The Canon G9, the perfect fly fishing camera?

With spring coming on and full tilt fly fishing just around the corner,  most of us are putting the final touches on at least the major parts of the seasons arsenal of tools. Next to fly rod, reel, waders, boots and a box full of flies is usually some kind of camera to record our seasons escapades and adventures. This series of posts are about what I think is one of the better small portable cameras for outdoor activities of all kinds, including fly fishing.

Last spring (2008) when I started this blog I was using my Canon Rebel XTI with the extended grip/battery pack as my fishing camera. For lenses I use the 35-350mm L, 20-35mm L, and 100mm macro. I could just fit the body and 35-350mm in the Simms Dry Creek Hip Pack but usually I just carried the body with the 20-35mm. A full on DSLR is great but most of the time it’s overkill and cumbersome to work with by yourself. I wanted to get some good images but  I also wanted to fish without being loaded down with a pile of camera gear too.

I started looking for something smaller, a little simpler that still had some high end features. I looked at Pentax, Olympus and a few others but ended up with the camera manufacturer that I have been using for years- Canon. I admit I am biased, I love Canon products. So yes, in a sense this review is skewed but not as skewed as it would be if I was getting some kind of kick back from Canon (how about it guys, I’d really like to have review the EOS- 1D Mark III).

My basic feature set, the things that really wanted in a fishing camera were:

• High Resolution, a minimum of 10 Mega Pixel
• Raw file format
• Good optics with a decent range, 35-150mm
• Macro
• A choice of exposure modes, including full manual control of exposure
• Auto focus with Manual override
• A decent sized viewing screen
• Waterproof, resistant or similar

The Canon G9

My search ended with the Canon G9. With the G9 I got them all with the exception of the camera being waterproof. Here’s the full low down from Canon. You can buy an underwater housing and still have all the normal camera functions. This is the next item on my “accessory list”.

I went to the local camera shop and spent a couple hours putting the camera through the paces. The camera focused relatively fast for a point and shoot. Like most autofocus cameras it sometimes hunts when it can’t lock on to a focusing point. The focusing point can be set to center or it can be moved around to fit your needs. The manual focus override was a little funky at first, but once I got used to it, it was definitely usable. It also has image stabilization (IS). IS still won’t replace a good solid rest when taking a picture but it might gain you a notch up on the shutter dial.

Probably what amazed me most initially was its macro capabilities. While it’s a long way from the Canon 100mm macro, having this feature packed in this little box is pretty impressive.

3/32 beads

Bobbin and Thread

Stone fly

Bead body Caddis

(Shot with the G9, a couple lights and a small mirror)

The only caveat with shooting macro at maximum magnification with this camera is that there is almost no working distance between you and your subject, you are right on top of the object you are photographing to get most of the macro. The solution? With 12 mega pixels you can back off a bit and crop later. This also allows you to get a little better depth of field (area of sharp focus). Working in the 3-4 inch range you can still get some pretty serious magnification. The macro mode also functions during video capture.

To be Continued

Part Two- The Canon G9 LCD, Body, Exposure, Flash, Resolution

Part Three- The Canon G9 Video capture, Batteries, Memory, provided accessories (cables, chargers, software)

Part Four- G9 vs the new G10, Canon Powershot D10, final thoughts

Tagged as: Canon cameras, Canon G9 Review, macro, Simms, stonefly