method, as well as face recognition white balance.

Image Stabilization

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The 320 HS is equipped with an optical image stabilizer, but we’ll need to get it into our labs to judge the effectiveness.

Other Controls

Lens & Sensor

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Like the 300 HS, the 320 will use a 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor, but resolution has been upgraded to 16.1 megapixels. This doesn't always mean better image quality though, so we'll need to run our lab tests to be sure. It's likely the very same 5x lens used for the 300 HS is repeated here.

LCD

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The extra large 3.2-inch touchscreen LCD performed much better than the one found on the more expensive 530 HS. And this 461,000-dot model is a major upgrade over the 2.7-inch panel found on the 300 HS.

Flash

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The flash bulb is rated to a paltry 11 feet, making it a very weak emitter. At least Slow Synchro is available.

Jacks, Ports & Plugs

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A tiny port cover on the right panel conceals a standard USB port, as well as a miniHDMI port for easy streaming to an HDTV.

Battery

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Canon will use their NB-11L rechargeable battery pack the 320 HS. This battery / camera combination is CIPA-rated to 170 consecutive shots.

Memory

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The 320 HS is compatible with SD, SDHC, and fast SDXC memory cards. No internal memory is available.

Conclusion

$279.99 seems like a lot to ask for a camera that reminds us too much of the 530 HS, and does little to define itself based on its own credentials. We're not sure there's a demand for what essentially boils down to a 530 HS without the travel zoom, and even if there is, wasn't that niche already filled by other models?

Assuming we're completely wrong here, the 320 HS does do a decent job filling the "530 HS without zoom" role. The touchscreen works, and the aesthetic is certainly better than the 300 HS. But ultimately this decision will come down to the performance of the new 16.1 megapixel sensor. So we'll reserve final judgement for after our lab tests are complete.

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Sample Photos

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Specs

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Meet the tester

Christopher Snow

Christopher Snow

Managing Editor

@BlameSnow

Chris was born and raised less than ten miles from our editorial office, and even graduated from nearby Merrimack College. He came to Reviewed after covering the telecom industry, and has been moonlighting as a Boston area dining critic since 2008.

See all of Christopher Snow's reviews

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