Canon PowerShot G9 12.1MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

I have been shooting with manual focus, manual exposure SLR systems since I was twelve years old. That's almost thirty years using kit like the Olympus OM-1 (my first love, too bad it was stolen!), Pentax MX, numerous lenses, professional flash equipment like Vivitar 283 and Sunpak 383. My cousin asked me to shoot her wedding, so I thought maybe the time had finally come to switch to digital. Okay, so maybe I'm old school, and maybe I have some unrealistic expectations for modern equipment, but every time I looked at the digital SLR offerings, I was disappointed. Even the Nikons (well, the affordable ones like the D70 and D80) were polycarbonate bodies with plastic lenses. Not professional-grade. Do you have to pay thousands of dollars to get a metal-bodied SLR today? Something built to withstand a 5 fps motor drive, like in the old days? Well, I looked at the Pentax K10D -- metal body, reasonably affordable, fully compatible with all my lenses -- but I just had this vague sense of dissatisfaction. These fragile contraptions are big, clunky, dare I say dorky compared to an old film SLR. Hey, and don't let any dust get on the sensor. Sheesh, talk about wearing kid gloves. Then a friend told me about the Canon G9. Whoa, paradigm shift here, folks. I hadn't considered a non-SLR, but I sure am glad I did. This thing has pro-grade features: aperture and shutter priority modes as well as full manual exposure, manual focus, RAW capability, decent optical zoom range, spot metering, a hot shoe that works with all my existing flash gear, and many other things that usually only make it into SLR's. For example, with most P&S cameras, shutter lag is a huge problem. Good portraits demand instant shutter response. The G9's shutter is almost instantaneous SO LONG AS you half-press to lock the focus, and compose with the optical viewfinder (i.e, turn the LCD off). I am getting great portraits of my kids using this technique, and it does feel a bit like using an old Leica rangefinder. Never understood why anyone would give up an SLR; now I get it. Quiet, easily concealed, doesn't announce "I AM A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER!" or otherwise make you look or feel like a dork. The optical viewfinder zooms pretty closely with the lens, and parallax has not been a problem. I wear eyeglasses and the viewfinder works just fine with them; in fact, better than with my MX. When using the viewfinder, the LCD just displays important camera information: shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, stuff like that. I've found it's pretty easy to glance down at the LCD to check those things, then return to composing in the viewfinder. For those moments when I really need to see exactly what's in the frame, I switch to composing with the LCD. This is handy to set the manual exposure, too. I shot some pics of my kids in front of the fireplace and in front of the Christmas tree, with available light, and I just dialed down the shutter speed in manual mode until the exposure looked right in the LCD. And what an LCD -- again, it's SLR-grade. Overall, the build quality is phenomenal for this price. It feels solid. Others have compared it to a tank, or a swiss watch, or a Leica. It is very enjoyable to hold and use. Taking pictures is fun again! Video capability is a bonus, too, that you won't find on SLR's. I'm not a big video shooter, but I have two young kids and there'll be times when I want it. Back when I was looking at SLR's, I always figured I'd need to purchase a separate (cheap) video camera, maybe a Pure Digital Flip model. Not anymore. The G9 is not perfect. Some shortcomings can be overcome or compensated for, while others simply can't. I am disappointed with the noise above ISO 200. Autofocus is not as fast as an SLR. Wide-angle zoom isn't as wide as I'd really like. The retractable lens looks a bit fragile to me. I recommend the Lensmate lens adapter for when you think you might bump into things. It's anodized aluminum, so it's rugged; unfortunately, it really sticks out into the optical viewfinder, cutting off about half the view. Well, that's when you go with the LCD, I guess. Works of man fall short of perfection, and all gear has strengths and limitations. Learn them and use them, or work around them as best you can. There are lighting conditions that NO digital handles well, and for those, I'm happy to continue shooting film. But for everything else, I'm really happy with the portability, control, responsiveness, and quality of the G9. All things considered, especially that it's less than half the price of a D80 or "serious" DSLR, it is a great camera.

After working with this camera for a month I ended up sending it back to Amazon. I didn't want to have to buy a DSLR and a compact camera to get everything I used to get in one good workhorse. That is why I researched all sorts of cameras for several months before deciding on the G9. In theory it appeared to have all the qualities of both in one camera. I specifically wanted a camera that was physically small enough to become a permanent attachment for those spontaneous shots, one that could take candid shots without spooking people, extra optical zoom, high megapixels so I could print large-sized photos, one that would take spectacular macros. I also needed a camera to take good, clear, close-up photos of jewelry for online sales. I take hundreds of jewelry photos per week, and don't have time to color-correct them all in an editing program. Perhaps I got a lemon, I don't know, I'll try another G9 from a local camera shop before I completely jump ship on this one although at this point I'm pretty gun-shy about Canon. The white balance totally sucks when using the G9 in the studio under ECA lamp bulbs, even when setting the custom white balance using a grey card (or any other color card for that matter). Cyan colors in turquoise and other glue-green gems are interpreted as plain old blue, even in RAW mode. I have an old Sony DSC-S75 that records turquoise as true turquoise under ECA bulbs without any color-correcting needed. I have asked numerous people about this issue, one professional said my Sony was the exception and that most compact cameras have problems interpreting the cyan colors correctly under artificial light. Even directly speaking to the Canon support representative produced no comments or solutions to this issue, it was as if they never heard of this problem before. The battery life is unacceptably short. Apparently this is an issue with other Canon compacts as well from what I've read. I thought it was just because I had the camera on a lot trying to learn how to use the features, but even so the battery should last longer than a day. When I finally did have one of those great spontaneous photo moments, the battery died almost immediately and I had to use my trusty old Sony dinosaur instead. There is a blue cast to the live view screen, but I have noticed that when I download the photos, they all have a slight blue cast when viewed on my computer. Blue seems to be the G9's favorite color. Probably okay for average amateur shots, definitely not acceptable for professional product shots or award-winning photos (like my old Sony has done for me). Macros were okay but not likely to win ribbons. I had trouble getting the G9 to focus on what I wanted it to focus on, and I had tremendous trouble trying to get a sharp photo of earrings hanging on a display, it just would not get it all in focus no matter what settings I tried and, believe me, I tried all sorts of tricks. Back to the Old Sony once again. Apparently newer is not always better, especially with ECA lamps.

Good pics

This is a great little camera with all the big camera features. Too bad that Canon stopped producing them. If you can get your hands on a really good quality one (like I did from this seller), you will not be disappointed. You can not compare a real camera to a phone. Phones are just a toy. This is a real camera that also fits in your pocket ;) .

So far so good. I was a little concerned about getting a secondhand camera, but so far so good. I ordered this because I already have a PowerShot G9, but needing repairs. This helps me to not have to learn a whole new camera. I still love this camera, after quite a few years.

A good camera if you are going from phone photography to camera for the first time, with decent photo quality and has everything included (SD card, battery charger, camera case, etc.). I love it!

I really like the quality of the camera, there are so many things I learnt with it. I have had a spectacular experience. Problem is you need to buy a battery pack for it to make it work for sometime. But for casual street photography, it's phenomenal.