Canon PowerShot G9

Although I have always had a personal leaning towards cameras from another maker, I have always had a secret love affair with Canon compacts. This goes back to the early 70s when I borrowed a walking companion's Canonet G-III 17 QL and ran a few films through it in the Highlands of Scotland. The results from the 40mm f1.7 lens were impressive, were blown up to 30-inch prints, and a love of compacts began. The angular shape, robustness, feel and the simplicity of rangefinder focusing always made the compacts of this era very satisfying to use. The 40mm lens was almost perfect for landscape. The compact camera has, of course, undergone the same meteoric rise in sophistication as that endured by its SLR cousins. The QL of the Canonet denoted a Quick Load mechanism consisting of a flap of metal that allowed you to pull out the film leader, close the back and watch for the little mechanical flag to move, to confirm film transport. Happy days, when such a trivial feature was a USP that eventually ended in 1.2 million G-IIIs being sold, probably the best selling camera of its type of all time. The production ran from  1972 to 1983, a huge cycle by today's 'change-them-everymonth' attitude. Canon currently have sold 100 million compact cameras.

The G-III has long gone but we photographed Mrs Editor's Olympus RC, a quite similar camera to the Canonet, alongside the G9. To the untrained eye they look quite similar. The G9 was bought in an almost instant decision as a camera that we could shoot up a pole (see the review in this issue), because it supports Live View for feedback to ground level. The sub-agenda was a need for a lighter camera to take on the Camino de Santiago later in the year – the thought of humping an SLR across the top of Spain clinched the deal and had us straight over to Calumet!

The specification of the G9 is immense and I do not intend to list all the features and talk about them (try www.dpreview.com  for a comprehensive report, as always!). The essential items are a 12 million pixel chip, and a stabilised zoom lens that extends from 35mm f2.8 to 210mm f4.8. The shutter speeds range from 15 seconds to 1/2,500; the ISO from 100 to 1,600. Importantly the camera shoots RAW, JPEG or both at the same time. The storage is provided by an SD or HCSD card. With a specification such as this the camera should in theory be suitable for occasional or emergency use by a professional photographer, particularly a camera to have in the car at all times.

Colour Testing

We used our normal colour testing regime of shooting a Gretagmacbeth SG target in daylight (dull overcast) with an exposure of nominally 1/60 at f8 for 200ISO. The target was shot using auto exposure control in both JPEG and RAW formats. The exposure was just on half a stop over-exposed and we corrected the RAW file for colour balance and exposure before analysing the colour error using the Rags Gardner script described in the last issue. The error across the chart was just 2.81ΔE2000. This is remarkably good, right up with the flagship SLRs. Comparing this shot with an as-shot JPEG pointed up the benefits of RAW correction. The JPEG average error across the chart was 7.32 ΔE2000. The JPEG compression on the camera seems fierce, although noise is the main issue. Skin tones are rendered too red with obvious artefacts. The exaggerated saturation only serves to increase the visibility of this effect in skin tones.

Although the noise and JPEG artefacts are obvious when you blow the image up on screen, a much more valid test is to make a print. At 4,000x3,000 pixels, the native file can be output at inkjet resolution (180ppi) at 22.2x16.6 inches – there are a lot of pixels in a G9! To this end we made a print, at proofer quality, onto 17" paper. None of the artefacts was visible at normal viewing distance, although the print showed the characteristics we expected from the colour audit, namely exaggerated saturation and reddened skin tones. Despite that, the print was acceptable for commercial use for the group shots. Detail in the bride's test was quite well rendered.

Although the G9 can shoot both RAW and JPEG images, only JPEG may be shot using the camera capture software, RemoteCapture DC. This is not mentioned in the literature and we only found out by virtue of the absence of a RAW setting in the preferences pane for the camera.

In Use

It is only when you start to use a camera for a period of time that some of its quirks become obvious. The RAW files will only open in CS3 as far as I can tell, for example (other than the provided software, of course).

The viewfinder is very small, the Live View rear LCD shooting method is very alien and the lack of settings information is very unsettling – I gleefully shot a few fuzzy shots in some woods before I realised that 1/30s and a moving dog were not good partners at 210mm focal length, even with stabilisation. I did however, notice that 800ISO is so poor on noise that you can see the deterioration on the LCD if you zoom in – this camera does not deliver Nikon D3 low-light performance, only to be expected from a chip that measures just 7.2x5.3mm. DPReview describes the 800 and 1600ISO shooting as 'so poor it is pointless'.

The number and complexity of shooting modes borders on the ridiculous; why anybody would ever wish to be bothered with 25 shooting modes is a mystery. I found myself hundreds of yards behind my walking companions just stopping to try a macro shot and then turn the camera back to 'normal' mode. The level of complexity might look good as bullet points on the point-of-sale box, but does little for ease of use – I was rapidly yearning for the esoteric simplicity of the Canonet! The only simple change is the ISO, which occupies a prominent position on the top plate with its own dial. The pdf manual runs to 274 pages so you are in for a long read before you can understand how everything works. It is ironic that I can pick up almost any Canon or Nikon D-SLR and get an image out of it without recourse to any manuals, but this consumer product is unfathomable to anybody over the age of 50 – it's almost as bad as my digital watch, another gizmo that is entrusted to the children to alter!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Within the parameters that are set by the camera type and price point, the G9 is a solid, well-made and stylish little camera with quite a retro look and feel. Inside it is anything but retro, being jam-packed with features, rather too many features for the author's taste, but others may have different views. Providing it is used at less than 200ISO you are in with a fighting chance of creating an image that could be used professionally, either in an emergency or for a less demanding task. As well as the aerial shooting we used the camera in a number of social situations (family gatherings, country walks and the like) where it performed adequately, but not outstandingly, however, if for any reason you wish to leave the SLRs behind it will get the event recorded and it is some way better than your mobile phone.

Canon UK Ltd contact details