By Tan Chong Yaw

THINK James Bond, the Daniel Craig version. Brutal. Merciless. Now channel that to the Canon PowerShot G10.

There is no mistaking the G10's serious intent. Swathed in matte black - the colour of all pro-grade DSLRs - the G10 is all hard-chiselled camera with no visual fluff.

At 401g, this retro-looking 14.7-megapixel prosumer camera is heavier than two Ixus 890IS cameras. Its heft though, inspires confidence.

I love the dedicated dials on the top of the camera for mode, sensitivity and exposure compensation.

These are old-fashioned - in the best sense of the word - dials with a satisfyingly mechanical action for making a direct setting change.

The shutter release mechanism also has a good feel for focus and release. The power button, however, is out of place. A mechanical flip switch would have been a better fit than the button.

There is a viewfinder but it does not accurately reflect the actual frame. Its saving grace is that you will definitely capture what is in the viewfinder.

The 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) lens has a built-in lens-shift type image stabiliser which gave good results.

At an indoor band competition, I grabbed some great shots thanks to the fast focus and the 28mm wide angle.

Later, I shot some high contrast scenes outdoors trying to coax some chromatic aberration, or unnatural colour fringes, out from the G10. Thanks to the lens design, the aberrations were well-controlled.

My one big gripe is that the camera lacks what made the earlier models in the G series distinctive: an articulated LCD.

The G10 has a 3-inch 416,000 pixels LCD with a brightness that can be adjusted by 15 levels, but it cannot be swivelled out for accurate overhead or worm's eye shots.

Ever since the G series was launched in 2000 with the G1, the size of the sensor has barely changed from 1/1.8 inches to a slightly larger one of 1/1.7 inches with the G9.

The trouble is that the resolution, which started at 3 megapixels, has swollen with each model until the 14.7 megapixels with the G10.

So, the G10 needs good light to excel. Noise can be seen from ISO 800 onwards. That said, with the image stabiliser and fairly fast lens at F2.8, the need for higher ISO settings may be reduced.

Otherwise, the G10 is enjoyable as it gives the creative photographer total control over every function.

Novices need not stay away. Leave it in the Auto mode and it will do all the hard work for you.

One last spy trick from the G10 - it is a sound recorder as well. A few clicks and the G10 can record between 25 and 100 hours of audio on an 8GB card, depending on the quality setting.

Final say

The G10 has the looks and performance for any 007 wannabe. Just avoid dingy back alleys.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 24 December 2008.

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