If you missed the first post on the Canon G9 you can find it here. Following is Part Two of the Canon G9 review.
Canon G9 LED
The viewing portal. The Canon G9 has the old fashioned eye viewfinder (why, I don’t know) but the LCD screen is truly impressive at three inches; even aging eyes can deal with that. When working with your camera menus viewing is a cinch. I am in the reading glass class so I have to put on my glasses to check the image details- I have to do that with just about anything anymore but the menu items are readable without them. The viewfinder does have diopter adjustments but I never use the thing, as far as I’m concerned that wasted real estate could be used for something a lot more useful.
The camera has various ways of displaying information to you in the LCD and one can pick how you would like it to appear. You can navigate around in images you have already shot easily enough to do quick edits and zoom in for a detailed look. You can view histograms and show highlights that are blown out which you can also use in real time while you are shooting. With the histogram displayed while shooting you can adjust your settings to give you the best exposure in those particular conditions. Having some of these options in the display during shooting can make the viewing area a little cluttered but they are easily removed to restore the entire LED viewing area.
One thing I have noticed with digital LED’s is that they typically don’t accurately display the image you see in them compared with the resulting exposure when you edit it later on another viewing platform. You can confirm what you are seeing in the LED vs what you are capturing by bringing up the histogram and set the camera exposure settings for a good overall exposure and then view the image in the LED for comparison.
I have not yet found an LCD cover made specifically for the G9 but you can buy large sheets of protective clear film with sticky backs from computer stores (used to protect monitor screens etc.) that have grids on them and cut them to fit. They do get grubby fairly quickly but at least they are cheap and easy to replace unlike the LCD itself.
The body itself is solid. The lens mount is plastic but the rest of the body is metal, including the adjustment knobs. It does not have the plastic feel like most cameras today have, especially in this class. Most of the point and shoot models would probably come apart at the bottom of a short free fall. I have a feeling this can probably take a few hard knocks. The lens itself is what you would expect from Canon’s mid range optics- very good. It’s not consumer grade but it is not their “L” glass either.
For exposures I use the camera the same way I shoot film. I follow the cameras lead with the camera set in manual mode with the exception that digital cameras display what they see. So you know your exposures is off by looking at the LCD, if it is black you need to adjust your exposure by letting more light in, if its to bright or washed out, you need reduce the amount of light coming in. Once you have it looking the way you want it- shoot. Of course the camera has all the typical exposure modes including automatic, which it does well with.
It has a built in flash which in my opinion is next to useless other than the holiday family shots. It can be used for fill but is VERY limited. Canon made up for this by adding a hot shoe so you can use the pro level Speedlights! Want to see the neighbors cats pupils looking like razor slices, well here ya go! The hot shoe gives you pretty much unlimited flash potential.
And what kind of pictures does this camera produce? Your images are only as good as the lens and as I mentioned earlier Canon put some good glass in the G9. In the Raw/Large Jpeg format setting your pixel dimensions are 4,000 x 3,000. At 250dpi that’s about a 12 x 16 print! With a well focused image you could do a 16 x 20 easily and with a little work in Photoshop, 20 x 30 is not out of the question. The prints from this camera are awesome but it will also do publication quality work.
A note here on camera ISO, what used to be referred to as film speed. The camera has an ISO range from 80 up to 1600. If you are shooting photographs that you want to make prints of I would say that the realistic range is 80 to 400, depending on the size of the print. After that the images get pretty noisy VERY quickly. I rarely shoot over ISO 200. A more detailed look at image quality.
To Be Continued
The Canon G9 review, Part Three
Newer Yet! The Canon G12 (10/2010)
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