With 5-megapixel cameras pro­liferating, Canon’s popular Power­­-Shot G series arrives at the party a bit late. Nonetheless, the $1599 PowerShot G5 keeps Canon’s advanced model competitive with Nikon’s 5000 series and Olympus’s C-5050, both of which shipped months ago.

A 1Mp boost over Canon’s existing G3, the G5 only nominally advances the G series. It retains the boxy-but-efficient design of the G3, along with the same impressive list of exposure specs, including 4X optical zoom, a fast f2 lens, and a comprehensive selection of creative exposure controls. It also preserves one of its predecessor’s least-desirable traits: a lens barrel that intrudes into the corner of the optical viewfinder. Advanced photographers should profit from the G5’s array of esoteric controls (nearly all carryovers from the G3), such as a focus-bracketing option that takes three successive shots at slightly different levels of focus, ensuring you always get the shot — a feature I have yet to see on any other brand of digital camera. New to the G5 is a second custom white-balance setting, which is useful for shooting a series of shots under different light sources. The G5 doesn’t boot up especially quickly, but its combination of numerous well-labelled, dedicated buttons and a dual menu system makes it faster to operate than its rivals.

And lastly, the photographs: my test shots lived up to my high expectations, exhibiting fine detail and subtle, lifelike colouring. Overall, I enjoyed using the G5. That said, satisfied owners of the G3 should skip this update unless they really need the extra megapixel.

In brief

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