Logitech K350

MARCHANDS €     Amazon mark...  40.95  Amazon.co.uk  41.75  Dell for bu...  46.95  John lewis  49.99  Amazon mark...  57.33  Dell for home  64.74  Compare prices

What's more important than a comfortable keyboard if you're going to be using your computer all day long?  Even just a few hours with a bad keyboard can leave you with sore wrists. 

That's why we've tested three models for you: the Arc and the Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 (which also includes a mouse), both from Microsoft, and Logitech's K350.  I'm sure your fingers are already trembling with anticipation …

From Microsoft, the Arc is a small keyboard designed for use on the move, for those times when a full-sized keyboard is too bulky to carry but your laptop keyboard isn't up tot he job.  The Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000 has both a mouse and a keyboard and aims to keep you comfortable if you're going all day.

Logitech is also keen to accentuate the comfort of its K350, which also features the manufacturer's Unifying technology.  You can connect up six keyboards and mice using one wireless dongle, as long they're compatible.

> Test: Microsoft Arc
> Test: Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000
> Logitech K350

> Product Survey: Keyboards

Canon launched its range of cameras for the first half of 2010 today.  There weren't many revolutionary changes on the agenda, but plenty of sensible changes amongst the new models.  There are nine in total, but some of the manufacturer's competitors haven't held back from launching twice that many. 
 
Let's start by looking at one new feature that's found across Canon's new entry-level cameras: 'intelligent' automatic flash.  It doesn't just automatically trigger the flash when light levels are low, but adapts to the current situation: if you're shooting outside but in the shade, it knows to still use the flash to pick out details in a darker areas.  We hope that it will also be automatically turned off when the subject is too far away for it to do any good, something that manufacturers still can't manage, even though other equally easy situations are handled without any intervention from the user.

The other new feature is an intelligent playback mode, which promises to suggest similar photos.  It will examine the photo currently on screen and come up with four others on your memory card that are similar.  We'll see what it's like in real life. 

Less essential, but interesting nonetheless, the new collection is SDXC compatible and can recognise Eye-Fi memory cards.  Finally, Canon has decided to stop including 'Digital' and 'IS' in the model names amongst its Ixus range, given that all of its cameras have been both digital and image-stabilised for years now.

Here are the first new members of the family, which will be available in March:

Canon Ixus 105

Canon Ixus 105

This replaces the Ixus 95 IS and doesn't bring that many surprises with it.  The main improvement is the arrival of a wide-angle lens, which seems very close to the Ixus 120 IS' 4x zoom.  The lens seems to have been to have been downgraded to bring down the cost of an entry-level camera, and we're not complaining about that.

It's an otherwise fairly ordinary 12 Megapixel compact that follows in the footsteps of the rest of the Ixus range: a basic body and more lightweight frame than intermediate models, but still classier than the all-plastic PowerShot A range.

The Ixus 105 will go on sale for £189, which seems a little expensive for a camera that only films at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels.

Canon Ixus 130 MARCHANDS €     Pixmania  93.00  Comet  99.99  Amazon mark...  133.26  Viking direct  149.99  John lewis  179.95  Uk digital ...  199.99  Compare prices

Canon Ixus 130

The Ixus 130 is set to replace the Ixus 120 IS, one of our favourites from last autumn, and so we're very much looking forward to it.

Our first impression was that it's even thinner than its predecessor.  It might sound much on paper (there's just 2 mm between the two models) but you can definitely feel the difference in your hand, and the successful new design really brings out the slim form factor.

We were less impressed by the new zoom control, a tiny little slider next to the shutter release button.  Inspired by Sony cameras like the TX1, it's much less comfortable to use than the traditional ring around the shutter release that has been preserved on the other members of the family.

The tech specs haven't budged, with a 28-112 mm zoom and a 14 Megapixel sensor that has been around for a month that we're very keen to try.

The Ixus 130 will cost £279.

At the same time, Canon will also launch an underwater cover, the DC37.  Capable of reaching depths of forty metres, it's as incredibly small as the camera itself and won't have you stretching your fingers.  There's a mechanism that allows it to tell the camera that it's inside the case, meaning it can automatically adjust the white balancing for shooting underwater.  We don't yet know when the DC37 will be launched or how much it will cost.

Canon Ixus 210 Find the best price

Canon Ixus 210

The 210 is an overhaul of Canon's touchscreen camera, the Ixus 200 IS.  After hesitating over a tricky mixture of virtual and physical controls, Canon has followed the rest and got rid of all of the real buttons.  The back of the Ixus 210 is entirely taken up by a 3.5'', 460 000 pixel display.  You can adjust the icons it displays according to your own preferences.

The lens, though, hasn't changed, and it's the same 24-120 mm model that we approved of in its predecessor.  The new 14 Meagpixel sensor is there, but Canon hasn't gone for a back-illuminated CMOS part like some of its competitors.

What remains to be seen is how much influence this decision will have on consumers.  On sale for £349, the Ixus 210 comes between Sony's TX1 and TX7, which offer two very different options (the former doesn't have wide-angle, while the latter has Full HD video and a VGA screen) but share a slim, stylish frame--and that famous Exmor R sensor.


> Product Survey: Compact Digital Cameras

Canon PowerShot SX210 IS MARCHANDS €     Pixmania  145.00  Amazon.co.uk  152.00  Amazon mark...  170.28  Onestop dig...  185.85  Uk digital ...  189.99  Comet  192.30  Compare prices

A year after its SX200 IS, Canon has announced an updated version of its high-end super-zoom compact camera, logically enough called the PowerShot SX210 IS.  The incremental change in the name hides something of a revolution though, as the new model has very little in common with its predecessor.

Has Panasonic stuck too closely to its winning formula?  That's the question that we're beginning to ask now we've seen more manufacturers' super-zoom offerings for 2010.  The Panasonic TZ10 is actually very similar to the TZ7, with new features including a GPS receiver, updated image treatment and manual exposure settings.

It's up against Samsung and its powerful new WB650, which, for the same price includes a GPS receiver, an AMOLED display and, above all, a 15x zoom.  The difference is less marked in tele photo (360 mm vs 300 mm), but in this part of the market, the zoom is the magic number that consumers want to hear.

Canon, Panasonic's traditional rival, has also decided to try and stand out a little.  For starters, the SX210 IS will go on sale for £349, less than the TZ10.  It also has a more powerful zoom at 28-392 mm, or 14x, with, incidentally, the longest focal length in this part of the market.

Like its competitors, the SX210 IS can film in 720p HD, with stereo sound and zoom both available (something that was missing on the SX200 IS).  But the big news is that Canon has radically altered the style and handling of its camera.

The SX210 IS gets the same zoom control as the Ixus 130.  The mode selection dial is now flat and on the back of the camera, just about the now classic scroll wheel.  Unsurprisingly, the manual and semi-automatic modes still feature.

This layout, which is not unlike the S80 or some Olympus cameras, should make it easier to change the exposure mode more easily, as long as the controls themselves are a little bit less stiff then they were on the prototypes that we've tried out.

The pop-up flash opens as soon as you switch it on, but--hurrah!--you can now also put it away again if it's not needed.  It's much more stylishly integrated with the rest of the camera, and the hinge is hidden by a change in materials.  That design choice speaks to a tendency all over the SX 210 IS: while different parts of the SX200 IS seemed to be stuck on all over, its successor has a much more uniform look.  The controls actually seem to be part of the camera itself, and although the bar along the top of the screen is annoying, at least it looks a little bit less like a spare part.  Despite its 3'' widescreen display, it still only has 230 000 pixels.

Canon seems to resist the siren's call of GPS.  There's no geotagging on the SX210 IS, and although Canon was interested to hear what we thought about this feature, its engineers don't seem in a hurry to add it.

All that remains, of course, is to see what these new features will bring to the table, but on paper at least, the SX210 IS seems more than capable of facing up to the competition.  The distinction could rest on the image quality of the WB600, the lightweight version of the WB650, which will certainly be its closest competitor, as the TZ8 is held back with a zoom of 'just' 12x.

> Product Survey: Compact Digital Cameras

Product Unavailable Our suggested alternatives: Editor's Choice Sony NEX-5N Great for Beginners Panasonic Lumix GF3 + 14 mm Lens Aimed at Experts Olympus Pen E-P3

A compact-sized camera with interchangeable lenses and a 12 Megapixel 4/3 format sensor: haven't we seen that somewhere before?  Yes: Panasonic and Olympus both launched cameras based on that specification last summer.  Now the latter has updated its offering, with the new Pen E-P2, very similar to its predecessor but with a few improvements, including an electronic viewfinder.

Less than six months after the launch of the Pen E-P1, Olympus is back with the E-P2, the latest incarnation of its collection of compact Micro Four-Thirds cameras. 

Not much has changed, and the body, sensor and screen are all exactly the same as before.  The main innovation is the arrival of the adjustable electronic viewfinder, much vaunted by Olympus and capable of focusing using any lens; the E-P1's optical viewfinder was stuck at 17 mm.

> Test: Olympus Pen E-P2

> Product Survey: Digital SLRs and Cameras with Interchangeable Lenses