Considering the wider market, with pressures coming from the cheaper LX3, and with low end digital SLRs getting cheaper all the time, it is hard to see who the G10 audience will be. Mainly those who own higher end DSLRs (especially Canon ones) looking for a compact second camera? Perhaps, but these users would certainly be discriminating about image quality, and the G10 might not live up to their expectations. So the G10 is in the 'flawed gem' category that, while great fun to take pictures with, is surpassed in image quality by other cameras in the same price range, and the same market segment. At its price the G10 just cannot overcome the image quality shortfalls to achieve our highest rating.
The G10 leaves that lingering question. Just how good could this camera have been, had Canon taken a more conservative approach to resolution and put as much effort into optimising image quality as it did into making such an impressive camera body?