The "heart" of the Pro90 is Canon's new 10x optical 7-70mm (37-370mm in 35mm film equivalent) zoom lens featuring a shift-type Image Stabilizer (IS) system. The motorized zoom is controlled by turning a ring located at the end of the lens. The zoom mechanism does not actuate until the ring has been turned one way or the other for about half a second.

Located on the side of the lens barrel is the Image Stabilizer on/off switch and the MF button to enable manual focusing. Unless the MF button is depressed the Pro90 uses continuous AF to maintain a steady and constant focus, especially handy when rapidly changing focal lengths.

The lens is all-glass and consists of 13 elements in 10 groups. The maximum aperture is F/2.8 (Wide-angle) to F/3.5 (Telephoto). The focusing range in wide-angle is 10 cm (3.9 in.) to infinity, in telephoto it is 1m (39 in.) to infinity.

The Pro90's lens is threaded for attachment of 58mm filters and accessories such as the LH-DC58 lens hood shown above. Canon also has the WC-DC58 wide-angle lens which converts the wideangle from 37mm to approx. 29.6mm and the Close-up lens 500D to enable shooting as close as 13.4in (34cm) in telephoto with a minimum field of view of just 1.2 x 1.5 inches.

The Pro90 has an intelligent E-TTL flash with 5 control modes; Auto, Red-eye reduction, Flash off, Flash on and Slow Synchro. The flash is automatically "popped up" whenever it is needed.

For greater flash range or the much-prefered effects of bounce flash -- the Pro90 functions in E-TTL with a Canon Speedlite 420EX (shown above) or the 220EX, 380EX or 550EX. External flash units attach easily on the hot shoe flash mount located on top of the camera.

Images can be stored on solid state CompactFlash Type I or II cards available in sizes up to 300MB or you can use an IBM Microdrive (170MB to 1GB.) Canon provides a 16MB CF card with the Pro90 package.

On the left side behind a lift-away flap are the I/O ports. The DIGITAL port is both a serial and high-speed USB connector, the USB cable is supplied, the serial cable is optional. There is a small speaker for audio playback. The DC IN port is for the battery charger / AC power supply. The A/V OUT carries both audio (monoraul) and video (NTSC or PAL switchable).

The Pro90 is powered by a 7.4v 1100MAh Canon BP-511 lithium rechargeable battery pack. This is the same battery used in the PowerShot G1 and EOS D30 cameras and is good for 300 to 800 pictures depending on the use of the flash and color LCD.

The battery is charged in-camera with the supplied charger / AC power supply and can also be charged with the optional Charge Adapter/Car Battery Cable Kit CR-560 in your car, boat or other vehicle with a 12v power outlet.