Canon PowerShot G9

The Canon Powershot G9 looks to all intents and purposes exactly like its predecessor, the G7, but underneath the serious matt black exterior are a veritable wealth of changes. This is a 12.1 megapixel digital camera - up from the G7's 10 megapixels - with a 3 inch LCD screen - increased from 2.5 inches - which sees the very welcome return of RAW mode. Canon caused uproar among G-series users when they decided to omit RAW mode from the G7, presumably to try and differentiate it from the budget EOS 400D DSLR camera, so it's refreshing that they've listened to their customers by bringing it back. The swivelling, flip-out LCD screen of the older G6 model unfortunately hasn't also made a come-back, but the larger 3 inch PureColor screen partly makes up for that. The 6x optical zoom lens offers an effective focal length of 35-210mm, there's an optical image stabilizer to help combat camera-shake, plus an optical viewfinder and flash hotshoe. Under the surface the Canon G9 uses the same advanced DIGIC III processor as the company's digital SLR cameras for faster performance and image processing. The ISO range is 80-3200 and there are 25 different shooting modes on offer, including Shutter-priority, Aperture-priority and Manual shooting modes for those who desire greater control. High resolution 1024x768 movies at 15fps, a My Colors mode that allows special in-camera colour effects, 1cm macro mode, and improved Face Detection system complete the specification.