Canon G10 brings 14.7MP, wide-angle lens

Canon as part of its pre-Photokina expo camera launches released the PowerShot G10, its new flagship semi-pro compact. The semi-professional camera both sees a sensor upgrade from 12.1 to 14.7 megapixels as well as a key lens change. While dropping back from the 6X zoom of the G9 to 5X, the G10 switches to a 28-140mm equivalent (6.1-30.5mm actual) wide-angle lens that better assists in capturing large portraits, landscapes, and close-ups.

Similarly new is a dedicated exposure compensation dial in addition to the earlier ISO dial; an improved custom mode also helps set two different presets more readily than before.

As with other camera launches today, the DIGIC 4 chip also comes aboard and improves performance as well as image quality, although Canon claims the same ISO 1600 sensitivity as with the G9; the greatest addition is Servo AF, which with a half-press on the shutter keeps tracking subjects up until the full press to capture the shot. Face detection has also been improved to recognize people at sharper angles and to optionally trigger the self-timer when a new face enters the frame.

Previewing has been more substantially improved. Although still at the same three inches, the new LCD improves the color depth over the outgoing model to more faithfully reproduce the scene without reverting to the optical viewfinder.

Canon delivers the G10 in October for $500; new additions for accessories include a remote trigger, a Macro Ring Lite and a Macro Twin Lite for producing better-lit subjects. The Twin Lite will be available in January of next year pending an attachment.

Filed under: gadgets, digital imaging
Other story tags: Canon, PowerShot