Review of G10 Powershot

Canon’s Powershot G10 offers a staggering 14.7 million pixels on its hi-def CCD sensor.

Pixel count isn’t the only indicator of quality, but in general more pixels is better and certainly gives you more cropping choice after the event.

Unlike, say the Canon A590IS model, which is geared to amateurs, the Powershot G10 is very much a prosumer model. The list of features alone make that clear.

The G10 goes as wide as 28 m.mm and couples that with a 5x zoom. Optical Image Stabilisation helps you to keep the image sharp even when using the long end of the zoom - very important for anyone who can’t hand-hold a camera as steadily as you used to. The benefit of the image stabliser is that more of your shots will come out sharp.

The monitor screen is a 3.0-inch Pure Color LCD II screen. That makes it much easier to line up your shots - no more squinting to see what’s on the screen. If you’ve never used a large L.C.D. screen digital camera before then you’ll be astonished at just how much easier it makes life. The Canon Powershot offers a really beautiful display.

Canon have also added their DIGIC 4 image processor. The DIGIC 4 offers faster operation and enhanced image quality - something we all appreciate.

One thing to remember is that a camera needs some food and a camera that has extremely high resolution is going to need a lot of memory card to store its images. There’s usually a selection of cheap cards at places like digitalcamerafood.co.uk

That’s where cards like the sandisk 8gb sdhc secure digital card or the Transcend 8gb SDHC memory card are so useful. An 8gb card will store a useful number of hi-res images and allow you to keep shooting for longer.

The Canon Powershot G10 is a stunning example of engineering and design.

For most people it will be a more practical and a better alternative to an SLR. It’s certainly not the smallest digital ‘compact’ on the market, it’s probably one of the best specified and well designed cameras available today.