Posted to Digital Cameras 2009-04-05
The Canon PowerShot G10 is targeted directly at the advanced amateur photographer. The kind of photographer who possibly owns a DSLR and wants something more compact to carry around on trips, but doesn't want to sacrifice too much on image quality. The G10 does a good job of meeting these requirements. The G10 uses a 14.7 megapixel sensor, offers a comfortable zoom level of 5X (35mm equivalent of 28-140mm), and has an optical viewfinder similar to the ones found on yesterday's rangefinder 35mm cameras. It's a point and shoot camera in the sense that it can take excellent photos when set to auto, yet allows full manual control over settings. The G10 features optical image stabilization, a 461,00 pixel 3.0" LCD, and uses the new Digic 4 image processor.
FeaturesThe G10 is chock full of features. We've already mentioned full manual control, but there's lots of automatic goodies, too - Face detection, servo autofocus, intelligent contrast correction, motion detection technology and red-eye correction. There's also a new face detection self-timer mode that waits for the photographer to get in the scene before taking the shot. The camera also includes RAW capture for more manual control of images. The G10 offers macro focusing down to .39 in., a relatively fast f2.8 maximum aperture and shutter speeds from 15-1/4000 seconds. ISO range is from 80 to 1600 ISO. PerformancePerformance of the G10 is impressive for a compact camera. It produces exceptional images at lower ISO speeds for a camera with a small sensor. It has a useful wide angle focal length of 28mm and macro photos are incredibly sharp. The 14.7MP image size allows for lots of headroom when editing and cropping images. Noise does become a problem at ISO 400 and above, but that's simply a fact of life with the small sensors used in today's compact cameras. Canon gets high marks for the menu system, with most users reporting that the menus are extremely easy to use. And the 3.0" LCD has one of the highest resolutions available on a compact camera, making even manual focusing a breeze using the LCD. SummaryDue to recent price drops and the availability of this camera at discount Internet stores, the Canon Powershot G10 represents an excellent value for the advanced amateur photographer. Whether you need it as an easy to carry alternative to a DSLR, or are not quite ready to spring for the price of a DSLR, the G10 makes an excellent choice. If you're in the market for an enthusiast compact, be sure and give the G10 a test drive. Pros
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