There's something to be said for simplicity in design. While curves can help define a product, a complete lack of them can just as easily make it stand out in the crowd.
Take the Canon IXUS 510 HS, for example. Except for its shutter button, zoom control and raised lens, the IXUS 510 is a perfectly rectangular block. It might look a bit harsh and austere, but that's exactly what gives the IXUS 510 its distinct personality.
That edgy design hides some awesome features, including a 12x optical zoom that is equivalent to 28-336mm in 35mm terms. Put that together with digital enhancements, and you get a whopping 48x zooming capability.
You also get a 10.1-megapixel image sensor and Canon's Digic 5 image processor for high-speed and high-precision image processing. The combination offers full HD (1080p) video recording at 24 frames per second with stereo sound, and still images of up to 3648 x 2736 pixels.
There's plenty of software functionality from Canon, including a Smart Auto feature that recognises 58 typical scenes, together with now standard utilities like face tracking, smile detection and so on.
Like an increasing number of compact cameras, the IXUS 510 comes with built-in Wi-fi, which now lets you connect to other devices, like smartphones, for easy sharing of images.