Physical Tour

The Canon PowerShot SX10 IS is on the larger end of the point-and-shoot spectrum, with a substantial external lens and hand grip. It's certainly not going to fit into your jean pocket at 4.88 x 3.48 x 3.42 inches (124.0 x 88.3 x 86.9mm) and 19.8 ounces (560g). The trade-off, of course, is that you get an impressive 20x optical zoom. We were a bit disappointed, though, by the smallish 2.5-inch LCD display.

Front

The front of the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS is dominated by the large fixed lens, which projects out of the body several inches even when fully retracted. The 20x optical zoom lens boasts a focal length of 5.0-100mm and an aperture of f/2.8 - f/5.7. Just above the lens sits the pop-up flash. Between the flash and the lens are left and right microphones for stereo video recording. Just above and to the right of the lens is the auto focus assist lamp. The left side of the front is dominated by the hand grip, which also juts out from the main body of the camera. 

The front is dominated by the 20x optical zoom lens.

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Back

On the back most of the space is dominated by the LCD, which was disappointingly small at only 2.5 inches in size. The LCD can be folded out and rotated. Above and to the left of the lens is a shortcut key that can be assigned to a function of your choice. During playback this doubles as the Print button. Directly above the LCD is the digital viewfinder. To the right sits a dedicated Record button for video capture.

The back doesn't have as many buttons and dials as you might expect.

To the right of the LCD are the main controls, a 4-way surrounded by a rotating dial. The 4-way gives you quick access to Manual Focus (up), Macro (left), ISO (right) and Burst Mode or Self-timer (down). Pressing in on the center select button will give you the Function Set menu, while the dial provides different setting controls depending on your current mode and menu selection. Below the 4-way sit the Display and Menu buttons.

At the top right of the back are three buttons that are easily reached with your right hand when holding the camera. From the top these are Play, Exposure Compensation and AF Frame Selector. The latter two double up as Erase and Jump buttons when in playback mode. 

Sides*

The left side of the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS has an eyelet at the top to run one side of a neck strap through. This eyelet is mirrored on the right side. The only other feature on the left side is a speaker for video playback.

From the left side you can see how far the lens extends.*

****On the right side you'll find three plastic covers behind which are all of the connections and ports of the camera. The top right cover reveals the A/V out and DC in. To the left is a separate cover for the USB port and below that the cover for the memory card slot.

*The right side shows the grip that your right hand will wrap around.

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Top

The top of the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS doesn't have as many dials as the Canon G10 does, and is slightly different than the SX5. At the far left there is a lonely Flash/Microphone button. To the right is the hot shoe for adding your own flash. To the right of that is the mode dial. Sitting on the hand grip at the far right are the On/Off button near the back and the Shutter button with associated Zoom toggle near the front.

The hot shoe for an external flash is on top.

Bottom

All you'll find on the bottom of the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS are the tripod mount and the battery cover, which has a release switch.

Battery door and tripod mount are the only things on the bottom.