What's purple and can see things a long way away? Give up? It's the Canon PowerShot SX210 IS, of course. The SX210 packs a 14x optical zoom in a compact camera frame, but doesn't make for very good jokes.
Not to be confused with the Canon's own IXUS 210, the SX210 is the follow-up to the Canon PowerShot SX200 IS. It's a more rounded piece of work, adding an undulating silver trim, although it loses the SX200's signature bent handgrip. It comes in this fetching purple, hideous gold or boring black.
At the front is a whacking great 14x optical zoom with a wide angle of 28-392mm, equivalent to a 35mm film camera. You have the choice of a range of scene modes, aperture and shutter priority, and manual control. One feature we like is the option to dial the flash intensity down when you don't want to bleach out the scene before you.
The SX210 shoots 720p high-definition video at 30 frames per second. It has a stereo mic in the top of the camera, with a wind cut filter to quieten noise. You can zoom while filming.
The SX210 is a slick entry to the high-zooming compact market dominated by the Panasonic Lumix TZ series, including the Lumix DMC-TZ8 and TZ10. We put it through its paces at Mercedes-Benz World, so fasten your seatbelts and put your foot down through our gallery of the SX210 burning rubber.
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