PowerShot S60

If your number one priority for a digital camera is that it doesn't pull your breast pocket down to belly button level, you'll want to skip the Canon PowerShot S60. Although it has the typical oblong shape of a point-and-shoot and weighs less than its predecessor, the PowerShot S50, it comes in at 230g--on the heavy side for this class of camera. On the other hand, if you're looking for a rugged camera that has extensive controls but can still easily fit a large coat pocket or small bag, the S60 is a great choice.

The most obvious change between the S50 and S60 is the colour: with this model, Canon abandoned the S50's black body treatment and returns to the brushed-silver tone of its other point-and-shoot PowerShots.

The S60 retains the five megapixel CCD of the S50 but has a longer zoom lens (3.6X, up from 3X) that starts out at the equivalent of 28mm, rather than 35mm. A novel feature added to the S60 is an underwater white-balance setting, handy if you want to surround your S60 with Canon's optional waterproof case.

The S60 also carries on its predecessor's ability to capture beautiful photos. It did a particularly fine job on our outdoor shots, displaying excellent colour and contrast.

The S60 has the extensive controls you'd likely expect from high-end cameras such as its much larger cousin, the PowerShot G5. In addition to manual white-balance calibration, full manual exposure control and shutter and aperture-priority modes, the S60 offers image bracketing, allows you to adjust flash output level manually and can capture images in RAW format.

It also has a great panorama mode and an illuminator to aid focusing in low light. Though neither of those is unique, the S60's overall breadth of features permits it to address many photographic situations that other point-and-shoots can't.

The S60 took 233 shots in our tests before the battery expired, providing slightly more than two hours of life.