Camera Test: Canon PowerShot G9

Canon's new top of the line pocket rocket gets some major upgrades, including the return of RAW and a new RAW converter for the total control freaks.

Put the new 12.1 megapixel Canon PowerShot G9 ($499 street) next to the 10 megapixel PowerShot G7 it replaces. Now stick a piece of gaffer's tape over the model number. You'd be hard-pressed to tell them apart. The two digital cameras are virtually identical on the outside. Same optically stabilized 35-210 f/2.8-4.8 6x zoom lens (35mm equivalent), same hotshoe, similar optical viewfinder, slightly bigger 3-inch wide view LCD, but pretty close to identical all around.

But inside, it's a different story. The G9 marks the return of RAW to this line of cameras, a move that is sure to please the hardcore shooters, along with an interesting new "Adaptive Noise Control" function in the ZoomBrowser (PC)/ImageBrowser (Mac) RAW converter. Not only that, the G9 can brag about 2 million more pixels inside on its 1/1.7 chip. But it doesn't blow the 10 megapixel G7 away in resolution. Instead, it appears the Canon PowerShot G9 uses all those extra pixels for noise smoothing, both in JPEG and RAW capture modes. We had no complaints with the resolution of the G7, which like the G9 uses the Digic III processor, but noise was another issue. The G9 goes a long way towards fixing those issues. It's not perfect -- high ISO shots can still be noisy, but not to the unacceptable extremes we saw with the G7. Add in the adaptive noise control for smoothing RAW data with marginal resolution loss and the G9 emerges as a much improved camera over the G7, though it does carry over a couple of the G7's weak points:

• Barrel distortion is still a big problem at the 35mm wide angle setting.
• A burst rate only a slug could love -- especially in RAW (although it does continue to chug along for a long time, and doesn't buffer-lock).
• Confusing menu-driven options and multi-button/dial configurations that can drive both the Elph and EOS user nuts trying to figure out.
• Lens barrel intrusion into the optical viewfinder field at wide-angle.
• Only about 80% coverage with optical viewfinder.

On the other hand, there are some really cool new features on the new G9:

• Face detection, including tracking, AutoExposure, and FlashExposure settings.
• Focus-confirm playback enlarges the area of focus for instant confirmation that a shot is acceptably sharp -- linked to Face Detect -- up to 10x.
• Panning Image Stabilization mode.
• RAW, and the Adaptive Noise Control command in ZoomBrowser/ImageBrowser.
• Bigger, higher-resolution LCD

So what have we got? We've got a great-looking advanced compact camera, with full manual controls and RAW capture that can sync with Canon EX-series hotshoes at 1/250 second (normal sync) plus high-speed sync up to 1/2500 second. It can also shoot in 16:9 aspect ratio, and capture video at up to 640 x 480 px at 30fps or 1024 x 768 px @15fps. The microphone also has a digital wind filter function for outdoor shoots. Oh, and it's not just a still and compact video camera -- the G9 can also be used as a digital audio recorder.

We're not talking 30-second clips here. We're talking a full-on audio recorder. The G9 can record monaural audio for two straight hours at three sampling rates, 11.025kHz, 22.050kHz and 44.100kHz. That's long enough for many press events, interviews, and audio capture for Soundslides multi-media slideshows.

Admittedly there are smaller, more feature-rich audio recorders on the market, but we haven't seen any digital audio recorders that also feature a 12 Megapixel, 6x optically stabilized zoom that also captures high-resolution video before now! That's a pretty good argument to convince photo department heads to buy the G9 "platypus" for everyone on the staff!

There's a lot to love about the PowerShot G9 -- especially the focus-confirm instant playback. If you're grabbing a number of shots in a row, it can slow you down, but for single shots, it is great. It cuts right to the chase, overlaying the instant review with the active focusing areas with those areas enlarged for quick confirmation of sharpness and exposure. It's one of those little things we didn't realize we'd been missing until we had it!

But all the bells and whistles mean nothing if image quality isn't there. Fortunately, it is much better on the PowerShot G9 than it was in the PowerShot G7. So much so that we'd recommend against buying a PowerShot G7 on closeout prices. Instead, spend the extra cash for the PowerShot G9. Our Certified Test results show marked improvements in noise, especially at low and middle ISOs, and with Adaptive Noise cranked way up.

continue reading...

Via Popphoto.com