Canon PowerShot G10 14.7MP Digital Camera - 5x Optical Zoom, 3 inch PureColor LCD II Viewfinder - Black

I use a DSLR (20D and 40D) for 'serious' photographic opportunities (foreign travel, shows etc) but for just about everything else I use a compact for the portability. I want manual control of my camera so I've been using a Canon S80 for the last 3 years and to good effect but when the G10 was announced I became interested, primarily after seeing the sample images that Canon provided but also because it has a 28mm lens and I use wide angle more then telephoto. That's why the S80 was with me for so long: the 28mm lens!
So, my G10 arrived a few days ago and to be honest, despite the hype, I didn't expect to be that impressed. I thought it would be an S80 in a bigger case and with slightly higher resolution (and that's if Canon could pull it off: 14.7 megapixels on a tiny sensor is asking for trouble because of signal noise). Well ... it's amazing. The camera construction is solid but not as bulletproof as I'd been led to believe, however the S80 is very tough so I started high. The G10 is as solid as a low end DSLR excluding the lens assembly so no problem really but it's no 1-Series build. I got lucky and had no dead pixels on the monitor or sensor and my lens is sharp to the edges at 28mm.
In good light, or with flash, the image quality at 80 iso is excellent. It's far better than my old S80 and probably better than my 40D using a 17-85 EF-S lens. Even at 200 iso the images are usable but not noise does creep in. At 400 iso it's still printable but cropping would be unwise. At 800 iso we're into emergency only territory but a print might still work if not too big. After that it's a joke but that's to be expected.
The lens and autofocus are really very good. The AF locks well even in low light (there's a good AF assist lamp) and has a plethora of options including servo (full time focussing for moving objects and face recognition. All the usual SLR modes are present and more. The monitor is great and has a handy focus zoom mode that zooms the center of the monitor into the focus point when the shutter is half depressed allowing a focus precision check. This is optional by the way.
The G10 is fast and responsive compared to an S80. It's not as fast as my 40D but that's to be expected. Power on to lens deployment is very quick though.
The flash is actually quite good to my surprise. It doesn't blow the exposure as badly as compacts I've used before and feels like there's some 'intelligence' behind it. I've been getting good facial images with flash in low light that my S80 wouldn't go near. Note that there's a hot-shoe for a Speedlite but I've not had time to affix mine to test it yet.
The G10 has a vast number of options and modes. I've been messing about with the colour accent mode today. I can select a single colour in the image to appear in a mono (black & white) picture. I had a friend with a red umbrella posing and only the umbrella is in colour. As a compositional tool this is quite amusing. There's far more available: all the usual scene modes (Fireworks/Portrait/Landscape etc) and some novelties. More importantly the user can bypass all the automatic systems and work in full manual or a priority mode thereby having a photographic tool at their disposal.
RAW is possible as is (amazingly for a compact) RAW + JPEG.
Facial recognition mode works well. The G10 will lock onto faces in the scene and set itself accordingly to maximise the possibility of getting the faces right.
It has a shadow processing mode that I've not tried: it'll try and pull the detail out of dark areas in the image. Clever but I'd prefer to do that in PhotoShop myself.
Real time red-eye reduction is also an option. This is the computer spotting red eye in the capture image and trying to remove it rather than a pre-capture optical approach like flash strobing. Again, I'd rather use PhotoShop but in an emergency perhaps ...
I could go and on (you probably think I already have) but my summary is that the G10 is a great camera for the price and suitable for beginners to professionals to use as a primary (beginners) or backup (pros). In good light it'll keep up with most other cameras (with the possible exception of DOF control) and in poor light you'll be needing the flash.
Oh, and it fits perfectly in a Lowepro APEX 60 AW case.
Very very recommended!

There is a current fixation with noise performance in cameras, largely due to the low noise of recent Nikon D-SLRs like the D300. It seems that every camera that is released now is rated for noise as the be all and end all. I bought the G10 (not from Amazon, from a pro dealer) because I wanted a camera I could take with me when the weight and size of my Canon D-DLR was too great - for example when commuting to work or when out and about in general. I wanted something reasonably small, tough, and with enough control to over-ride the automatic settings easily.

The G10 is perfect for me because it fulfills all of these requirements. It's styled like a rangefinder and looks like a serious camera, not a toy. The higher resolution LCD is great, startup is very quick and it handles beautifully - having an exposure compensation dial to hand is so much better than navigating menus. Also the 5x zoom from 28mm wide is arguably more useful than the telephoto oriented lens on the G9. It's not a camera you can shove in your trouser pocket but it has a nice weight and decent grip for larger hands like mine.

The resolution of pictures in RAW mode at 100 ISO is excellent. I've seen comments elsewhere stating that ISO 200 is "far too noisy". It depends - if you under expose or have dense shadow areas then you can detect some noise at 100% but bear in mind that with 14.7MP, zooming in to 100% is a very small area of the picture; prints up to A4 size should be fine. If you're willing to spend this amount of money on a compact to act as backup to an SLR then chances are you're also using Photoshop (note comments below) and possibly plug-ins such as Noise Ninja to deal with these issues at up to ISO400. The fact is that until compacts with APS sized sensors are widespread - if ever - the tiny sensors used currently will always have a worse noise level than an SLR. I rarely ever shoot above ISO 100-200, using a tripod if necessary. Plus the built-in anti-shake on the G10 allows handheld shots at shutter speeds down to 1/15th second.

The bottom line is this: if you regularly *need* to handhold the camera in low light situations and don't want to use flash (remember the G10 has a hot shoe to use external flashguns, including those with off-camera cords) then the G10 is probably not the camera for you, try the Sigma DP-1 or Panasonic DMC-LX3. On the other hand if you want a robust, high quality camera for all-round photography then I highly recommend it. There are two annoyances I have found, only one of which is Canon's fault. Firstly there is no full manual or memory card in the box - there is a Getting Started guide but unless you're a complete idiot it doesnt tell you much you couldn't work out for yourself. The full manual is supplied as a PDF on CD - not exactly portable.

The second annoyance is with regard to Photoshop. Adobe have just announced the latest release of Camera Raw for Photoshop, including RAW conversion codes for several new cameras...but not the G10. This is apparently the last release of RAW converters for Photoshop CS3 - which means that if I want to edit RAW files in Photoshop and not the supplied Digital Photo Professional (which is very basic in comparison) I also need to fork out £150 to upgrade to CS4. Adobe should continue to support the previous version of their current software, not force people to upgrade.

UPDATE 28/10/08
I've just downloaded the latest Camera Raw update for Photoshop CS4 and it includes the conversion data for the latest cameras including the G10 and 5D Mk II. As suspected, it's not compatible with CS3 but Elements users are luckier - the update is available for Elements 6 and 7.

I purchased the G10 as a replacement for my G9. The G10 is a definite improvement on its predecessor - the wider zoom more than compensates for a slightly shorter telephoto and the image quality especially at lower ASA settings is superb. The images become noisier at higher ASA settings, but who really cares - the kind of situations where you require such settings are unlikely to be those where a little noise matters. The 3 inch screen is quite simply superb - easily the best I have come across and an improvement on the previous model. I've compared it to so-called super zooms - they are bulky, have poorer image quality and lens speed and who really needs a 12 - 18x zoom anyway. The immediate competition is the Panasonic LX3 - I found the 24 mm - 50mm range too restrictive. The 15MP resolution is also useful, allowing tight cropping while still producing high quality A4 size prints. And finally - this is a really robust camera - it feels solid and substantial; the extra weight over some competitors isn't a problem and in fact makes it easier to grip. Couldn't recommend more