Pixiq

Right, it’s Canon’s turn to assume the mantle of purveyor of dinkiest compact camera now. It’s brand spanking new IXUS 1100 HS (or the Elph 510 HS if you’re in the States, just to be confusing) is only 21.9mm deep, making it the thinnest compact currently available. They’ve still managed to squeeze a 28mm wide-angle lens with 12× optical zoom into the stainless steel body, and place an 8cm touchscreen on the back, too.

Given its skinniness and its zoom capbility, Canon has introduced a new image stabilisation system to help reduce blurriness. The new system automatically selects from seven (yes 7: Normal IS, Dynamic IS, Powered IS, Panning IS, Macro IS, Tripod mode, Dynamic Macro IS) image stabilisation modes depending on what the camera thinks that you’re shooting and what you need.

If you want to shoot continuously that happens at 3.3 frames per second at full 12 megapixel resolution. You can shoot a bit faster at 7.8 frames per second if you drop the resolution to 3 megapixels. Of course it makes videos, too, because all cameras have to now. There’s full HD (1080p) or Super Slow Motion Movie mode, which shoos VGA resolution video at 120 frames per second. You can watch those HD videos on your HD TV via the HDMI port, but you will need your own cable.

That touchscreen? It has touch focusing and touch shutter release. Swipe your finger across it and you can access different settings.

Its range of de rigueur in-camera effects includes miniature, super vivid, poster, fish-eye, toy camera, or monochrome. There’s also a multi-aspect shooting option, so you can create square or ridiculously long and thin pictures.

Anything else? Oh yes, availability. From mid October, at around £369 (€429), in red, black, or silver.