Canon PowerShot S10

Canon cameras have always been impressive at reproducing colours accurately, and the S10 is no exception. This does mean that colours will appear less vibrant than its oversaturated rivals, such as the Kodak DC280 (reviewed issue 63, p128), but if realism is what's important to you the S10 is markedly superior. In terms of capturing detail, though, it can't quite match the substantially cheaper Ricoh RDC-5300 (reviewed p182).

But what really sets the S10 apart from the rest of the digital camera field is its design. No other manufacturer seems either capable or willing to design a similarly compact camera, and the S10's biggest competitor is probably Canon's own PowerShot A50. Thanks to its lower resolution, it can't rival the S10 for detail, but it does match the S10 for colour reproduction, and its £399 street price more than makes up for the lack of a USB connection.

Alternatively, if features and all-round image quality are more important to you than compactness, Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-F505 is the wiser bet. It costs £3 less than the S10, and the only factor counting against it is its unusual SLR-like design, which is bound to make the user feel more self-conscious than the more anonymous S10. Let's just hope that in the face of this fierce competition Canon is forced to drop the S10's price to below £500 - for that figure, its styling and image quality might just make it too tempting to resist.

Author: Tim Danton