This ‘New’ Canon Point-and-Shoot is a Worse Version of the Original

Canon announced a new compact point-and-shoot camera, the PowerShot 360 HS A. That said, there is very little new here and what is new is generally a downgrade.

Point-and-shoot cameras are all the rage right now, with many models, including old ones, sold out at retailers. This resurgence, primarily driven by social media trends, has left manufacturers scrambling to restart production on some of their previously discontinued point-and-shoot cameras. Enter the Canon PowerShot 360 HS A, a slightly tweaked version of 2016’s PowerShot 360 HS.

The Canon PowerShot 360 HS A has the same imaging pipeline as its predecessor, including a relatively small 20.2-megapixel Type 1/2.3 CMOS image sensor and DIGIC 4+ processor. While this sensor may have been a decent size in 2016, at least relative to smartphones, smartphone image sensors these days are often larger than this, typically falling within the Type 1 to Type 1/1.5 range, and frequently featuring more megapixels.

Where the 360 HS A aims to differentiate itself from even the latest and greatest smartphones is through its optical zoom capabilities. The 360 HS A borrows its lens from 2016’s 360 HS, meaning it has a 25-300mm (equivalent) focal length range, which is 12x optical zoom. It can also utilize 4x digital zoom to deliver a combined 48x zoom with optical image stabilization. The lens has a variable aperture ranging from f/3.6 to f/7. Paired with the small image sensor, this means there won’t be any shallow depth of field photography here.

Despite having the megapixels to capture 4K video, the 360 HS A sticks it out at Full HD at only up to 30p frame rates.

From a design perspective, little of significance has changed. The camera still features a 3-inch rear TFT LCD, lacks a viewfinder, and is quite compact.

There are some design and functionality tweaks on offer to consider. The PowerShot 360 HS A transitions from SD card recording to microSD, which is a lateral move in terms of performance but could be tedious for those who don’t have microSD cards readily available.

In what is a downgrade, the new PowerShot point-and-shoot camera loses the ability to download camera images to a PC using Wi-Fi communication. The PowerShot 360 HS A also cannot print directly to a PictBridge-compliant printer over Wi-Fi, a feature offered by the older model.

What is an odd exclusion is the fact that there is no USB-C port, which is due to the old processor which cannot handle it.

Pricing and Availability

The PowerShot 360 HS launched for $210 in early 2016, but its price increased to $359 over the years. The Canon PowerShot 360 HS A will be available in October for $379. It will come in just black and silver colorways, meaning the striking purple variant offered with the original 360 HS has been removed from the lineup.

Image credits: Canon