Canon U.S.A. has been an on assignment contender pressure the digital doorstep this year, releasing a hulking boost of innumerable digital cameras, uncut designed also engineered to efficacious up to Canon's high standards.

Its two May announcements, the PowerShot S100 Digital Elph and the EOS D30, are perfect examples of how versatile Canon's digital line has become. In a body originally debuted as the "world's smallest" APS film camera in 1994, the 2.1-megapixel Digital Elph was redesigned on the inside for digital capture, but still maintained its super-sleek, ultra-compact physique. The EOS D30, built to look and feel like a conventional 35mm SLR, was introduced as a "presume" version of Canon's professional digital line, which included the EOS D2000 and EOS DCS-1. Now the 3.3-megapixel PowerShot G1 takes its place in Canon's digital line-up, with the look and feel of a compact SLR and the user-adjustable features of a pro model.

Key Tips

• 3.34 mega pixel CCD delivering up to 2,048 x 1,536-pixel resolution images. 
• 1.8-inch, color LCD monitor. 
• 3X optical zoom, 7-21mm lens (equivalent to a 34-102mm lens on a 35mm camera) with auto and manual focus. 
• Up to 4X digital telephoto. 
• Full automatic, program AE, shutter priority, aperture priority, and manual exposure modes, as well as several preset exposure modes. 
• Manually adjustable aperture settings from f/2.0 to f/8.0, depending on zoom setting. 
• Manually adjustable shutter speed settings from 1/1,000 to 8 seconds. 
• Variable ISO sensitivity equivalents: Auto, 50, 100, 200, or 400. 
• Two metering modes: Center-weighted average and spot metering 
• White balance setting with seven adjustment modes. 
• Built-in flash with five operating modes. 
• External flash hot shoe. 
• Continuous shooting, auto exposure bracketing, and movie recording modes. 
• Remote control and utilities for controlling the camera from a computer. 
• JPEG and RAW still image file formats, movies saved as AVI/Motion JPEGs. 
• Images saved to Compact Flash Type I or II memory cards, 16MB card included. 
• DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) compatibility. 
• USB cable for high-speed connection to a computer. 
• Canon Digital Camera 2.0 software included, plus Adobe Photoshop LE 5.0. 
• Powered by Canon BP-511 rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack, with AC adapter included.