Canon PowerShot G9 12.1MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
by Canon
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Our Price: $999.00 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $19.00 (click here) Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon PowerShot G9 12.1MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
Customer Review: Love the G9 with a wide angle lens adapter by Lensmate
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned the G9 going on 3+ years now, and I must say that it continues to impress me and both my friends and colleagues at work. I am an architect, and have traveled extensively around the world using this camera for both professional and personal use.
The great thing about the G9, is that it is a very effective Prosumer camera that bridges between the point and shoot, and the digital SLR's. I also bought a high quality aluminum finished wide angle lens adapter from Lensmate, that simply screws in front of the lens when you remove the O-ring around the lens. This effectively brings it up to 24mm wide angle from the current 28mm, and for architecture and buildings, makes an enormous difference. [...] to learn more about this really high quality company that makes lens adaptors specifically for the Canon line....in fact, their wide angle lens is not only much higher quality than what Canon sells, but is much more compact, made out of milled aluminum instead of plastic (Canon's version), and costs less!
I recently just got back from India, and took some amazing photos from that exotic country. Before that, I have used it in south america, patagonia region, Peru (macchu picchu), thailand, africa throughout asia....and have shot thousands of photos over these past several years, I still marvel at what a perfect camera this is for so many different uses and conditions.
I looked at the G10, but like several other readers comments, I came back to the G9 as actually superior, and in fact bought myself another G9 as a back-up. It is interesting on amazon that the g9 in fact sells for quite a bit more than the g10 or the current g11 version....and I think it is because serious photographers realize just how good the g9 is.
If you can get your hands on one (if not amazon, try ebay), you won't be dissapointed, and I have yet to see the need to go the the digital SLR camera yet, even with all the professional work I do which requires hi-res and quality images.
Customer Review: What a GREAT Little Camera the Canon G9
Summary: 5 Stars
website: [...]
At either of those two sites you'll find images made with the G9. I've only had it for two months but I take it everywhere - the office, shopping, etc. My regular camera when out shooting landscapes is my Nikon D300, and a series of lenses from the venerable Nikon 17-55 F2.8 (purchased here on Amazon for 1150.00) down to a first generation Lensbaby and everything in between.
This little G9, which I immediately set to capture jpeg+raw is excellent. I love sharp, crisp images and I hate noise. So, I try to keep it at under ISO 100 --usually set to ISO 80. The IS feature is amazing as well. It truly works miracles when handholding.
The camera, once you get to know it is easy to operate on the fly. That is very important to me. No twiddling. The supplied software which is called the Zoom Browser I've only used a few times as it's the ONLY way to get to the RAW editor! How funky is that? I am a Adobe Lightroom user so I really don't need it. I upload everything into Lightroom and go from there. I have used the Canon software just to see what it does but quite frankly it is so clunky I don't bother.
As far as image quality, the jpegs coming out of this camera are so sharp, and clear and colorful that I find myself not using the raw files. However as a shooting pro some of my stock agents REQUIRE me to submit the converted raw file after they have accepted the initial jpeg after their review. So... I'm stuck keeping the CR2 raw file around.
In a few weeks I'm going on a photo shoot and I am taking my Nikons and my gaggle of gear but my intentions on this trip are to shoot ALL my landscapes and other shots with the G9. As a matter of fact I am letting one of my kids use the D300 and all the gear instead of packing my extra Fuji Finepix S2 body for them to use. This is how confident I am that I will return with usable, marketable images generated from the G9.
Customer Review: Incredible camera; very worthy upgrade from the G7
Summary: 5 Stars
If you're a photographer who cares about image quality, and can't always lug around a DSLR, buy this camera. You will have no regrets.
I've had its predecessor, the G7, for about a year. It has been my normal always-in-the-bag camera. The G7 was limited at ISO 400; the G9 isn't. My normal workflow with the G9 is to use CS3 to import RAW images (fixing chromatic abberation on the way into CS3 in 16-bit mode), and then to use Noise Ninja to clean up image noise. With this workflow, ISO 400 and ISO 800 are completely usable. (You can also play with some other settings in Adobe Camera Raw, like Recovery.)
And for everyone: you really should never, ever use a built-in strobe on a camera. The G9 (like the G7) has a hot shoe. Use it!
Canon fixed a bunch of the G7's problems in the G9, the most glaring of which is the G9 now has a battery meter! (I can't tell you how much that lapse bugged me.) The new LCD monitor is much, much bigger -- and gorgeous. And best of all, the camera body is the exact same size and shape, and fits in my underwater housing. (Update: not all the buttons work. The most glaring problem is possibly the zoom can't be changed, and that you can't change to macro mode underwater. I'll probably get the new housing, but the existing one is functional.)
Nits: the new cover for the USB connector is a downgrade, but one that I can put up with. The lens is unchanged, and has a fair bit of barrel distortion at its widest angle. You can clean up the barrel distortion somewhat in CS3, but straight horizontal lines become slightly wavy. I'm being hyper-picky here, but please know that you're not replacing a DSLR with a prime wide angle lens. You're just buying a small camera that you can take anywhere.
Buy it. Shoot lots of pictures with it. Be happy!
Customer Review: Wonderful professional walk around camera
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a professional photographer and I don't always want to carry my 1D or 5D around with me on trips, biking or in the kayak. They are just to heavy and easy to steal. This little camera fits in my fanny pack and gives me about 70% of the control I have with the bigger cameras.
The manual control is simply outstanding both in what you can do and how Canon implemented the menus. I have a SD500 that I've used for years and it has little manual control. What the SD500 does have in manual control is all burried in layers of menus that make it slow and hard to get to. The G9 is nearly as easy to use as my 5D and that is amazing for a little camera like this one. Having the ability to shoot RAW is the final icing on the cake. Don't let earlier reviews worry you about RAW, Adobe photoshop and Lightroom support it fully.
The build quality is amazing, it feels like a tank and I expect it to stand up to my needs very well. I will also be using the underwater case and that is a great additional feature that further inhances its value to me.
On the down side, the f/stop is a little limited. It stops at f/8 which is a little less than I would like but it is mostly fine. It is very noisy at ISO 400 or larger which makes me wish the camera manufactures would stop playing the megapixel game and focus more on image quality. I would take a 8mp camera that looks great at ISO400 over a 12mp that doesn't any day.
In the end it is a camera that I will have with me a lot and it will take great photos in most of the situations I need to to. Those photos will all be outstanding compaired to not having a camera with me at all which is after all the point of photography.
Highly reccomended!
Customer Review: Expectations exceeded
Summary: 5 Stars
I own a lot of Canon gear and I decided that if I could get the G9 at a great price then I would buy it (for point and shoot and quick and dirty). As I watched the price go up and down, I noticed that the reviews on Amazon as well as some of the camera stores indicated that most people expected greatness from the G9 with essentially no room for anything else; across the board. That convinced me that it was the best out there; the only competition was the G7 and it seems that is formidable competiton. But hey! It costs more and has less features than the G9.
When it went below $425 for a week or so I ordered it from Amazon and got it from Amazon; this thing is great. Bottom line; loaded a 4Gb SDHC and it has been great indoors, outdoors, near, far, auto, M, Av, Tv, handheld, tripod, timed, etc.
As most of you know, Canon software continues to get better but still is way worse than OK. But that's why Adobe makes money on all versions of Photoshop (Corel too). And this camera thrives in Photoshop. Remember RAW!
One thing that seems to be pervasive is Canon's lack of credibility on doing what they say when they say it. They do everything eventually but never on time. The 1Ds MkIII you wanted in November 2007, the fix for AI on the 1D MkIII, some G9s have cloudy images, etc. They need to step it up because this is small stuff. Since they do make the best gear out there and the most complete line(s) it would be a shame for these small things to take them down a notch or two.
Last thing, yes the Ricoh is great too, but no support structure except your camera store...however it is much simpler and cost $200 more.