Canon U.S.A. has excessive been a upper musician in the film besides digital camera markets, number one since its high-quality optics, specialist innovations, besides hyped up product development. Since the beginning of this year (2001), Canon has released a full complement of new digital cameras, all designed and engineered to live up to Canon's competitive standards. On the high end, the PowerShot Pro90 IS incorporates a 3.34-megapixel CCD; 10X optical zoom lens with image stabilization; and no less than 12 (!) EOS-based shooting modes. Canon also introduced two new point-and-shoot dig cams for the amateur market -- the PowerShot A10 and A20 -- identical except for their 1.3- and 2.1-megapixel CCDs, respectively. Canon also came through with two new ELPHs -- the 2.1-megapixel PowerShot S300, with a new retractable 3x zoom lens, and more recently, the PowerShot S110, with the same high-quality chip, but a shorter 2x zoom. The ultimate vacation cameras, Canon added an optional underwater housing (safe to depths of 100 feet) and a dye-sub printer kit, the CP-10 Photo Card Printer, which outputs credit-card-size prints directly from the cameras in less than 60 seconds ($199 list).

Canon's topical codicil is the PowerShot G2. One of the other day of 4-megapixel dig cams, the PowerShot G2 is an beautiful optimization to Canon's acknowledged G1 model, introduced almost year ago. The G2 offers an effectual affiliate of automatic and manual controls, with a full Auto mode for point-and-shoot simplicity, three preset scene modes for specific shooting situations, and a full Manual mode that allows the user to select from five ISO equivalents and eight white balance settings, set the aperture and shutter speed, determine spot or center-weighted metering, and adjust image contrast, sharpness, and color saturation in-camera. Its improved manual focus function features an automatic spot enlargement area, plus an on-screen distance scale to make focusing clear and simple. You can even select which portion of the image will determine focus and spot metering readings! At less than $900, the PowerShot G2 is sure to be a hit with professionals, corporate users, advanced amateurs, and even beginning photographers who want a high-quality camera they can grow into.


Features

• 4-megapixel CCD delivering image resolutions as high as 2,272 x 1,704 pixels. (3.87 mega pixels effective) 
• Real-image optical viewfinder and 1.8-inch, color LCD monitor with swivel design. 
• 3x optical zoom, 7-21mm lens (equivalent to a 34-102mm lens on a 35mm camera) with auto and manual focus. 
• Three user-selectable focus points. 
• Digital telephoto as high as 3.6x. 
• Full Automatic, Program AE, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual exposure modes, as well as four preset exposure modes. 
• Manually adjustable aperture settings from f/2 to f/8, depending on zoom setting. 
• Manually adjustable shutter speed settings from 1/1,000 to 15 seconds. 
• Variable light sensitivity: Auto, 50, 100, 200, or 400 ISO equivalents. 
• Center-Weighted Average and Spot metering modes, with an adjustable Spot area. 
• White Balance adjustment with eight settings. 
• Built-in flash with five operating modes. 
• External flash hot shoe. 
• Continuous Shooting, Stitch-Assist, Auto Exposure Bracketing, and Movie recording modes. 
• Contrast, Sharpness, and Saturation adjustment. 
• Vivid Color, Normal Color, B&W, and Sepia options. 
• Remote control and utilities for operating 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, 32MB card included. 
• DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) compatibility. 
• USB cable for high-speed connection to a computer. 
• Canon Digital Camera 6.0 software included. 
• Powered by Canon BP-511 rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack, with AC adapter included.