01/13/09: Here is the usual introduction.. This is a short hands-on review, and you won't see any technical charts here. Theresa and I love photography and shoot Canon dSLR, only because we've made a substantial investment in lenses. We currently (mostly) shoot with 30D and 40D bodies, and we know how to use our gear, but our priorities are creative possibilities, fun, and great memories.
We put low noise at high ISO way before pixel count, and we love fast lenses that let us shoot with less noise at higher speed and less light.
Our love for toys made us add the Canon SX10 to our quiver. By now, we've put the camera through the usual, real-life situations during a short trip to New Hampshire. We used it in bright (snow), perfect and low-light (romantic dinner) conditions, and just lived with it (and about 15 pounds of other gear) for a few days.
The report card:
It looks and feels like a dSLR, but it's about 1/3 smaller, and weighs about half (dSLR w/ Tokina 11-16mm lens). Given it's weight and bulkiness, you won't be using it as a pocket camera, or be carrying it around in your purse – you'll need a small backpack.
Pros
- Lens - 20x zoom with Optical Image stabilization and reasonably fast (f2.8 W – f5.8 T)
- Memory – SD/SDHC cards are inexpensive and practical. It is also nice that memory comes with its own little door on the side of the body, so you don't have to open that battery door.
- Video capabilities – MOV format (great if you have a Mac) perfectly reasonable, better quality then our 7 year old camcorders. If you're looking at SD camcorders, this camera will do both still and moving pictures very well. It will also let you take advantage of that zoom lens while shooting (not sure you can find a camcorder w/ 20x optical image stabilization at this price point).
- Flash hot-shoe – given the low-light performance of the camera, I'd highly recommend an external flash.
- Macro capabilities – you can press the lens glass against the subject in super macro mode, ..so be careful.
- Face detection – I don't care much for these things, but it works really well in different angles.
- Flip-out screen – I like the flip-out functionality, because it lets me put the camera on the ground and still be able to see what I'm shooting, without putting my neck into a spasm.
Cons
- LCD screen – it should be bigger, especially given that nobody will confuse this thing for a pocket-size camera.
- Control wheel – taken from the dSLR line, but poorly executed. It doesn't have the feel or precision of the dSLR relative, and that's unfortunate.
- Electronic viewfinder – I find it completely useless. I wish that they'd used that space to fit the camera with a bigger screen.
- Poor low-light performance – anything above ISO 200 will have noticeable noise. ISO 400 is still quite usable, but ISO 800 is a joke. Haven't tried ISO 1600, and I don't think I need to.
- Lens cap – bad design makes it fall off all the time, and you'll have a hard time fitting it on in the first place.
Conclusion:
10 Mega Pixels (thank you Canon for not making it 17MP), nice feel, and lots of manual control for tweaking, make this camera an excellent tool for learning photography. While not as large as a digital SLR, it's still big enough to be noticed - definitely not a pocket camera.
You can take great pictures with this camera, especially if you don't do a lot of low-light shooting, and if you do, a good external flash will go a long way (or make sure you have a perfectly steady subject and use long exposure).
If I had to think of a target audience for this model, it would be teenagers who want to push their creative side and learn about digital photography, but don't have access to dSLRs and expensive lenses.
We'll keep bringing this camera with us almost exclusively for its 20x lens w/ optical IS, and we'll experiment more with the super macro mode. The fun factor is there.
Now, when we go out to dinner, or any place where the light may be tricky and we don't want to carry our dSLRs, ....we'll make sure to bring our FujiFilm FinePix F30 which takes great pictures at ISO800.
Sample pictures will be uploaded shortly. 
