Digital Home Thoughts: Canon's 'Girly' PowerShot E1 Reviewed

"The Canon PowerShot E1 is the newest addition to the company's popular PowerShot line, within which it represents the starting point of an entirely new sub-range, allegedly "designed by women for women". The main point of differentiation is a curvaceous design complemented by hip colours - the E1 is available in an eye-catching pink, cyan and white. The Canon E1 also features a 10 megapixel sensor, a 4x zoom lens with optical image stabilisation, a 2.5" LCD screen, an optical viewfinder, Face Detection, 17 shooting modes including VGA video capture at 30fps, an Infinity Focus mode for enhanced responsiveness and a Macro mode that lets you focus on subjects that are just 3cms away from the front lens element. Retailing for $199.99 / £159.99 on launch, Zoltan Arva-Toth found out if the Canon PowerShot E1 also appeals to the male photographer..."

Designed by women for women? Well, these definitely do look different from any other camera I've seen - but will they appeal to woman? I think so - I could see my wife liking the design, though I think for any woman the ease of use and ease of carrying matter more than the colour. The buttons look like they're a reasonable size, which might be a result of feedback - I know some of the buttons on my point and shoot cameras are so small it would be hard for anyone with nails to manipulate them. Of course, not all woman have long nails, so not every woman would care about that. Gee, it's hard to generalize about a gender isn't it?