Canon’s PowerShot V10 is a vlogging-centric callback to outdated Flip Video cams

Canon is lastly entering into the vlogging digital camera area, and it’s doing so with a unusual new point-and-shoot geared towards a senseless “set-it-and-forget-it” crowd I’m unsure exists. The $429.99 Canon PowerShot V10 is an cute little digital camera in regards to the measurement of an extra-thick deck of playing cards that packs a hard and fast 19mm equal f/2.8 lens and marries it to a 20.9-megapixel one-inch-type sensor. 

It information 4K at as much as 30 fps and is geared towards filming your self with an articulating display, entrance and rear document buttons, stereo mics with a 3.5mm mic jack, a Micro HDMI port,  digital picture stabilization, and a kickstand for propping it up. It’s anticipated to launch in June.

What makes the V10 fascinating is its throwback design, which jogs my memory a bit of of these historical Flip Video cameras. And like these long-dead cameras, when held upright, it movies horizontally, which makes it appear extra fitted to YouTube content material creation than TikTok or Instagram Reels. You’ll be able to flip it sideways for vertical recording, in fact, however the built-in kickstand isn’t actually designed to carry it up that manner.

The PowerShot V10 doesn’t have many buttons, because it partially depends on contact controls utilizing its postage stamp of a two-inch 3:2 LCD. Its simplistic providing of controls echoes the V10’s strategy to entry-level content material creation. It’s not a digital camera designed to supply management over each little setting, which is unlucky since that may be useful for freshmen to develop and study with. 

For instance, its ISO vary of 125 to 12,800 in stills mode shouldn’t be even manually selectable, and the digital camera doesn’t help any form of guide focusing. Maybe these are high quality if somebody is just taking on-the-go movies, however the V10’s limitations remind me of the unhealthy outdated days of digital point-and-shoot cameras — the place settings are restricted since you’re to not be trusted or revered sufficient to make use of them appropriately. That ISO vary, by the best way, will get minimize right down to a most of 3200 for 4K filming and 6400 in 1080p. Additionally, the 20.9-megapixel sensor is just utilizing an efficient 13.1 megapixels for video and 15.2 megapixels for stills. Oh, however don’t fear, it’s received 5 ranges of software program pores and skin smoothing.

For the reason that V10 is video-focused, it’s received some handy options like a built-in impartial density filter, and its contrast-based autofocus helps face detection that may sense whenever you’re holding up a product to deal with it. However there’s no eye detection to talk of and no log recording or uncooked seize for photographs, both. You’re restricted to 8-bit recording in Rec.709 shade with MP4 recordsdata. And the V10’s small stature (which weighs simply 211 grams) means it solely helps microSD playing cards, with a built-in 1,250mAh battery that recharges by way of USB-C and tops out at an estimated 55 minutes of 4K video recording.

The V10’s restrictions and omissions might not be deal-breakers when you use the digital camera for moveable vlogging and easy livestreaming and barely ever fear about fine-tuned controls. However content material creators, even freshmen, are usually not silly. Many of those creators are already filming on their very succesful telephones, which does provide some room to develop when you go for third-party equipment like a gimbal or apps like Halide, and making the soar to a devoted digital camera must respect their capabilities and present extra upside than only a bigger sensor to document on.

However since that is the beginning of a brand new line for Canon, maybe it’s simply the primary peek at what’s to return. After I requested Canon if we are able to assume extra vlog-centric cameras are nonetheless to return, Drew MacCallum, senior supervisor of digital camera product planning for Canon USA, stated “completely.” With this new line, Canon appears conscious that vlogging is likely one of the final vestiges for devoted point-and-shoot cameras, so right here’s to hoping future fashions don’t endlessly slip into the identical PowerShot trappings of outdated. There’s a cause most of these varieties of point-and-shoots died off.