Canon PowerShot SX740 HS stays a top compact camera in Japan
A seven-year-old compact is still selling like a current model in Japan, with the SX740 HS Lite hitting No. 1 at Yodobashi. Its 40x zoom and pocket size still do the work.
Canon’s PowerShot SX740 HS is still landing where newer cameras would like to be: near the top of Japan’s compact-camera sales charts. The Lite version of the model, a lightly updated take on the original, recently reached No. 1 in Yodobashi’s rankings, while BCN’s compact-digital-camera lists kept the SX740 HS visible again in May 2026.
That staying power starts with the original camera itself. Canon announced the PowerShot SX740 HS on July 31, 2018 and released it on August 30, 2018 as the successor to the SX730 HS. The formula has not changed much since then: a 20.3-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor, a 24-960mm equivalent 40x optical zoom lens, 4K video, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a body that Canon’s museum page puts at about 39.9 mm thick and roughly 299 g. It also shoots continuous bursts at up to 7.4 fps with AF/AE and up to 10.0 fps with AF/AE lock. Canon notes that 4K recording is cropped from the central pixels of the sensor.
That specification sheet explains why the SX740 HS has outlived a lot of flashier compacts. It is not trying to win on raw sensor size or boutique styling. It is a pocket-sized travel zoom with enough reach to cover everything from street scenes to distant landmarks without swapping lenses or carrying a bulkier body. Canon Europe still sells the Lite Edition with the same pitch, calling it a pocket-sized compact travel zoom with huge 40x optical zoom and 4K movie resolution.
The interesting part is that the market seems to keep rewarding that exact compromise. The SX740 HS was already old enough to be a legacy model when the compact-camera revival and retro boom became mainstream, yet it keeps showing up because it solves a very specific problem: give people real zoom range in something they can keep in a bag or jacket pocket all day. The 2024 Lite refresh did not reinvent the camera, and that is the point. It kept the same core idea alive without forcing buyers into a new system or a bigger body.
Seven years on, the SX740 HS is still proving that old gear can win when it is easy to carry, simple to use, and far more capable than its size suggests. In Japan, that has been enough to keep it selling like a camera that never really left.
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