Lake Success, N.Y. – Canon announced last week that it will ship its 5-megapixel PowerShot G5 digital camera this month, for a suggested retail price of $899.
The G5 is geared toward the more sophisticated photographer and features a 4x optical/4x digital zoom lens that also provides macro focusing down to 2 inches. Other features include 12 EOS system-based shooting modes, a Wide-Area FlexiZone AF/AE system which allow users to focus on off-center subjects without repositioning the camera and three metering systems, including spot metering. An Intelligent Orientation Sensor t automatically rotates images for proper viewing during playback.
Consistent with Canon’s other PowerShot cameras, the G5 has a Direct Connect print function that allows printing without a computer using Canon’s line of dye-sublimation and Bubble Jet printers.
The G5 also features a 3-mode built-in flash with red-eye reduction and first or second curtain sync. The flash can be operated manually or automatically.
The camera also employs Canon’s DIGIC image processor. According to Canon, DIGIC enables the company’s exclusive iSAPS (an acronym for Intelligent Scene Analysis based on Photographic Space) technology that improves picture quality by ‘predicting’ certain camera settings like focusing distance, exposure and optimum white balance based on zoom focal length, overall light level and tonal distribution data. With iSAPS, the PowerShot G5 can analyze a scene just before the image is made thereby increasing the speed and precision of the camera’s autofocus, auto exposure and auto white balance features.
The G5 ships with a 32MB CompactFlash Card and theBP-511 Lithium-Ion rechargeable battery.
