Excellent camera with great picture quality (Canon Powershot G9)

Member Name: ladyannie

Product:	Canon Powershot G9
Date:	12/04/09 (143 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: sharp pictures, full of features

Disadvantages: cost of lenses - same for any SLR though

Camera came onto the market in around October 2007 and I bought it around 2 months ago. I intended to buy a Nickon SLR (D60 or 90) and came away from shop with this camera and I have been absolutely thrilled with it. The reason I bought this camera is that the shop let me try different cameras for a couple of hours and I was just so impressed with the difference in quality of photos that this camera took, as well as ease in using it, and the features it includes.

Afterwards I did wonder if I had made the right decision as I don't usually change my mind in shops once I have done all my research. However, one of my friends who has a degree in photography, has worked in the camera business and sells alot of her own photos gave it a good try and was really impressed with the quality of the photos that she was able to take on it, and the features on the camera. I have joined a camera club and we have had a couple of photographic projects - I have been surprised about the excellent comments I have received for the quality of my photos - and surprise from others when they look at the camera!

It is at the high end of the compact camera market and really a cross between a compact and SLR as you can have add on lenses, I have a wide angle lens with macro and fisheye and am very pleased with the results.

Good qualities
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12.1 megapixels - of course you can reduce these down if you want to record pictures with less mpixels (i.e. for emailing). 3" LCD screen which is bigger than many SLR cameras, it really is a great size and aides in taking good quality photos, you can take the photos through the optical viewfinder or through using the screen - great. ISO from 80 to 1600 with the HI option too, I have used it up to 400 without any image noise. 6x optical zoom - with optical image stabilizer and up to 24x digital zoom - I am very impressed with the shots you can get with digital zoom and all except the professional could use this instead of buying a telephoto lens. Also takes photos in Raw image. The manual settings are extensive and the buttons easy to use with a great click dial. You can manually set both the shutter speed and aperture.

Video/Movie:
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There is also a movie shooting feature - the recording time will vary according the card you have in the camera. On the compact setting you can take up to 3min 15 sec and with time lapse up to 4 hr 7 min with SDC-512MSH. The Manual explains how to use this feature and I haven't tried it yet. However, the Manual that comes with the camera is extensive (270 pages) and easy to use and understand - another great bonus as far as I am concerned.

Colour Mode:
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Good controls for the white balance and also in colour mode, features for taking in black & white, sepia, lighter and darker skin tones and with different accent colours - have been very impressed with this in particular and the quality of pictures taken.

Automatic:
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The camera automatically chooses all the settings. You can always use the special settings and then let the camera choose the rest automatically. Special scenes include, portrait, macro, night scene, night snapshot, indoor, snow, fireworks, underwater, colour accent, landscape, sports, kids & pets, foliage, beach, aquairum, ISO 3200 and colour swap.

Flash:
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The camera has an inbuilt flash and also a shoe mount for adding a flashgun, recommended using a Canon Speedlite220EX/430EX/580EX. The camera has settings for the inbuilt flash depending on what type of light, i.e. daylight, flurescent, tungsten etc. I have only used the inbuilt flash (with good results - can also use red-eye function) as I can't afford the Speedlite yet.

Battery:
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I decided to buy a spare re-chargeable battery as one of my frustrations with cameras previously has been the poor length of life of the batteries...no such thing with these batteries - difficult to say how long they last as I have used the camera so much and only recharged them once! Needless to say I have been very impressed.

Add - on lenses, etc:
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The camera came with a wide lens converter WC-DC58B and a tele-convertorer TC-DC58C and the conversion lens adapter LA-DC58H and as mentioned previously I bought a wideangle, macro, fisheye lens. I didn't buy a Canon one but a Crystal Vision High Definition lens. I have loved using this lens and am very pleased with the results. As with SLR cameras, the lens are expensive. I don't have a telephoto lens but as mentioned with the 24x digital zoom the camera has quite a range already.
Also possible to buy a case so that the camera may be used under water up to 40m.


Computer software:
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I managed to load the Canon software onto my computer and the photos from my camera with great ease, the manipulation of the photos that you can do is great - very easy to use and understand. Very impressed.
The Manual:
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The camera comes with a 270 page manual (small enought to take in the camera bag but big enough print to read easily). The manual is superb with easy to understand text, pictures and tables. I have read it in sections and will continue to do so as there are so many features on this camera that I have yet to discover! What I have described are the basic ones I have discovered.

Cost:
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I bought it in the States (even with bad exchange rate) I paid £350 for camera. However because I bought the lens at the same time I had other things thrown in like the lens adapters, camera bag, spare battery etc.

Size:
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Much lighter than a SLR and with a small camera bag could easily be put in a handbag. The punch it packs is in no relation to its size!


Disadvantages
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1. Cost of lenses - but this is the same for any SLR camera
2. Not sure if this really is a disadvantage but without either the wideangle or telephoto lens on, doesn't really look like a proper camera! Looks are very deceptive.

Overall
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Highly impressed with the quality of features and photos taken. Great fun to use and would recommend my friends to buy it. Will last me a long time and still lots of features to play with. Would I buy it again? Absolutely.

Summary: Fun to use, great picture quality, can grow into it

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