Canon Powershot G9

Latest - Review and Sample Photos by Shutterbug (added 20 June’08)

Canon Powershot G9 features:

• 12.1 megapixels
• Optical viewfinder
• 3.0 inch TFT LCD
• ISO range for 80 to 1600
• Metering evaluative
• Center-weighted average, and spot
• Cameras dimensions are (W x H x D) 4.19 x 2.83 x 1.67 in. / 106.4 x 71.9 x 42.5mm and it weighs 11.29 oz. / 320g (camera body only)

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Reviewers Conclusions & Verdicts - (updated 20 June’08)

Shutterbug has reviewed the Canon Powershot G9 and they write -
“Despite these foibles—some would call them endearing character traits—the Canon PowerShot G9 is an amazing machine, and it’s probably just the kind of super point-and-shoot that will appeal to serious photographers who may want to stop and think before they press the shutter release.”

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Pocket-lint has reviewed the Canon Powershot G9 and they write -
“In terms of control, features and build, the G9 is a cracker; image quality and performance are marginally better, overall, but the wisdom of crow barring in another two million pixels seems at odds with the cameras ethos, since the price you pay, even more noise, seems hardly in keeping with that same high-end, high image quality philosophy that the G-series of cameras represents.”

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BusinessWeek has reviewed the Canon Powershot G9 and they write -
“The PowerShot G9 may be more camera than you’ll ever need, but it has so many functions that you won’t be caught short if you’d like to try something more sophisticated. For a couple hundred dollars more than your standard point-and-shoot, the G9 gives you almost all the power of a digital SLR in your pocket.”

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ThinkCamera - 19 March ‘08 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and compared to its competitors offers better images. Here’s a summary of their review -
“For a compact this camera is rather large, physically. Yet, this camera offers creative control unmatched by it competitive rivals. True image stabilization and the ability to capture images in RAW make the G9 very unique. the reviewer notes that you would be surprised how many professional photographers pack a G9 in their pocket and how many G9 photos end up being used in newspapers and magazines.”

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OutbackPhoto - 11 February ‘08 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and thought the camera was a pretty performer. Here’s a summary of their review -
“The reviewer notes upfront that they typically test DSLR’s so their reviewer of the G9 may be slightly bias. Actually the review was to see if the G9 could be used as a dependable companion camera. What they didn’t like - It was difficult to get a precise setting while zooming. It’s optical viewfinder was not very accurate and yet they had a tough time composing using the LCD.”

You know… these guys sound like they’re pretty diehard DSLR users. HOWEVER, the end result was they found the G9 to be a pretty cool camera and it definitely qualified as a trusted companion camera.

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LuminousLandscape - 24 January ‘08 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and packs the G9 on vacation in Japan. Here’s a summary of their review -
“While it delivered great photographs there were some irritating aspects to the G9 namely the slow responsive zoom. What was most frustrating was the lens servo motor drives the lens forward in chunks rather than a nice smooth zoom. Another problem was shutter lag which made photographing subjects other than stationary was very difficult.”

Here’s the kicker… the reviewer after using the G9 and with it irritations STILL preferred it to his Leica M8. Now that’s an endorsement!

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PhotographyReview - 30 December ‘07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and notes pro photographers or experienced amateur looking for a compact camera with a lot of power should take a serious look. Here’s an excerpt from their review verdict -
“This just might be a replacement for a full on DSLR system as long as you’re okay with the limited zoom range and you don’t do a lot of action shooting. When you pick the camera up it’s obvious even the feel separates it all the other compact digital cameras, it just feels more substantial. Because of the cameras image stabilization they were able to shoot at ISO or 100 which meant silky smooth photos.”

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PCAdvisor - 27 December ‘07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and feels the G series may have outlived its usefulness. Here’s an excerpt from their review verdict -
“While it’s a worthy camera in most ways, the Canon PowerShot G9 doesn’t offer many compelling advantages over lower-priced competitors. It’s hard to recommend it as a reasonable value.”

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ComputerActive - 21 December ‘07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and though the view finder was way too small and pretty much not usable. Here’s an excerpt from their review -
“Despite these problems, we were impressed by the G9. A digital SLR is still a better way to take creative photos, but if you want something smaller then the G9 is a good alternative.”

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CreativePro - 20 December ‘07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and points out that t ISO and below the camera exhibits a bit of digital noise particularly in the shadow areas. Here’s an excerpt from their review -
“The G9 is not a perfect camera. If tiny size is your ultimate arbiter, there are other cameras. If you’re a stickler for image quality, the G9 doesn’t offer much that other highly regarded cameras lack. These days, very good image quality is not hard to come by.

But the G9 is a very good camera. It has an excellent feature set that’s very well-implemented and is housed in a body that looks great and feels even better.

Although beginning photographers may be overwhelmed by the G9’s plethora of buttons, controls, and features at first, it’s easy enough to put the camera into a fully automatic mode that makes it very simple to use. You can then grow into the rest of the features as your skills improve.”

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MacWorld - 19 December ‘07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and notes it’s hard to justify the high price tag. Here’s an excerpt from their review -
“Most new prosumer models also have bright, information-packed electronic viewfinders, giving photographers greater flexibility in how they compose images. Pushed by the expanded LCD screen, the G9’s optical viewfinder is so tiny that it’s all but useless, especially since it only covers 80 percent of the image and shows the edge of the camera lens when it’s not zoomed.”

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TrustedReviews - 11 December ‘07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and writes the camera suffers from limited dynamic range even at lower ISP settings. Here’s an excerpt from their review verdict -
“With superb build quality, a huge range of features and options, fast performance and - at its best - outstanding image quality, the Canon PowerShot G9 is certainly one of the best compact cameras on the market, and a very good creative tool for the enthusiast photographer. However it does suffer from the usual limited dynamic range and noise problems of super-powerful compacts, and considering it is nearly the price of an entry-level DSLR, one has to ask if it’s really worth the money.”

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ePhotozine - 10 December ‘07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and was not thrilled with the results of their flash portrait test. Here’s an excerpt from their review verdict -
“As the top of the range model before venturing into DSLR territory, the Powershot G9 is bound to be very good and despite some of its flaws, it is.

The build quality is top notch and all the features you expect from a prosumer camera are there. The macro facility is great as is the selective focus zones and even the selector dial is a nice touch to bring it more in line with DSLR status.”

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LetsGoDigital - 05 December ‘07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and felt this is an easy to use alternative to DSLR’s. Here’s an excerpt from their review -
“Was I already satisfied with the G7; looking at the Canon G9, laying here in front of me, my photographer’s heart starts beating faster. This feeling also comes from the solidness of the camera. The Canon G9 feels like a solid tool. It may not be the most compact or the lightest camera but the advantages outweigh this factor greatly. Once holding the camera in your hands, you feel the trustworthiness and the camera leaves a solid impression behind.”

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T3 - 03 December ‘07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and felt this is an easy to use alternative to DSLR’s. Here’s an excerpt from their review -
“A feature list as exhaustive as the unabridged Oxford Dictionary includes: manual control over the aperture, shutter, sensitivity and focusing, a hotshoe for a flashgun and lens adapter ring. But the G9 isn’t just for wannabe pros. Even the most clueless shutterbug can snap away using scene modes and face detection.”

DCViews - 01 December ‘07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and thought the camera would make the perfect second camera to the DSLR owners. Here’s an excerpt from their review conclusion -
“The Canon G9 is a fantastic camera but it is not for everyone. Let me explain. Although the Powershot G9 does have a green Auto mode, where all important decisions are made for you by the camera, it is not really meant for the point-and-shoot enthusiast. If you only take the odd holiday snap or shoot the kids around the house, you would be well advised to look elsewhere as this camera is really too advanced for snapshots only.”

Imaging-Resource - 22 November’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and points out that if you liked the rangefinder style cameras of yesteryear then this might be a camera you would like. Here’s an excerpt from their review verdict -
“Sure, I wish the Canon G9 were just a bit smaller to fit in a shirt pocket without strangling me. But at least the Canon G9’s large body contains a lot of good stuff. With above-average performance, a 6x optical zoom, image stabilization, and that gorgeous 3.0-inch LCD, the Canon G9 is the G-series reborn. Though it’s still lacking the swivel screen, I found the Canon G9’s big LCD useful enough that I didn’t miss it much.”

Cameras.co.uk - 21 November’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and notes you’re not going to find a better compact digital camera. Here’s an excerpt from their review verdict -
“If quality is what counts for you the Canon Powershot G9 should be towards the top of your shortlist. It is packed with features, offers excellent picture quality and has a good build quality too.”

GoodGearGuide - 31 October’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and comments that this camera has just about every feature you would want. Here’s an excerpt from their review -
“Build quality is one of the G9’s key strengths. Constructed almost entirely out of metal, it is extremely sturdy and feels capable of taking some hefty punishment. The controls are nicely laid out and the interface is intuitive, although the shutter button and zoom controls are a touch on the small side. The 3in screen is a noteworthy upgrade, increased from 2.5in on the previous model. It is bright and crisp and makes framing your shots a breeze.”

DPReview - 26 October’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and thinks it’s not the camera for everyone. Here’s an excerpt from their review conclusion -
“In the final analysis the G9 has more to recommend it than most enthusiast compacts we test, and at ISO 80 the quality is simply superb. It’s a pleasure to use, is built like a tank and offers an SLR-like feature set in a compact format. Yes, you can buy a PowerShot A650 IS (same lens, same sensor, similar feature set and a vari-angle screen) for around a hundred dollars less, but take my word for it, the G9 is in a different league.”

Steve’s Digicams - 12 October’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and really appreciates the RAW capability. Here’s an excerpt from their review conclusion -
“Canon has done it yet again, produced another awesome “G” series Prosumer model. The G9 continues the traditions of this line, offering a slew of manual functions, great image quality, blazing fast performance, a durable exterior, and class leading specs (12-megapixels, 6x optical zoom, Canon’s OIS, Face Detection AF, etc.), not to mention plenty of automatic controls for beginners. The addition of RAW mode is very appreciated, especially since I felt it tended to use a bit more color saturation than I would prefer.”

CameraLabs - 10 October’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and likes the amount of raw photographic power available in something so small you can slip it into your pocket. Here’s an excerpt from their conclusion -
“The Canon PowerShot G9 is a very powerful compact which will greatly appeal to enthusiasts or anyone looking for a pocketable backup for a DSLR. It features a wide array of manual controls which unlike many compacts are sensibly implemented and on the whole, unrestricted. The quality lens offers a useful 6x range and sports both optical stabilization and impressive macro facilities. On the top is a fully-featured hotshoe which supports Canon’s Speedlites (complete with in-camera control over the 580EX II) and even its wireless transmitter. And the icing on the cake is support for RAW recording.”

DCResource - 09 October’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and notes this camera has just about every feature you would want in a camera. Here’s an excerpt from their conclusion -
“As long as you don’t let the ISO sensitivity wander too high, you’ll get very good quality photos from the PowerShot G9. They were well-exposed, with colors that are both accurate and vivid. The one time colors weren’t so accurate were when I was using custom white balance — the resulting photos had a greenish color cast. Photos have the “smooth” appearance that has become a trademark of Canon cameras. While noise doesn’t become a problem until the highest ISO settings, artifacts caused by noise reduction kicks in a lot earlier. You’ll start seeing noticeable detail loss at ISO 200 in low light, and ISO 400 in good light. While purple fringing wasn’t much of a problem, redeye was. Thankfully, there’s now a tool in playback mode to get remove this annoyance from your pictures.”

PhotographyBlog - 08 October’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and feels this is the kind of camera that makes you feel like a better photographer. Here’s an excerpt from their final conclusion -
“The new 3 inch, PureColor LCD screen is a great addition that almost makes it possible to ignore the small optical viewfinder, although it’s reassuring to have that on standby for really bright conditions, or if you prefer composing a picture with the camera at eye-level. Less satisfactory is the new 12.1 megapixel sensor. Although this offers 4000 pixel wide/high images that can easily be printed up to A3 size and beyond, or to make severe crops, it comes at the notable cost of noisy images at ISO 400, and virtually unusable ISO 800 and 1600 modes. The excellent image stabilisation system does help to ensure that the G9 can handle most common shooting situations, but don’t expect stellar results when using the camera handheld in very low-light. In all other respects image quality is excellent, so you may want to overlook the noise issue. So overall, and even more so than the previous G7 model, the Canon Powershot G9 is an excellent back-up compact for an SLR owner, and a great camera in its own right.”

PhotoReview - 05 October’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and indicated that pictures taken in bright situations tended to have blown out highlights. Here’s the final conclusion;
“Robustly built, comprehensively feature-packed and small enough to slip into a jacket pocket, the PowerShot G9 has a lot in its favor. Because it offers many of the same shooting controls and supports raw file capture, it would make an excellent compact back-up camera for DSLR users. It would also provide some useful features that are not provided in DSLRs. You get good range of video formats (including widescreen) and facilities for adding sound bites to pictures or making audio recordings.

However, the G9 it is not a beginner’s camera and its body is not designed for maximum handling comfort. It’s also relatively pricey for a digicam, although the price is largely justified by the camera’s image quality and functionality. In knowledgeable hands, it’s capable of delivering excellent results.”

DigitalCameraInfo - 27 September’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and writes;
“The Canon PowerShot G9 isn’t perfect – its Burst mode is slow, its 6x optical zoom doesn’t function in the Movie mode, and its autofocus system takes more time than it should – but it’s almost there. It is fairly priced at $499, as it is stuffed with lots of great features, manual controls, and high-quality components, which make it worth the price.”

TheOnlinePhotographer - 26 September’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and writes;
“I could probably write much more about the G9. It has many more features and highlights than I’ve noted. But I think you get the idea. It’s an exceptional little camera whose specs and performance would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago, particularly for $500. If you’re looking for a go-anywhere pocketable camera in this price range you owe it to yourself to look at Canon’s G9. I believe that it truly represents today’s gold standard for point & shoot camera performance and specifications.”

DigitalCameraReview - 26 September’07 - reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and writes;
“As recently as two years ago many digital camera industry insiders were predicting the imminent demise of top of the line (read expensive) prosumer/enthusiast digital cameras due to the introduction of affordable entry-level digital SLRs – those dire prophecies clearly haven’t come to pass. The G9 has a few warts, but at this point in time and when compared to the other cameras in its class - the G9 is as good as it gets. If that’s not enough, RAW is back, the G9 is more powerful, it has more features, and it’s cheaper (MSRP) than its predecessor.”

PopPhoto reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and writes;
“After the disappointing lab results of its predecessor, the Canon PowerShot G7, we were a bit skeptical of the Canon PowerShot G9. Not anymore! In general we like what we see. We like Adaptive Noise RAW conversion. We like a compact camera that syncs with external strobes. We like full manual controls. And we like Scene Assist modes to help beginners get better with their compositions before venturing into the uncharted waters of full manual control. We love the Focus Confirm and face recognition instant playback. We like the high-quality half-camera, half-computer Panoramic capture mode. Overall, we like this camera a lot. However, we’re not so impressed with ISO 1600 image quality, nor the mostly useless low-resolution ISO 3200 mode.”

CNET reviews the Canon Powershot G9 and writes;
“The Canon PowerShot G9 gets a leg up over its predecessor by improving photo quality and restoring raw-format support while maintaining the same excellent performance and body design. You probably can’t miss with this model as a compact backup for your dSLR.

The bottom line: The Canon PowerShot G9 is a solid enthusiast camera for those who want something compact to complement a dSLR.”

Video Tour

[Video Tour at CameraLabs - (added 10 October '07)]

Sample Test Photos

[Sample Photos at Pocket-lint]
[Sample Test Photos at PhotographyReview]
[Sample Test Photos at TrustedReviews]
[Sample Test Photos at LetsGoDigital]
[Sample Test Photos at Cameras.co.uk]
[Sample Test Photos at DPReview]
[Sample Test Photos at Steve's Digicams]
[Sample Test Photos at CameraLabs]
[Sample Test Photos at DCResource]
[Sample Test Photos at PhotographyBlog]
[Sample Test Photos at PhotoReview]
[Sample Test Photos at DigitalCameraInfo]
[Sample Test Photos at Canon]
[Sample Test Photos at DPReview]

Specifications

[Official Canon Specifications]

Owners Manual

[Owners Manual Download Page]

Press Release

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., August 20, 2007 Canon U.S.A., Inc. announced today that its acclaimed G-series has a new top-of-the line model - the PowerShot G9 digital camera. The PowerShot G9 digital camera offers serious shooters and value-minded professionals a feature-packed camera with many of the advanced photographic capabilities of a high-end Digital SLR camera, in a lightweight, compact package at an affordable price.

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