Photos: Canon PowerShot G10 hands-on

By Rich Trenholm on 18 September 2008, 11:10am

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The Canon PowerShot G10 is the latest entry to Canon's G unit, dropping beats and rhymes all up in this 'hood, sneering "You ain't no G" at other cameras. Actually it isn't, because it's a camera... and everyone knows cameras are above the whole East Coast/West Coast thing and just want people to get along -- and learn how to use aperture priority properly.

The 14.7-megapixel G10 replaces the PowerShot G9 at the top end of the clever compact space. It's a chunky beast of a camera, as you'll see in your pictures, but still smaller than a dSLR with comparable power and flexibity. The G-series are designed to be the back-up cameras you can keep in your pocket if you don't want to bust out the dSLR, and the G10 certainly packs a lot into its relatively compact frame.

The G10 includes all the whistles, bells and accordions you'd expect: optical image stabilisation, face detection and various scene and colour modes. These include panorama stitch assist, portrait, landscape, and aquarium. The larger-than-most 1/1.7-inch sensor is teamed with Canon’s new DIGIC 4 image processor, which is claimed to boost speed and cut down on noise.

Like Canon's new IXUS announcements, the G10 includes the i-Contrast feature, which gives dynamic range a leg-up in high-contrast images to bring out detail in darker areas, without blowing out highlights. You can also monkey with your exposure later by shooting raw images.

Other new features include servo autofocus, which continually adjusts focus on a subject moving nearer to or away from the camera. You can move nearer to or further away from this page by clicking through the photos, to see more of the G10's myriad functions and features. -Rich Trenholm