Customer Ratings & Reviews

The camera arrived fully charged and included a cable and a 20W charger. The included micro SD card is 16GB but that storage could go fast. Installation was difficult. You need to download the Canon Connect app and they give you a QR code to do so. I had to update the software as well. The Canon Connect app is very poor. You need to register the Pick to continue the process but the Pick isn’t in the device list. I tried several other models and still received the same error message, “Pairing is not supported.” I tried connecting via Bluetooth (recommended) or Wi-Fi. No luck. I uninstalled and reinstalled software – no luck. So I called Kevin at Canon support. BINGO – the QR code in my package had me download the wrong app. You need to download the Connect app for Mini PTZ. It immediately recognized my device but wouldn’t pair to my Google Pixel 6 phone. Kevin has the Google Pixel 5 so he uninstalled and went with the process with me. We both had trouble connecting. It was a lot of back and forth. Turning phone off/ on, removing Pick from Bluetooth and starting the pairing process again … and again … and again. It finally connected but just because I think I wore the device down and it gave up trying to keep me from connecting. My goal for the Pick was to have it take pictures and videos of my brother who has Alzheimer’s. I wanted natural shots and the pick is great for this. It even warns you of the lighting is too dark for optimal shots. BUT every time I opened the app and turned on the camera, I had to start the pairing process again. EVERY TIME. I also tried this with my husband’s Samsung phone and had the same issue. Then the lightbulb came on. I looked in the online manual and the transmission frequency is 2.4GHz. We have a 5GHz mesh system. While I can make it work, it does require 5-15 minutes every time I turn it on just to connect it. The camera does a nice job. Pictures are pretty clear close up and a little blurry at 15 feet. The battery has only been lasting about 2 ½ hours but some of that is used up because I have to keep reconnecting. The concept behind the Pick is good but they need more retooling. Even after updating the firmware, the Pick has issues. Make sure you save your box as you may need the SSID or PASS (on the inside flap) in the future.

The Canon PowerShot Pick is a portable, battery powered camera that can take pictures of you and your loved ones all on its own. This tiny camera can pan, tilt, and zoom all on its own, has face tracking, takes photos and videos on voice command, and can also be used as a webcam and when you are all done, simply throw it in your pocket. This pocket-sized camera is an amazing idea with great potential, but it’s just not there, yet!!! I have had the opportunity to test out the Canon Powershot Pick camera in my home for about a week now and everything about this camera is great, but I ran into a few issues with the tracking and it constantly losing connection. The Powershot Pick is meant to follow the faces and take photos and record video and it seems to do its job about 90 percent of the time and the rest of it just stares at the wall in our family room. You can manually control the camera as well using the application so you can use the app to turn it back in the direction you want to but it defeats the purpose. The other issue that I came across was a connection issue. The Powershot had some issues staying connected to my phone. I am not sure what the issue is and did a perform factory reset on the camera but that did not seem to help, and I was using the Google Pixel 7 Pro. Aside from the connection and tracking issue, which I am sure can be easily fixed with an update, the camera actually does a pretty good job of taking pictures and takes some good quality photos. The pictures are crisp and clear and records videos in Full HD (1080p). I have registered my daughters in the application and have set them as a priority in the camera settings, so whenever the camera detects them smiling or looking at the camera it takes a picture. We have a few family gatherings coming up and I actually cant wait to try out this little pocket-sized photographer at those events and let this little camera do all the work. Overall, this is not a bad product at all and has some real potential and I am hoping that a future update may resolve the tracking and connection issues that I encountered.

The Canon PowerShot Pick PTZ camera is an interesting idea. The Pick offers the ability to photograph your gatherings/events/social interactions without breaking out your phone or camera. The idea is the Pick becomes your own personal photographer that can capture candid moments. Some basic specs on the Pick. It has an effective pixel count of 11.7MP, 2-5 hours of battery life depending on shooting frequency, 1080p 60fps recording, and 3X optical zoom. The PTZ aspect of the camera allows it to rotate ±170° horizontally, and -20 to +90° vertically. This gives the Pick plenty of flexibility to shoot all around the room from any given location. The Pick comes bundled with a USB C charge cable, an Anker PowerPort PD Nano charger, and a SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHS-1 microSD card. It also has a threaded mount hole to pair with a tripod. Setup of the Pick is pretty straightforward and follows a familiar routine of downloading the app (MiniPTZ) – I already had the Canon Camera Connect app, so I was sad it was going to be a separate utility. Once you power on the Pick you should be able to find it with the app – it uses a local Wi-Fi connection. From there you can setup camera shot frequency, auto tracking, photo/video mode, manual mode, etc. You can also configure it to use as a wireless webcam for your PC. I took the Pick around to try out in a couple of different settings – family game night, dinner party, the gym, and driving range. Family game night was in a well-lit room with 5 kids and 2 adults sitting around. Dinner Party was lower light with 5 couples at a friend’s house. Last was at the gym with bright overhead lights that I recorded some video at. For all events I set the camera to auto-track, and to shoot registered persons more. In messing around with it prior to the events I was able to get myself and my partner to be registered subjects. At family game night the Pick took a couple dozen shots of our group over 2 hours. The shots were pretty good and the images looked nice. Every shot was a candid shot, so it worked out great. I also did some manual shots and video. The video was pretty good and it was interesting to see it track different faces. At the dinner party things didn’t go as planned. After 45 minutes I think it had taken 1 picture of my partner and I, and that was it. I asked pick (via the voice command) to scan around for other subjects to shoot. It took pictures of the wall behind it – opposite from where we were all sitting. In 2 hours I got 3 pictures of people and 7 of the wall and other nearby objects that were not people. If not for the manual control being available, I wouldn’t have gotten hardly any pics. It made me wonder if Pick has a difficult time with lower light conditions and finding subjects to shoot. I tested this out in my living room at home (lower light conditions like the dinner party) with my partner while we watched a movie. It didn’t take any pictures of us (10 ft. away and near the light), but it did take pictures of objects near to Pick like a headset and a movie case over the course of 20 minutes. I figured I would give Pick another try at the gym, which is very well lit. I shot video and some images. While I did deadlifts I had a video record with tracking on. It worked great and followed me up and down through my reps. I stayed centered and it kept my whole body in frame. I switched it over to picture mode and it took 2 pics during the next 2 sets. When I switched to a circuit workout with a lot of movement I managed to get more engagement with Pick. I got a few more pictures out of it there, and it also snapped a pic of a random gym goer nearby (deleted it once I saw it). Video tracking was again great, and I had it in a side profile. The driving range was well lit (daytime), but some shadows were starting to creep. I setup Pick to use as sort of a swing monitor for footage I could review later. I turned off auto-tracking so the image frame wouldn’t move around. The movie footage looked great and was pretty clear. The 60FPS comes in handy when looking at a golf swing. I had Pick on the ground and on my little travel tripod – both worked for what I wanted to see. I didn’t have it take any pics in this setting since I was mostly focused on video performance. Image quality across all of these events varied. The well lit events look pretty good, but low light really turns the photos grainy. Across all images though I felt my phone camera (3.5 year old LG V40) produces as good, if not better images. This was somewhat disappointing as I figured the image processing would be a lot better coming from Canon even with the reduced pixel count. The images are still good though, and the optical zoom brings in another layer of usefulness. I do have some things that should be better. The registered subjects were very difficult to get setup. There is no rhyme or reason why a person gets registered. I wish there was a manual way to take a headshot for the person you want to register. The most frustrating thing about the Pick is the app connection. I honestly have never been so confused by a connection link before. Your phone connects to the Pick via a local wireless link. However, the link dies the moment your screen shuts off, or if you toggle to one of your other apps. It will then have to re-establish the connection. So if you want to use it in manual mode then you need to configure your phone screen to never turn off, and also not use any other apps. I can’t fathom why it doesn’t maintain a persistent connection other than preserving battery life. I would rather accidently drain the battery by not disconnecting than have to repeatedly reconnect. Also, the manual controls are both too sensitive and not sensitive enough. If you use the arrows to move around it takes forever to pan and the movement is choppy – bigger movements are easy but fine adjustments are an exercise in frustration. You can also drag around on the screen to move, but doing so sends the camera flying past whatever you were trying to frame in. The last thing I would like is for the voice commands to be simpler. The “Hello Pick, snap a picture” breaks the flow of things, and it would be great if a picture could be taken with a simpler phrase like “Cheese.” My thoughts on the Pick are still that I think it’s a really cool idea. The personal event photographer that you can just plop down in a corner or on a table is a great idea. However, it seems as though my expectations exceed its abilities as of right now. I thought Pick would be snapping pictures fairly often and constantly scanning the room to capture the event. It’s just not there yet unfortunately. I will say that it can likely be improved by firmware to an extent. I found that light conditions really affect how well Pick determines a subject is photo-worthy. Lower light conditions resulted in Pick just spinning around looking for a subject. The video mode is honestly pretty good and the auto-tracking is fun for keeping a subject in frame. For me I think its most useful for candid videography – the tracking is well done, and the video stream looks good.

In the past, I used to be an amateur photographer and devoted a lot of time to artistic, events, and personal photography. Knowledgeable with single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, my favorite devices were Canon. They make high-quality devices that always give you the best images. After 15 years, those devices still work, and I can still use them to produce high-quality images. In any event, one drawback of being a photographer is that you are not fully involved in the event because your eyes are focused on the viewfinder or just looking to capture joyful moments. Now, this cute and robotic-like looking Canon PowerShot Pick does help anyone who likes to take pictures and at the same time be involved with what is happening. It is fully automated; it moves 360° from side to side and up/down to get different views and orientations. It has artificial intelligence (AI) to catch the incredible and lively moments happening. It does a great job looking at and detecting faces, movements, and actions, and it records various images to capture them. All of the features make this camera versatile. If you are going out with friends or family, you can set it in the center, like the coffee table, and it will do its own thing to capture joyful moments. If you are an online influencer (content creator), for videos and photos, the device tracks your facial reactions, follows your around, and is voice-activated. Set-up is quick and easy using the Canon MiniPTZ app. The device connects to a smartphone, tablet, or computer using BlueTooth or Wi-Fi. The app lets you live view, download images or video from the Pick to your mobile phone/table, move the camera around and adjust settings. The image and audio quality are good. There is no light or flash on the camera. It is battery-operated and portable but is not water-resistant. The base of the device has a tripod socket which allows it to mount on a tripod and top a DSLR camera shot shoe slot using a tripod screw to hot shoe adapter. It will also work with a point-and-shoot camera with a hot shoe slot. While photo-taking with your primary camera, the Pick will simultaneously give you images or videos of a different perspective of an event. This option is excellent for weddings, quinceaneras, or other important events. As a dedicated photographer, having this device on top of your primary camera will give your more options for your clients. It uses USB-C charging port, which is excellent for the environment and handles fast charging, which is a big time saver. It is like having your how little personal photographer. If you are always a photo taker, the best part of the PowerShot Pick is you can enjoy events and not be behind the camera. This device will capture a lot of the things that one might miss. Overall, this camera is excellent for photographers, content creators, or anyone who doesn’t like to miss lively moments.

I'm not a huge fan of this camera. I'll give Canon credit for making a cute, compact camera with excellent image quality. Unfortunately, the "A.I." functions are sorely lacking. The initial setup was grueling and arduous. I charged the camera overnight, downloaded the app, and I attempted to set the camera up the following evening. It took my phone 15 attempts to connect to this camera. I suspect that it may have been because my phone only had 24% charge when I went to set this up. On the 15th attempt (after having tried a variety of different things - i.e. plugging the camera in, connecting to the camera through settings instead of the app, . . . etc.), I plugged my phone in to recharge, and it finally connected when my phone's battery was up around 70%. Once connected, the app proved to be fairly intuitive. I was able to move the camera around, take photos, and record video very easily. Unfortunately, things went downhill when I attempted to let the camera take control. The camera did a great job of focusing on faces that were directly in front of it when it first booted up. It would swivel around and make slight adjustments to keep the person's face centered as they moved around while seated. Unfortunately, the camera completely fell apart the moment someone stood up or moved in a more dynamic fashion. Upon standing (at a completely normal rate - it's not like people were leaping from their seats), the camera would lose the person's face, get confused, and fixate on the nearest light-source instead. The camera would only sometimes find the person if they moved back into the frame and remained stationary. More often than not, the camera would just remain fixated on the light-source. I was looking forward to using this at Christmas to try and catch people's expressions as they open gifts. Unfortunately, this isn't going to work unless we're all sitting at a table, facing the camera, without moving more than a foot or two. I'm hoping that this is something that they can maybe fix with a software update the down the road. But as it stands right now, I can't recommend this camera.

A great concept that needs more work. I love the idea behind the Canon Pick Active, because I think candid photographs are the best and it’s nice to be in some pictures as I’m usually the photographer. The Pick Active is a tiny pan/tilt/zoom camera that rotates a full 360 degrees and can automatically identify and track up to 12 “registered” people at a time. The idea is that you place it in your desired vantage point and it will automatically snap photos and record video as if it was your own Ai photography assistant. It’s small and stable enough to put on most level surfaces, but there’s a threaded tripod mount on the bottom if you need a more specific angle. In typical Canon fashion, the fit and finish is excellent and it’s remarkable how small the camera is. The pictures made it seem like it was the size of a 12oz soda can, but it’s actually even smaller than a mini soda. This makes it easy to carry and less conspicuous for the best candid photos. The size and build quality are all excellent, which gave me high hopes about what this little Pick Active camera could do. It’s a Canon, after all… The picture quality is about on par with a compact snapshot camera. They reminded me of shots from my old PowerShot SD1100IS, which was no slouch either. It does a good job in bright settings, but it’s the low light where this camera struggles. In darker settings, the photos have less grain than my old SD1100, but it’s the person tracking, focusing, and auto-shooting that have a hard time keeping up. Even in a room with moderate ambient light, it had a hard time recognizing people and recording them. I had about 3 people over to watch a UFC fight and it was only able to “register” one person. Mind you, as far as I can tell, the software seems to take photos of people it wants to register automatically, so while I can pick who among the list I want it to focus on, I still have to wait for the camera to find and take a photo of the person before I can do so. I even tried to do a manual shot of a person to see if it would add them to the list, but it didn’t, so I’m not sure what the trick is yet. Speaking of which, you’ll need to download the Canon MiniPTZ app to use the camera. It’s free for Android and iOS, so no worries there. However, I’d gladly pay if it would help the app work better. The user interface is fairly straightforward, but it frequently disconnects from the camera after about 10 minutes or so. What’s an even bigger issue is the lag time between the app and the camera. Trying to pan, tilt, or zoom manually is extremely hard to get right, because there’s about a full second of lag between the controls. I found it a little easier with the digital joystick, but the lag causes you to guess where the camera will stop versus seeing it quickly and accurately. A lot of missed photos from this, which makes the manual mode essentially useless. So far, I find the best way to use the Pick Active is in auto-shoot mode, even though that is highly flawed as well (person identifying and tracking). Battery life is a reported 3.5 hours, which seems on point, but I think it sometimes shuts down when it disconnects from the app, so I haven’t gotten an accurate gauge of it yet. Photo and video storage comes via a micro SD slot with a 16GB card included. All that said, when the Pick Active does work properly, it’s pretty awesome. I love reviewing what photos and videos it’s taken at the end of the day and thankfully the app makes them easy to download. As it stands now, I can’t recommend the camera for most people, unless they don’t mind taking chances on something new and hoping a firmware or software update alleviates the issues. I love the concept of the Canon Pick Active and the hardware itself is great, but the software leaves a lot to be desired.

Canon released this interesting new camera idea where the camera is also the cameraman. Great for those times when you're having a party and want to take candid shots, but also want to be in the shots. So now, with the Powershot Pick, you won't need to hire a photographer to cover events. A couple of these in strategically placed spots will take care of your event for you, right? Not so fast; AI works, but has caveats. Unboxing this from what was a festive looking box to reveal the camera box, a 16GB microSD pack, and an Anker 20W charge adapter. I find it strange for them to add to the camera's package with basic battery charging ability rather than have them included from Canon. Especially considering the camera requires a 20W charger that may not be already available to you since most USB ports offer only 10W. I thought the addition of a 16GB card to be a bit paltry until I realized the 11.7MP resolution of the pictures and videos were rather small, I guess it was a nice touch. The camera itself was a lot smaller than I expected simply because the form factor is akin to a typical PTZ security camera, being about twice the size. If it wasn't so delicate and strange, would've been a nice pocket camera. I needed a specific app rather than the Canon Connect app I already had. In order to connect to the camera, it first needs to connect through its own Wi-Fi, then with Bluetooth. This is what it does every time. If you're like me and don't like having apps running in the background, you have to connect the same way, kicking you off internet access. I found the app to be good for programming the shooting modes and seeing a playback of the media. The live view of the camera was laggy and controls only worked intermittently which made positioning for a picture quite difficult. The camera's AI tracking mode only works if you stand within 3ft of it and it registers your face. Not something you can place at a party to take random candid shots of guests that are not registered. And even then, you need to be within 3ft of it to enable it. I find it difficult to determine the battery's charge level in the app as there is only an icon and no percentage. Canon says you should get between 2.5 to 5hrs of operation per charge. I'm only getting about an hour and almost nothing to show for it. I had a party this past weekend and thought this would be a great way to test the camera. I placed it in the dining room and turned it on about 20 minutes before sitting down. After the party, I checked the camera to find 1 picture and 1 video at the same time as the picture. That was it! It got nothing else for over an hour at the party. I think the camera is a great idea, it's just half baked. The lenses and image chip are of low quality attributing to the grainy pictures. Better lenses might allow the AI to recognize faces at a further distance. If they can release some firmware updates to correct these issues, it might be passable. For now, it would be good for a quick vlogging session or solo recording.

The idea of this camera is a great idea. You will capture candid photos of your family in it's natural setting. Whether it's a party, holiday dinners, playing or out in the yard, or just hanging out in the family room, you'll get some shots that ideally will make you happy you got the thing. I've had it set up for about a week now. It's very easy to unbox and set up with just a few minutes. You connect to the cam with its own wifi signal, which is a shame, because I'd love to access the cam outside of my home as a version of security camera. However, it's not a security camera. It's supposed to be a camera through and through. So how does it do as a camera? I'd say it's decent. It can be better in quality, but the pics you save onto your phone can be modified with your choice of photo apps. For example, I use Google Photos with a Pixel 7 Pro and it does a great job at cleaning up the photos with its software. The shots can definitely be better for a $499 camera. I wish it was on par with a $499 camera. It's tracking skills are not great, because there are several photos that the cam took of the wall it was near when I plugged it in. Software may update and improve, but only time will tell. For the price, I just don't see it being worth the money at it's current state. It's a grand idea. It's especially valuable if you have kids you want to capture, but I feel like I do that anyway, and better with my everyday phone.

In many family and social situations, often the hosting members are delegated to take the photos of the gathering, whether it is a holiday festivity, birthday party, or group activity. I recall all the home video tapes that never included me in the footage, for I was the one who toted the camcorder on my shoulder. Decades later, with advances in miniaturization and artificial intelligence, Canon has an almost ready for prime time solution. The PowerShot PTZ (released in Europe and Japan as the Pick camera) will automatically snap stills and short videos of the action, which uses AI face recognition to let you prioritize the subjects you want to get more snaps of. And at your leisure, after the event, you can browse on your mobile and select the pictures that you wish to save and store. The small little R2-D2 near replica will rotate and pan up and down, seemingly at random but truly with a method in its searches. Totally self enclosed, you just turn it on, and it links to your WiFi or via Bluetooth to your cell phone via the PTZ app from Canon. It took several tries to get my phone to accomplish the linking, but on about the fourth day of trying, when I booted the app up, it informed me of a waiting firmware update. That occurred automatically via the WiFi link, and after that, it found the WiFi and my cell phone promptly and reliably. The literature that came with the camera was sparse, but the app had links to an online complete owner's manual and instructions in usage of the features. The app will store all the photos taken, which includes stills and video clips. The camera when taking a video will track quite reliably the movement and record the dialog of the subjects as they pass by. The camera has a slot for a microSD card, and recharges via a USB-C port. If you are running off the internal battery, it will warn you when the battery is running low. Indoors, you can plug in the camera to any USB-C charging to prolong your shooting session. Outdoors, the battery comes in handy, and connection to your mobile is via Bluetooth, which seems to be reliable and automatic (after the firmware update; prior to that I was totally stymied on how to get Bluetooth to connect or to shot out of range of the home WiFi). As I was looking for a solution to the lack of Bluetooth connectivity, I ran across several reviews and "unable to connect to BlueTooth was a very frequent and prominent complaint. For now, that seems to have be remedied, suggesting that Canon is monitoring and responding to customer input. You do not have to wait for the Pick to decide to take a shot, but can manually take over control via the app, and navigate the camera to the object of your choice and activate the shutter or start a video clip. So you don't have to hope that the Pick captures the blowing out of the birthday candles, but can guarantee it will be archived. There also is the option for a voice controlled activation of the picture/video capture, rather than reaching for the app. I have not yet tried that feature, but could be very convenient. As I was perusing some of the reviews, looking for a solution to my Bluetooth connectivity problem, I ran across the recurrent concerns about the creepy/ invasion of privacy factor of having photos taken without the subject's knowledge. The camera is small, and placed on a bookshelf would be rather inconspicuous, for sure. There are LED lights, green when turned on, blue when tracking and rotating, and a red blink for shutter action. This is not much different than a cell phone capacity to take a candid photo, while you were pretending to read an email. The Pick PTZ camera does look like a small surveillance camera, which are not rare in American households these days. Certainly telling the visitors that they are being intermittently recorded would be courteous, and perhaps, depending on local and state statutes, might be the law in your location. The big advantage over a cell phone, is that when you’re shooting family scenes with your phone, by necessity one person is out of the photo. Of course you could set up a tripod, and a shutter delay and give yourself 10 secs to get into position. But that creates a series of staged photos, not the spontaneous action shots of blowing out birthday candles, or helping in the kitchen, or rolling on the ground with the puppy and having the parent or owner of the camera in the action as well. The concept of a smart camera was on the market a few years ago, from Google, in its Clips camera. At $250, and the touted "machine learning" algorithms really weren't that accurate, that it was pulled after a short run about 4 years ago. Spec-wise" the PowerShot PX has a 11.7 megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor, and can record 11 megapixel JPEG stills or full HD (1920 x 1080) MP4 video to a bundled SanDisk 16GB microSD card. The big feature is a mechanical pan and tilt mechanism, which lets the camera move 340 degrees left to right and 110 degrees up and down. The motor is virtually silent, so it could function as a monitor in the baby's room without fear of waking the child, but there are many such monitors for far less money. There is also bundled a miniature sized Anker Power Port PD "nano" charger and cable; a high quality 20W powerful, nice touch support accessory.

Canon has been innovating digital imaging products for decades, and the new PowerShow Pick PTZ is no different. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect; a miniature portable camera that you place on a flat surface for a social setting, and it automagically pans, tilts and zooms to the faces of people in the room. With the app you can name and rank your subjects, for example birthday parties the emphasis can be on the recipient. Then afterwards pop the micro SdHC (or larger capacity SxHD card) into your computer to see what it recorded, save what you want, and discard what you don’t. This being a brand new category could be daunting for some, yet I feel it has legs and will continue to see technological advancements in the coming years, just as we saw with the advent of digital photography starting in the late 1990s. Low-light quality leaves something to be desired, producing pixelated images, and a lot of throw-away video and still photos, but in decent lighting there is something so cool about having your “personal paparazzi” record events with motion and zoom effects. I expect to use this a lot over the holidays. Thanksgiving was a testbed, that’s not entirely without merit. Christmas time with the whole family here will be the real test. Hopefully things won’t be as “hit-or-miss”. Pros + Compact + Diminutive + Made in Japan high-quality + Picture quality + easy setup + limited interaction + App is a nice addition + includes 16 GB micro-SDHC card Cons -phone connection issues could prove frustrating -small micro SDHC card hard to access with large fingers -tad bit creepy to see a camera following movements -price seems 2-3x what we’ll see in Chinese knockoffs -limited to 44 MB video files -time to sift and sort keeper videos Conclusion Mixed bag for me, I truly think Canon is on the verge of a brand new category. Instead of people posing for photos and selfies, the PowerShot PTZ seamlessly captures social events and settings by itself. 
Recommend : Buy if the price isn’t a deterrent, and you’re a creative social type, but pass and let the product mature for the remaining audience.

I have been looking for a small camera I could take with me to events to aid with the photo and video taking. I use so much equipment that felt it would be nice if I could combine both pictures and videos into one while I use my professional main one for more focused events. I found using this Canon PowerShot was a great little helper to take pictures during events while I am running around taking pictures with my other equipment. I really enjoyed the custom settings to allow picture taking of all around along with the video. This little helper caught some amazing action shots that I am now sharing / combining with my professional shots with my photo package. The best part of this little helper is you do not need to be constantly connected to it. You can configure it on how you wish it to operate , set it down and let its do its thing. Later after the event you can connect it to your computer and download all the pictures. Picture quality was great, the zoom was clear and the video audio was clear as well. Unfortunately the battery is average, it may be due to taking pictures and videos during events. When I set it to pictures only it seems to improve the battery life. Charging is slow so its good to plan ahead before using this for the event. Overall I would recommend this product for anyone who enjoys taking pictures and videos during events. This is a great little helper when you are running around taking shots.

The Canon PowerShot PICK Active Tracking PTZ Digital Camera is the ultimate device for capturing your life on the go. Setup The camera was straightforward to set up and configure. I charged it with the included cable and Anker PowerPort PD Nano charger. The camera is much smaller than I thought it would be. After a full charge, I inserted the included SanDisk MicroSD 16GB memory card and scanned the QR code on the large single-sheet instructions with my iPhone. The Canon Connect App for Mini PTZ is available for Android and iOS devices. Once I installed the app, the steps were presented in the app to power on the camera, pair it with my iPhone, and connect to Wi-Fi. The camera auto-rotated and went into automatic photo-shooting mode. It reminds me of a miniature R2D2, the way it beeps when powering on and rotating to follow your movements. I used the app to download the latest firmware for the camera. Using the Camera The Canon PICK Camera is effortless to use with the app. I placed it on a tabletop camera mount, which I use for recording and streaming videos. The bottom of the camera has a standard screw port for camera stands. Within the app, I can control the camera's zoom, panning, and tracking. It is easy to switch from video to photos in automatic photo taking or manually snapping pictures. I can also control where the camera focuses by dragging my finger around the screen or using pan control. Brightness can be adjusted with a +/- control on the top left of the screen. The camera has a quality microphone for audio recording. It's not a studio mic, but it does do a decent job of recording. A status LED in front of the camera shows when the video recording is active. A remarkable feature of the Canon PICK is the ability to use voice commands for shooting. Under app settings, you can find a list of available voice commands. From the app, tapping on a face will select that person for tracking. In playback mode, I could review my videos and photos, tag them as favorites, delete them, and save them to my phone's photos. The camera uses Wi-Fi to move image files from the microSD memory card to phone storage. My first video was over 29 minutes long and took 29 minutes to transfer to my phone. While the included sheet of instructions is good for getting started, I recommend going to the app settings to see the instructions or going to the Canon website to view the complete manual. It is crucial to use UHS-I compatible microSD memory cards for having fast reading and writing speeds when recording videos. The camera can also be a webcam streaming device by connecting with the USB cable or configuring streaming via Wi-Fi. Summary While small and compact, the Canon PICK PTZ camera is full of power and features. You can place it in the middle of a room and capture all the people and activities as videos and pictures for a special event. You can use it for remote control streaming of live events, vlogging, and building a highlight video from an event and group of people. With all this flexibility and versatility, there's no reason not to own this camera if you are into event photography and vlogging. I highly recommend it. Features - 11.7MP camera for photos and videos - 1/2.3 CMOS Sensor - 19-57mm Focal Length - Zoom: 3x optical, 4x digital - Micro SD Memory card slot - Auto Shooting Mode - Voice commands - Auto tracking of up to 12 registered people - Highlight movie creation from events and people - Smile recognition - 110 tilt - +- 170 pan - Tracking distance: 16ft - Field of view: 360 - Image stabilization - Rechargeable battery, up to 5 hours on a charge - 1 year limited warranty - Bottom screw port for tripods and camera stands - Geotagging toggle - Adjustable aspect ratios - Adjustable recording quality

This is a great idea and the camera is functionally acceptable, but the quality was not what I expected at this price point. Here's a few pros and cons from my experience: PROS Has motion tracking Decent battery life (**not amazing though, don't get too excited) Able to be controlled fully via the app Comes with a 16gb SD card for recording Charges via standard usb-c Capable of full 360 degree rotation CONS Really grainy camera quality if the lighting isn't perfect Would like more shot quality control and customization Sometimes the tracking takes a long time to latch onto a new focus You cannot retrieve any playback or photos unless the camera is turned on (the app is not cloud storage) The grainy exposure of the camera really docks the most points from the Canon Pick. I am a media professional so my view may be a bit bias, but I'd expect a clearer picture or at least the ability to adjust the shot to improve the picture quality. Nonetheless, it is wifi capable and can connect directly to my phone, plus photos can save onto the app for me to easily download as well, which does make it a decent investment. However again, at this price point, a $500 camera should have much better picture quality in my opinion. I'd still recommend it though.

It’s tough to review something that is so deeply broken but I’ll go through my experience. From the start, I loved the packaging, really set the tone and separated itself from the rest of the pack by setting the tone that this would be something vibrant and fun. Instructions, while comically large, were very simple. Charge the camera with the included cord and power cube, download the app (sigh), power this on, connect, and shoot. Nothing too complicated. Off the start, I’ve already gotta remove 1 star since this is YET ANOTHER device that requires its own app. I mention this is tons of my reviews but when I have over the half the apps on my phone for niche products like this, it rubs me the wrong way, but I digress. After charging, I got the app, logged in, and started setting up the device. Immediately I noticed connectivity issues where it would connect, then disconnect every couple minutes, rendering it useless. Upon setting up I’d been connected to Bluetooth listening to music and figured that could be an issue so I restarted, removed the Bluetooth connection from Spotify and tried to reconnect. Again, this lasted a few minutes and stopped working. Throughout this process, I was able to get the device to track a little bit, snap 3 photos while it was inches from my face, and record 1 video as guests were walking in at the time. I tried to watch the video but nothing worked without being connected, but I can’t stay connected. I was able to view the pictures and thought the quality was good but a little worse than expected. It’s far from 4k and seems to really thrive off a bright room. Eventually I figured this may need a software update, so I downloaded that and continued on but had the same problems with connectivity. I went back to the App Store to see if there’s a different app to download or if I’d messed up somehow, the answer is no, it’s not me, it’s at minimum an iOS issue as every review on the iOS store is 1 star. Other reviewers on Best Buy’s site have got it to work, so I presume those are android users but can’t be positive. Either way, after hours and hours of headaches and hassles, this camera is seemingly paralyzed by their mandatory app. Even now, I can go onto the app and see that there is media stored but without the camera on, it won’t let me view my photos. Overall, horrible app integration that renders this a paperweight and giant disappointment. Even the rare times it can work, the photos are subpar. Definitely pass on this until a fix can be found

This a great little portable camera you can take it with you on vacation, parties and outdoors activities to capture nice pictures. The lens moves and adjust itself. Setting up the pick camera is pretty simple, the camera power on with a little tweeting. Also the app is easy to connect. When I open it up I was surprised how small it was, but when I saw what it can do I was amazed.

The Canon PowerShot Pick is what I consider a niche camera. Its main selling point is its ability to track faces or moving objects with 340 degrees of pan and 110 degrees of tilt freedom. From here, you can manually take shots via the Canon MiniPTZ app, or set it up to automatically capture moments. The sensor is a 11.7MP 1/2.3" CMOS sensor. The lens is at f/2.8 with 3x optical zoom. Here’s a quick spec rundown: Active PTZ Tracking & Subject Detection Takes Photos Automatically 11.7MP 1/2.3" CMOS Sensor 3x Optical Zoom Lens, Max f/2.8 Aperture 110° Tilt, +/- 170° Panning Portable Design, Built-In Li-Ion Battery Voice Recognition & MiniPTZ App Control Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and microSD Card Slot Packaging is straightforward: the kit came with the camera itself as well as a 16GB microSD card and an Anker power adapter to use alongside the included USB-C cable. I think this was a nice addition considering most companies are just flat out not including this nowadays. The Pick itself is remarkably small. I mean, I wouldn’t carry it in my pocket as it’s not cell phone flat, but it can be easily carried in a women’s bag or a man purse and it won’t take up a lot of space. Charging takes about 3 hours from empty. The Canon MiniPTZ app guides you with the Bluetooth pairing process so that you can review photos or even control your captures remotely. Here you'll also be able to customize your preferred output quality and even setup as a webcam. I found that although the app was relatively easy to use, the constant need to reconnect to the camera when leaving the app and returning to is very clunky and cumbersome. Once you're in and connected, the ability to remotely pan and tilt the camera is very clunky as well due to the latency between sending a move command and having the camera actually move. The biggest question here is how the camera actually performs. So basically, it performs well in outdoor/well lit settings, and does kind of poorly in indoor, not so well lit settings. When used outside, it is very much in its element. I was able to prop the Pick on a tripod and have it track me while passing back and forth with my scooter. Even at faster ride-bys, the Pick was able to track me fairly well with only a few cases where it wasn’t able to keep up. Again, with a nice dose of sunlight, the images from the Pick are very clear. With videos, the effective recorded area is cropped about two-thirds with respect to a captured image. But the Pick again was able to record me just fine. It is worth noting that I did a combination of manual control and allowing it to automatically capture moments. When indoors where not as much light is available, the images and recordings are not so flattering. Images were very grainy and recordings were similar. Moreover, the ability for it to automatically capture moments was hampered by its inability to distinguish faces or even to just track movement. I set up my tripod in the most traversed areas of my home and was not able to pick up a lot of the people or movements that I would assume would be low hanging fruit in terms of auto capture. I would consider my home pretty well lit in the evenings, but it did struggle in this arena. And again, when switching to manual capture, the ability to control the camera remotely is very difficult, in my opinion. So my take on this camera is that it is very, very good at outdoor use. I think a lot of press and advertisement for this camera shows its use in this light. If you know you’re going to be using this in very well lit environments, I think it’s a great tool for capturing those moments when you need a helping hand that isn’t there to help. It is only here that I recommend this camera. If your plan is to use this in an indoor setting, I think you need to ensure that you have plenty of light available. So those evening events like weddings or the like are not a good fit for the Pick. I think this hurts its bottom line a bit, but I think it’s fair to remind ourselves that most cameras do struggle in this area anyway and are equipped with flash for those situations. Unfortunately, the Pick doesn’t have flash.

This device is cool to fool around with but the AI still needs a lot of work. The setup of this camera was way more difficult than it should be. The app also could use some improvement. I set the camera on a tripod to get better shots and it helped. The image quality is very good if you're close to the camera, but then the quality drops the further away you go from the camera. The connection to my phone from the camera was not very good. I was using a Google Pixel 6 which is a relatively newer phone, so unfortunately the issue is with the camera. I wasn't sure how to register faces for the AI to take random shots, so I found myself using the manual controls to takes pics which defeats the whole purpose of this camera. The manual controls work very well, but I shouldn't have to be using it. The other issue I had is at a get together, faces that have not been registered with not get too many shots. There is really no way around this, there is no way I can register every person that shows up to a party. Also the battery life is lacking, it only lasts about two hours, but I guess that is a sacrifice that has to be made for portability. It's not good to only have the camera available for only two hours at a party.

Just about everyone has a camera built into their mobile phone these days. Canon used to be a big seller of point-and-shoot cameras, but there isn't a lot of use for them anymore. Canon has been trying to come up with modern cameras that serve a purpose that can't easily be done with your phone camera. The Canon Powershot PICK PTZ camera is one of those devices. The PTZ in the name stands for Pan, Tilt, and Zoom. Those are the main features of this style camera. Along with an app on your phone, the camera supports 170 degrees of panning to cover a 360 degree field of view. It has a 110 tilt range for finding objects at various heights. It can detect subjects from 16 feet away. Using the app on your phone, you can prioritize up to 12 faces. It can shoot 12Mp photos and full HD video with a minimum aperture of F2.8-5. It also supports limited voice commands so you can control the camera with your voice. The idea behind the camera is to be able to take pictures and videos while tracking a moving person. Another use is to create group pictures without someone having to hold the cameras. Set up your group as you want them to loo and use your phone to frame the shot on the camera. You can then take a picture from the app or tell the camera to take the picture. It will look for all the faces and try to get a picture with everyone smiling and eyes open. If you are having a party, you can set up the PICK to take random photos. Using AI, it tries to determine if something would make a nice picture and it will take it on it's own. Here are a few ideas on how to use the camera: 1. Set it up to film you playing a sport. It will follow your moves and you can see what happens around you. 2. Set it up to take pictures at a party. It will create lots of candid photos of everything that goes on. 3. Use it as a web cam. You can walk around as you are talking and the camera will stay focused on you. 4. Doing a video in the kitchen about making a recipe? The PICK will follow you around the kitchen as you make your masterpiece. 5. Enjoy handsfree photo and video taking using the PICK voice commands. The camera is small and lightweight and ready to take all the pictures you want. If you have the desire to do these types of things, this is the camera for you.

I got this camera for use in the coming holidays. Thought it would be cool to have a "personal photographer" that can take snaps at the family gatherings. I tested this product at an indoor birthday party and place it centrally in the living room where people would be gathering most of the time. Out of the box, the setup was pretty easy. I was able to connect with my phone easily via bluetooth. You will need to have the app installed first before connecting. I had difficulty finding the app in the Apple app store so I resorted to using the QR code in the instructions to be able to find and install the app. But once installed, the set up was easy and the app is easy to navigate. I set the camera to take shots automatically. For about a 5 minutes duration, it only took about 2 photos which was disappointing and when I checked it was because the camera was disconnected and I had to reconnect. The disconnection was an annoying issue with this camera, plus the blurry photos it took. I have had Canon powershot cameras before and the photo quality produced by this tracking camera is nowhere near the "Canon" quality I am used to. This is a nice concept though and could be useful, but unfortunately it needs improvement. I'd definitely consider getting this again when things have improved. For now, I don't recommend this camera.

Never had nor heard of ptz cameras before. Got this a day before I got a new puppy, and this has been a godsend. Now I can join the family in playing with our new family member and still have memories to look back on. The tracking and stabilization are excellent. The puppy can zoom around and the camera does a pretty decent job of keeping up. Picture quality is what you’d expect from a canon powershot. It won’t win photography awards, but it definitely works for catching memories. I’m really looking forward to putting this camera through its paces over the next few weeks at holiday family gatherings. I’m usually the dedicated family photographer but now I’ll get to interact more. It’s cute enough to be a Disney era Starwars droid too. It makes adorable boop boop sounds at startup that kids love. Battery life is more than adequate, and it charges up at an acceptable rate. Interesting side note about this product are the accessories. This is the first canon product I’ve ever had that didn’t come with canon branded accessories. The included charger is Ankor and the miniSD is sandisk. Both excellent brands, but I’m shocked they went 3rd party. Overall, it’s a great product for the social butterfly to make memories. I highly recommend it.