If you look at the Canon PowerShot G series cameras you can use 16:9 ratio in all modes (except several scene modes) as long as you're not shooting RAW files. As far as the megapixels, you need to take the sensor size into consideration as well. The tiny sensor of the SX710 gets very soft with the higher megapixel counts, but allows for tighter cropping. The somewhat larger sensor in the G series gets sharper photos, but cropping won't be as tight. Plus the lens is a big factor too. The SX cameras are about zooming, so the lens is not as bright as on the G series. Of course, the G series is also much higher priced than the SX series.
Cameras are not standardized around 16:9 aspect ratios as that would be too limiting for most photographers. It may be your choice of format, but it depends greatly on the type of photos being taken as to the format that a photographer prefers. Many of my friends prefer a 1:1 format, while I prefer the 4:3. Since I can lock in these ratios with the PowerShot G12 that I have, I find it to be a very versatile camera. There are trade offs though. The SX series have a lot more focal range, so if that is important to you, then the G series won't meet your needs. The SX series vary also in whether you choose the SX100 series, the SX200 series, SX500 series, SX10 series, etc. Each series has it feature set that makes it different from the others, so you may need to talk to a salesperson at a local camera shop who is familiar with the different cameras. On the forum, most of us only own a couple of cameras. so we don't always know all the differences in the cameras. Each upgrade adds or drops some features, so it would not be surprising to find that a camera from only a few years ago no longer has some features in the newest model, but might also have additional ones that were not in previously. Good luck on getting a camera that better suits your needs.
Steve M.
