The Canon G9 is a very highly regarded point & shoot digital camera. Canon’s entire G series of digital cameras have traditionally supported many impressive features, being that the line is targeted at photographers looking for advanced controls, professional features, and exceptional image quality in a small, portable camera.
Controls
The G9 has a fully automatic mode, as well as presets for a variety of photo types: landscapes, sports, night, snow, beach, etc… These preset shooting modes are accessed through the “scene assist” (SCN) mode.
In addition to its automatic settings, the G9 has a number of creative controls to satisfy advanced photographers. There are the semi-automatic aperture and shutter priority modes, program mode, and full manual mode. The G9 has a dedicated ISO dial, which is extremely handy for all of these creative semi-automatic and manual shooting modes.
Image Quality
Here are two images, one taken during the day and the other at night. They are linked to my Flickr account, so you can see what they look like at full resolution.
This sample daytime shot was taken in program mode. The image is sharp, and a great amount of detail can be seen in the leaves on the trees. It was late in the day, and the camera did a great job of capturing the warm light coming from the almost-setting sun.
I did not use a tripod for this night shot, but I did lean my elbows on a railing in front of me to steady the shot. I used ISO 800. There is a considerable amount of noise and loss of sharpness due to the high ISO setting, however this is to be expected in any point & shoot digital camera. If you want impressive low light performance at high ISO then you should be considering a DSLR. On the other hand, I think the G9 did a pretty good job controlling the noise in this photo and producing a nice nighttime image.
The flash is purposely turned off, since my subject is an entire skyline. Smaller nighttime subjects such as people will allow you to use the flash, enabling better, sharper pictures at lower ISO settings.
Movie Quality
Here are two movies, one taken during the day and the other at night. The video quality was set on “Standard”.
The quality of both videos is very good. It is nice to have the capability to zoom in and out while recording — I have had a few compact digital cameras in the past that were not able to do this.
The day video was taken on the west side of Manhattan near Rector Place, and the night video is from the South Street Seaport.
Zooming
The G9 has a 6x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom. Optical zoom always gives the best image quality, while digital zoom sacrifices image quality in order to get you as close as possible to your subject. See “Basic Digital Camera Terms You Should Know” for more information on optical and digital zoom.
Both of the G9’s zooming modes perform very well. The 6x optical zoom is extremely useful and will get you close enough to almost any reasonably distant subject. And for those times where you need all the reach you can get, the digital zoom gets the job done.
The G9’s image stabilizer does its best to keep your photos from becoming blurry when using long focal lengths (a.k.a. zooming in). The IS detects camera movement from your shaky hands, and corrects the photo in order to keep the details sharp. Remember though… IS can correct blurriness from camera shake, but not from a moving subject. If there is not enough available light to photograph a moving subject, your picture will still be blurry.
Here are three photos that show off the G9’s zooming capabilities. First, here is what my view looked like from the nosebleed seats at a recent concert:
Second, here is where the long end of the G9’s optical zoom got me:
Lastly, here is how incredibly close I was able to get to the action using the 4x digital zoom on top of the 6x optical zoom:
The quality of the last photo is degraded, but ultimately the G9’s zoom was able to get incredibly close to the stage at this concert while my seats were a great distance away. I am willing to trade some image quality for this feature — especially in such a small, conveniently-sized camera.
Size of the G9
The G9 is larger than the average compact digital camera, and smaller than the average digital SLR. The G9 is more advanced than a typical compact digital camera and therefore is going to be bigger, but it is still small enough to fit in most jacket pockets. Here is a photo comparing the G9’s size to that of the Sony Cybershot DSC-W80:
The Cybershot is a line of typical pocket-sized compact digital cameras. As you can see, the G9 is a little thicker and taller.
Here is a photo comparing the G9’s size to that of the Canon 5D:
The 5D is one of the larger standard-sized digital SLR camera bodies. It is shown here with a standard 50mm lens attached. If size is a serious concern, the G9 is obviously going to go many places that a DSLR will not. And for most people who are willing to sacrifice ultimate compactness for improvements in features and image quality, the G9’s size is not prohibitive.
Where to buy the G9
Click here to purchase the Canon Powershot G9
