Canon's PowerShot SX700 HS put a 30x, f3.2-6.9, 25-750mm lens in a body compact and light enough to comfortably carry in a jacket pocket. So did the SX710 HS, for that matter. The SX720 HS lets you peep even closer, however, with its new 40x, f3.3-6.9, 24-960mm lens, and there's still no problem pocketing it.

With an updated 40x zoom lens, the SX720 HS aims to be a simple, compact solution for anything your smartphone can't shoot.

As an improvement over the popular SX710, the new Canon PowerShot SX720 HS is specifically designed to deliver stunning image quality with all of the important features that go hand in hand with travelling.

The Canon SX720 HS is a compact camera with a 40x zoom lens, smashing the record of 30x jointly held by Canon, Nikon, Panasonic and Sony. This is great news for people who like to shoot distant subjects but who don't want to lug a bulky camera around.

The Canon Powershot SX720 HS updates the SX710 HS , and updates the lens to a 40x optical zoom lens, compared to the 30x optical zoom lens on the previous model. The SX720 is available for around ￡290 in black, or red.

40x optical zoom lens; Subject tracking; Good rubber grip (front and back; NFC and Wi-Fi connectivity; Upto 8fps continuous shooting; Good colour reproduction

Lacks panoramic shooting mode; Some alternatives shoot raw; Does not feature touch-screen

Canon's latest superzoom travel compact camera, the Canon PowerShot SX720 HS, features a 40x optical zoom lens, which is an equivalent of 24-960mm in 35mm terms. A digital zoom (called Zoom Plus) of 80x is also available. A further digital zoom of 120x can also be used.

Long story short, if you need a ton of zoom in a small package the older Canon PowerShot SX710 HS , Nikon Coolpix S9900 , and Panasonic Lumix ZS60 are all better values than the SX720 HS.

The PowerShot SX720 HS builds upon the SX710 from last year with a few nice improvements, namely a new updated zoom lens. Like its predecessor, the SX720 offers a 20.3MP CMOS image sensor, DIGIC 6 processor, a 3.0-inch LCD screen, and Full HD video capture at up to 1080/60p.

Lots of manual controls; Powerful 40x zoom lens; Wide angle view (24mm; Macro focus as close as 1 cm; High image quality overall; Full HD video; Dial eases menu navigation; Fast burst shooting; Attractive digital filters; In bright light; tracking AF is fairly accurate

AF can be unreliable at max; zoom, No RAW mode, Max; shutter speed of 15 seconds (no bulb, Tracking AF had difficulty in shadows, At full zoom, AF can be unreliable, Low light image quality could be better, Seek assist feature is not extremely helpful, LCD is fixed, does not hinge

The Canon PowerShot SX720 HS is an easy proposition to get your head around. It's a PowerShot SX710 HS with a longer lens. The fact that Canon has put all its efforts into that one feature tells you all you need to know – this is a pocket super-zoom for people who really want that extra reach.

so far, so good.

similar to other Canon products

Excellent quality and easy to carry around.