Canon Digital Ixus Wireless digital camera

Can Canon blow away its rivals in the wireless war?

Following Kodak and Nikon's Wi-Fi efforts, Canon is jumping on the wireless wagon with a snapper that eliminates the misery of having to hook up cables whenever you want to transfer snaps... and boy, is it a looker.

With two wireless cameras already out there, Canon is playing catch-up, but it's given it time to get its styling bang-on. The come-hither glint of the satin metal finish will cause many a would-be David Bailey to fill their trousers (with this camera, we mean) and even the wireless aerial is turned into a feature, nestling on the side like the spoiler on a boy racer's Golf.

Plug the supplied wireless dongle into any PictBridge printer and you can beam across images in seconds. Transmitting to a PC requires installing some software, then inputting your network's name and security settings. Downloading is then a doddle, with each five-megapixel snap taking about six seconds to transfer.

The camera itself is a breeze to use. The two-inch screen is not touch sensitive and it's smaller than most these days, but few screens can match its low-light performance and bright colours.

There are enough photo tweaks and scene modes for high-class point-and-shoot snapping, and while the 3x zoom suffers from a touch of distortion, it's always sharp. Five-megapixel photos are bright, accurate and natural-looking, with flash photos particularly good.

A superb, easy-to-use camera, then, but one hamstrung by its price. For £70 less, you can get a Nikon P1 that's nearly as user-friendly, has more creative features, faster Wi-Fi transfers and three more megapixels. Canon has waited just too long to leap on this bandwagon.