Canon PowerShot G7

Announced in September 2006, the G7 came as something of a surprise to many who had written off the G series of high end PowerShots when the G6 (launched 2004) wasn't replaced for 2 years. The G series has a long and distinguished history at the top of Canon's PowerShot range, offering SLR-like functionality in a solid, compact body and high-end features such as fast lenses and external flash capabilities. The G7 continues the tradition, adding all Canon's latest gizmos (including the new Digic III processor, face detection and image stabilization), though the loss of raw modeand vari-angle screen upset many (it returned in later models). Although capable of excellent results, it was a little too buggy to really impress, and its successors are all better cameras.