Canon PowerShot G9

Review Date
January 31, 2010

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Reviewed by
zeiss eterna , Expert

Price Paid
$370.00 at Jessops, Cambridge u

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Fine Art

Summary
Quirky camera, good street shooter and all-rounder with two big let downs.
Has less glass lens elements than its successors thus theoretically more clarity.. but watch the extreme contrast and white-outs. Barrel distortion is horrendous. Skin colour completely inaccurate.

Fot these kind of prices, even with the successors, its probably worth getting a 4/3s system or the innovative Ricoh system.

Strengths
Telephoto lens which is longer than successors. Build quality excellent - i've used this in blizzard conditions and lands well when dropped.
RAW format is an essential for big prints.. the JPEGs are very nice but just not big enough.
HD movie mode is groundbreaking and very useful however u don't seem to be able to use macro at all or change the zoom when rolling.
Back screen is excellent and large.
Image stabilizer helps low shutter speed situations.
High ISO 'look' is nice, especially when used in band photography.
Battery life fairly good.
Custom modes useful.
Macro is probably one of the best things about the camera as the lens portion it uses in this mode makes things nice and sharp.
B/W nice.

Weaknesses
Barrel distortion is a scandal - its only 35mm equivalent at its widest!!!
Overly contrasty scenes result in sky or scene washout. Almost unusable for landscapes unless you are willing to take EVERYTHING in RAW and then spend ages in photoshop correcting.
Skin tones awful - why the magenta cast? othwrs have talked about it and i've sent the camera back twice. Probably a result of Canon wanting warm 'leica' look photos. Only solution is to turn the red right down using custom option.

Similar Products Used
Contax SLR, other Canon digi compacts, early digi Nikon compacts.
Various range finders and SLRs in past.

Customer Service
brutal, in denial of the colour problem.

Review Date
December 30, 2009

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Reviewed by
Case , Expert

Price Paid
$250.00 at ebay

Photography Experience
21+ years , Outdoor

Summary
When I was shooting film I used the Eos 3, and also the contax G1 and G2 series. I have used Canon G3, 5, 6, 7. G9 is best of the bunch : 12.1 meg rather than 14+ in G10. Very good to shoot with, tanklike is best description. Great for skiing, climbing, trekking and coastal pictures (no action shots please) Quite salable prints, as long as ASA 400 or less, but optimum is 100-200. IS is v. useful. Focusing screen is v. good. Zoom range also quite useful. Recently have been taking this along on rainy/snowy/windy days and (sometimes) leaving my DSLR and accompanying 3+ lenses at home. Great discreet camera, when you don't want to wander around with a lot of white lenses in your bag. Currently shooting Eos 5D, for what that's worth.

Strengths
build quality, viewing screen. Viewfinder only used in extreme conditions. Can shoot RAW in addition to pretty good jpeg. Many manual adjustments, focus for example. Exposure compensation good, flash exposure compensation good, can set custom WB. Excellent look and feel, retro if you wish. Very easy to carry and to start up, also good post-photo review, and only two click erase mode, better than Canon DSLRs which take three. Just put this on green mode and shoot great pictures. Backup camera for DLSrs

Weaknesses
No moveable viewscreen ala G6. also no f2.8 lense. Has feature set for beginners, but is percieved as too complicated.

Similar Products Used
G3, G5, G6, G7. In film, used Contax G1 and G2, and Contax TVS, film and digital

Customer Service
None needed

Review Date
May 16, 2009

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by
tomppa64 , Expert

Price Paid
$280.00 at 04/2009

Photography Experience
21+ years , People

Summary
Surprisingly good camera for most photographing purposes. Better than cheap SLR kits. Fast enough to handle. Can store your favourite setups. Excellent resolution. Nice colours. I changed my Canon Rebel XT kit to G9 and I've been very satisfied.

Strengths
Good build quality. Excellent resolution for this size lens. Many, many features. Manual controls. Robust. Optical zoom.

Weaknesses
Shutter lag may be problem in very fast situations. May over exposure faces if you don't use face detection (auto modes). Wide angle could be better.

Similar Products Used
Canon SX 100 IS

Review Date
November 8, 2008

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 3 votes

Reviewed by
John Hardy , Expert

Price Paid
$270.00 at Jessops

Photography Experience
21+ years , Other

Summary
This is my first Digital purchase. I have stayed with my Nikon F5 (and prime lenses) and Contax G1 for some time and used good film scanners. The Canon was purchased after much research on this site and others. I am dissapointed with this camera for a number of reasons. The viewfinder is too small to be useful, and prone to flare. The metering is, to my mind, is suspect. AF is often baffled in low contrast situations. Manual focus is a joke (even by G1 standards). The quality which really renders this handbag material is that it is simply too slow. There is far too much shutter lag for a camera in this price bracket.

I am looking forward to hear reviews of the new Sigma. However I suspect that my money should have been applied to an Xpan, D700, or when Leica fesses up, to their full frame M8 replacement, one of those

Strengths
Marketing

Kids enjoy video capability


General convenience (but, hey there are allot of cameras which meet theses criterion at a fraction of the cost)

Weaknesses
Poor viewfinder

Suspect metering

Shutter lag

So nothing vital then!

Similar Products Used
Fed 3, Zorki 4K, Zenith EM,Nikkormat Ftn, Nikon FE, Nikon F50, Nikon F5,Contax G1.

Customer Service
Not testrd

Review Date
January 2, 2008

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.33 of 5, 3 votes

Reviewed by
flnickerson , Expert

Price Paid
$400.00 at Local electronic big

Photography Experience
21+ years , Outdoor

Summary
I picked out this delight the day after Christmas as a present for me. A recent photo trip to Kauai disabled my casio ex-850 point and shoot pocket camera (I sat on it 1 too many times) it won't zoom out now without shutting down. I was looking for a replacement to fall in between my trusty old Dimage A2 and the pocket cameras. While also raising the mega-pixel level to 12. This camera takes me back to my range finder carrying days. Around my neck the Canon G9 has the approximate feel of carrying my Yashica Electro 35 GTN. Too big for my back pocket, but the G9 fits well in a jacket pocket. A bit retro looking and very solid. No plastic here.
Having a view finder is a must for me. I don't like standing around looking at the LCD instead of concentrating on the subject. Although it is a great LCD. Bright even in strong light as well as adjustable brightness. My photos have been very sharp even at long focal lengths. The G9's stabilizer seems to work better than than the Dimage A2's.
Working with the G9 is a joy. The menu is intuitive and setting the last shot replay to 4 seconds or more gives me a chance to push the picture dump button and keep shooting. Pushing the on button to the first shot is less than 1 second (fast!). The camera is shoot oriented and will change quickly back to shoot mode even in review, or menu.
This camera is a joy to carry and is well priced for the features, shooting modes, easy of use, and quality of the photos. I have already Ebayed the LA-DC58H extension for filters along with a 58mm IR filter.
I just wish I had found the G9 sooner.

Strengths
12 megs, 6x optical zoom with digital hyper zoom.

The G9 can be set to shoot the same shot in Fine JPEG compression as well as recording a RAW image at the same time.

TV, AV, Manual, Program, auto, SCN, Stitch, Movie, and two custom settable modes. 16:9 format.

Manual focus, and a tight macro mode.

Flash level control, and works with my Canon Speedlight.

Wonderful retro look and feel. Not at all out of place in the best of company.

Big bright LCD and an optical view finder with Doppler adjustment.

Designed with the advanced photographer in mind, but simple enough for the person who wants more than a simple point and shoot digital camera.

The G9 is a quick, intuitive, strong, sleek, powerful, and beautiful, camera.

Weaknesses
Keeping my LCD protector film from peeling off while sliding the camera back in its pouch bag. No frame around the LCD to protect the film's edges.

Similar Products Used
Minolta Dimage A2

Customer Service
Nothing so far...