Battery Compartment

The battery fits into a compartment in the base of the hand grip. The battery is held in place with a small brown spring clip, just rotate it slightly and the battery will pop out. The G5 (just like previous G series and current EOS-Dxx/10D) takes the Canon BP-511 (or BP-512; same capacity) Lithium-Ion battery pack which is rated at 7.4 V, 1100 mAh (8 Wh).

The battery pack charges in-camera using the supplied AC adapter / charger which simple plugs into the side of the camera. The orange lamp on the viewfinder flashes during charging and goes steady once fully charged. Optional double battery charger / car charger can also be purchased.

Compact Flash Compartment

Behind a plastic compartment door is the Compact Flash slot. The G5 can take both CF Type I and II cards and is fully compatible with the 340 MB, 512 MB and 1 GB IBM Microdrive. If the compartment door is opened while the camera is on the camera will shutdown, if there are any images still being written to the Compact Flash card a loud tone will sound until complete. Note also that the G5 supports cards with capacities above 2 GB.

Connections

The G5 has a neat hinged plastic door covering its connectors. Inside are the DC-IN, USB and A/V Out connectors. Note that the supplied USB cable can be used to direct print to compatible Canon printers. It's good to see a neater solution to the connector cover problem, at least on this Canon.

Lens

The G5 has a four times optical zoom lens with an equivalent zoom range of 35 to 140 mm and a fairly respectable maximum aperture of F2.0 at wide angle, F3.0 at telephoto. Compared to other lenses from 'the competition' the G5's is the fastest (largest maximum aperture) and also has the largest magnification at telephoto (but only slightly). Additional lens converters (wide angle or telephoto) can be added by removing the bayonet-style lens ring and attaching the LA-DC58B conversion lens adapter (provides a 58 mm thread).

Lenses compared (all Prosumer, 5 mp, 4x zoom)

Base / Tripod Mount

On the base of the camera is a metal tripod mount, and yet again it's not positioned in line with the lens but then again is at least far enough away from the battery compartment to make it possible to change the battery with the camera on a tripod. There is sufficient area around the mount (front to back) to provide firm attachment of most tripod quick release plates.

Remote Control

Supplied with the camera is this handy Infrared remote control, with a 5 m range it can be used to remotely fire the shutter release, control the zoom and other menu options or as a control for playback (say of a slideshow on a TV screen) with thumbnail, zoom and DISPLAY buttons also available. Kudos for the inclusion of this useful accessory.

Internal Flash / Auto Focus Assist Lamp

The G5's internal ultra-slim flash unit has a specified range of 0.7 - 5.0 m (2.3 - 16.4 ft) at wide angle and 0.7 - 4.0 m (2.3 - 13.1 ft) at telephoto. The AF assist lamp can be seen on the left side of this image, it provides a bright white illumination in low light situations, this helps the camera's auto focus system to lock onto the subject. The AF assist lamp can be disabled.

Flash Hot-shoe

The G5 has a fully wired E-TTL hot-shoe mounted on the top of the camera. This allows for full compatibility with a range of Canon Speedlite: 220EX, 380EX, 420EX, 550EX, MR-14EX / 24EX Macro Lite and also non-TTL use of other flash / studio systems. Click here to see a rather top-heavy looking PowerShot G5 with Canon's 550EX Speedlite.

Supplied In the Box

The contents of the retail box are: • Canon PowerShot G5 Digital Camera • BP-511 Lithium-Ion battery • CA-560 AC adapter/charger (110-240V) • 32 MB CompactFlash card • WL-D100 IR Remote Control • Lens cap & string • Shoulder strap • USB & AV cable • Canon Solutions CD-ROM • ArcSoft PhotoStudio & VideoImpression • User Manual

Canon Accessories

Battery Pack BP-511 (or BP-512)	Charger Adapter/ Car Battery Cable Kit CR-560	Soft Case SC-DC10
Wide Converter WC-DC58N *	Tele-converter TC-DC58N *	Close-up Lens 250D (58mm) *
Compact EX-series Speedlites Speedlite 220EX, Speedlite 420EX, Speedlite 550EX	Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX *	Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX *

* Require Conversion Lens Adapter LA-DC58B
** Partial list