The successor to last year's successful entry-level PowerShot A460, the new 7.1 megapixel A470 model has undergone a striking external makeover, matched dramatically by a number of key internal enhancements. The PowerShot A470 is a stylish and compact model, that is available in four different color accents - blue, red, orange and gray - over a contoured metallic finish body that highlights the camera's new design and reflects the camera user's individuality, personality and taste.

Ideal for first time camera-users, the PowerShot A470 features a 3.4X (38mm - 132mm equivalent) optical zoom lens, 2.5-inch LCD, and various user-friendly exposure modes. Despite being an entry-level camera, the A470 offers more creative control with manual overrides for ISO speed, exposure compensation and white balance.

Canon's Genuine Face Detection Technology automatically detects, tracks, focuses and optimizes the exposure on up to nine forward looking human faces in the frame or can lock onto a specific face in the crowd, ensuring that all (or one) are in focus and properly exposed, with or without flash. While the Face Detection algorithm automatically prioritizes up to nine human faces in a scene, it can also be instructed via the Face Select and Track function to lock on to a single face in the crowd, ensuring that the chosen subject is finely focused, no matter where it appears in the frame.

Canon's innovative Motion Detection technology consolidates motion information for both the camera and the photographic subject and determines whether the subject has moved and what, if any, adjustments to focus or exposure needs to be made. It will even detect and assess subject movement between each frame, making it quicker and easier to capture a series of images. Additionally, when paired with Canon's Optical Image Stabilization system - offered on the PowerShot A590 IS camera among other PowerShot models - the motion detection system's onboard vibration-detecting gyro senses and compensates for movement due to camera shake, even if the subject remains still.

The "brain" in every new Canon digital camera from the PowerShot A-series to the EOS Pro models is the exclusive DIGIC III imaging processor. This proprietary chip is responsible for the cameras' higher performance levels including faster start up, faster autofocus and quicker shutter response times that leave long lag competitors far behind. What's more, DIGIC III improves both the image quality and the cameras' power consumption, extending the battery life under typical shooting conditions.

Powershot A470 Features:

• 7-Megapixel CCD imager and 3.4x optical zoom lens
• Widescreen still photo option, create images that are ideal for 16:9 viewing
• 2.5" color LCD display with 100% frame coverage
• Advanced TTL AiAF 9-point autofocus system with focus-assist lamp
• Canon's Genuine Face Detection Technology
• Auto, 10 Scenes and a Manual exposure mode
• Movie mode w/sound 640x480/320x240 (Max clip size up to 4GB or 60 minutes)
• Continuous shooting at 1.9fps to the capacity of the memory card
• Evaluative, Center-weighted average or Spot metering
• Exposure compensation: +/-2EV in 1/3-step increments
• White Balance: Auto, 5 presets or Custom
• My Colors: Vivid Color, Neutral, Sepia, B&W, and Custom color
• Shutter speeds of 15 to 1/2000 second
• Selectable ISO settings from 80 to 1600
• Runs on two standard AA type batteries
• Direct print and PictBridge Compliant
• USB 2.0 connectivity for PC and Mac
• Secure Digital/MMC card storage, 32MB MMC supplied

The PowerShot A470 digital camera will be available in March and will carry and estimated selling price of US$129.99. The digital camera kit includes the PowerShot A470 Body, AA-size Alkaline Battery (x2), SD Memory Card SDC-32M, Wrist Strap WS-800, Digital Camera Solution CD-ROM, USB Interface Cable IFC-400PCU, AV Cable AVC-DC300.