The PowerShot SX10 IS is equipped with a 20x optical zoom lens with a focal length of 5.0-100mm (35mm film equivalent: 28-560mm) that allows you to shoot any scene from wide-angle to telephoto. The camera uses a VCM (Voice Coil Motor) for high-speed, quiet, energy-efficient lens movement with precise control. Focal length is conveniently indicated on the lens barrel.

The lens is optimized to fully exploit its zoom length and wide shooting angle in concert with the camera’s high 10.0-megapixel resolution. UD glass effectively suppresses chromatic aberration, while enhanced negative refractive power ensures that distortion at the wide-angle is also corrected. Further aberration is controlled with the inclusion of a double-sided aspherical glass-molded lens and ultra-high refraction index lens.

Keeping a mostly similar design to the S5, the SX10 follows in its footsteps as a very comfortable to hold and shoot camera, retaining perks like the articulated LCD and four AA-powered operation. It’s a little heavier, 1.5 pounds, which makes it feel like a dSLR, but the big grip gives you plenty of holding room. While it offers the same set of manual, semimanual, and automatic controls, they’re differently designed and laid out. Gone is the multifunction power switch, leaving a plain old button in its wake. Now you have a more traditional button to jump into review mode; it sits near the indented thumb rest on the back, joined by the exposure compensation and focus area selection buttons. Unfortunately, the labels, light blue on gray, are pretty difficult to see in dim light and can be obscured by the glare off the iridescent plastic in bright.

On the right side of the back is a dial concentric to a four-way navigation switch with the function button in the middle. Canon uses this control layout for some of its recent compact point-and-shoots, and in many ways it’s a vast improvement over the S5′s configuration. But while I generally like the controls, the dial feels too mushy. It doesn’t respond appropriately, and it feels like it needs to spin too far or not as far for any given operation. As a result, for example, I frequently overshot desired shutter speeds. Perhaps it just takes more getting used to than I had time for, but it really feels like it needs better tactile feedback. The zoom switch didn’t feel terribly exact either. While that’s a typical problem with stepped zooms (these lenses don’t really cover a continuous zoom range, instead stopping at a series of preset distances), the SX10′s felt even less accurate than usual, likely because of the wide range it has to cover. I expect to see this problem even more as we test this year’s 24x and 26x lenses.