Canon has bolstered its range of Super Zoom compact cameras with the announcement of the PowerShot SX500 IS. According to Canon, it is the world’s lightest camera with a 30x zoom and wide-angle lens.

The SX500 IS features a 16-megapixel CCD sensor, DiG!C 4 processor, 32 Scene Smart Auto, HD movie recording and Intelligent IS.

One feature in particular that looks really appealing is ZoomPlus technology. While most cameras lose significant image degradation when zooming past the optical range of the lens, Canon claims that this technology can extend the zoom on the SX500 IS up to 60x without a loss of quality.

The Canon PowerShot SX500 IS will hit stores in mid-September.