Canon PowerShot G1 X

The Canon PowerShot G1 X may look like the company's existing G-series compacts, but is a very different prospect. It's a large sensor camera with a flexible 28-112mm-equivalent, 4x zoom lens and extensive manual controls. The company says it sees it as a camera for photographers who already have a high end DSLR such as a 5D Mark II or 7D, but at a price of $799, we think it'll appeal much more widely than that. After repeated waves of cameras aimed at point-and-shoot upgraders, it's heartening to see a camera really living up to the billing of a 'serious compact.' The sensor in the G1 X is 18.7 x 14mm, which means it's 20% smaller than the sensors Canon uses in most of its DSLRs. However it's slightly larger than the Four Thirds size used by Olympus and Panasonic, and more than 4x the area of the Fujifilm X10's sensor. Noticeably, its pixel count is also around 20% lower than the 18MP chips in those cameras - supporting Canon's assertion that its design is closely related, with the same underlying pixel design. This can only bode well, given the high quality results that cameras such as the EOS 7D can produce.