The good: Solid build quality; face detection useful for posed shots; optical image stabilization; compatible with a wide range of accessories; accepts SDHC memory cards.

The bad: Plastic tube holding the lens; no 28mm wide-angle lens; slower F2.8 compared with F2.0 on the G6; no RAW support; unusable pictures at ISO 1,600.

The bottom line: The Canon PowerShot G7 acts as a good second camera for professionals or for those who want to have manual controls on a relatively compact shooter.

Read full review of the Canon PowerShot G7 »

By Damian Koh, CNET Asia
Oct 17, 2006

The Canon PowerShot G7 was announced prior to Photokina 2006 at a time when everyone thought the Japanese company had killed the G-series. To most people's surprise, the G7 was one of the four Canons at the launch graced with the new Digic III imaging processor. One of the main features was the new Face Detection engine. So how revved up is this G7?

Design
The PowerShot G7 looks every bit like that film camera you discarded some years back. The black chassis gives the shooter a classy feel and a retro shutter button reminiscent of the past completes the whole makeup.

	The plastic tube holding the extending lens felt like the same material used for a high school telescope project.

Clearly, the G7 isn't for everyone, especially those who want to slip it into their pockets. Throw the 106 x 72 x 43mm, 356g shooter at someone and he might think you're hurling a brick in his direction. That said, the size and build of the G7 does give it a very solid feel and make it one of the smaller prosumer cameras out there. One thing that didn't go down well with us was the plastic tube holding the extending lens. It felt like the same material a high school student would use to make a simple telescope for his astronomy project.

You get two control dials on the top edge--one for shooting modes and another for ISO selection. There's a hotshoe on the G7 so you can attach an external Speedlight EX flash unit (220EX, 430EX and 580EX) for more light. Like the PowerShot S80 and the EOS 30D, the G7 comes with a scroll wheel to navigate the camera's menu system and settings. All the buttons and controls on the G7 are clearly labeled and responsive. Our only quibble is the four-directional keys within the scroll wheel which are a tad too small. Depending on how you hold your camera, you may end up with accidental presses.

Canon did away with the swivel LCD screen on the G7, so if that's the main reason you're buying a camera you're better off with the PowerShot S3 IS. Otherwise the 2.5-inch panel has a wide-viewing angle and we could still see our pictures even under harsh sunlight. Alternatively, you can peep through the optical viewfinder though it would have been a bonus if we could see camera status information through this window as well.

	The AV-out and USB connectors are on the right of the unit behind a hinged lid where your palm rests.

You can find the compartment for the Lithium-ion battery and memory card on the bottom edge of the G7 like most other shooters. The camera shuts down when the compartment is opened, even if you are in the middle of a shoot. What's interesting is that when reactivated, it returns to whatever state it was in, for example at 6x telephoto setting, so you can continue shooting where you left off.

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