Canon Powershot G10 Review
Review Date: October 27th 2008
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 14.7M Superfine mode, which gives an average image size of around 4-5Mb.
The Canon PowerShot G10's image quality is very good. The Canon PowerShot G10's main drawback in terms of image quality is noise, with ISO 400 showing some noise and blurring of detail. The noise and loss of detail gets progressively worse as you go from ISO 400 to ISO 800 and finally the completely unusable 1600 setting. The Canon PowerShot G10 handled chromatic aberrations excellently with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 14.7 megapixel images were a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting and either require some further sharpening in an application like Adobe Photoshop, or you should increase the in-camera sharpening level. The Canon Powershot G10's maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds, which is great for night photography, and the quality of the after-dark images is excellent. Left on default, under daylight, the Canon G10's colours are vivid enough for my tastes, with reds, greens and blues nicely 'punchy'. Skin tones are warm and flatteringly healthy without being unrealistically so. Macro performance is the stand-out highlight, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from the subject, although there is a lot of lens distortion and shadowing at such a close distance. Anti-shake is also a feature that sets this camera apart from its competitors and one that works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure. Overall the Canon G10 acquits itself very well in the area that counts the most, with noise at ISO 400 and above the only notable complaint.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available on the Canon Powershot G10 which you can select at any time if the camera is in any of the creative shooting modes. Disappointingly, but not unsurprisingly, image noise is readily visible in images taken above ISO 200, leading me for the most part to steer well clear of ISO 800 and 1600 (or ISO 3200 selectable via the scene modes, unless you're aiming for a homage to the Impressionists). Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.
ISO 80 (100% Crop) |
ISO 100 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 200 (100% Crop) |
ISO 400 (100% Crop) |
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ISO 800 (100% Crop) |
ISO 1600 (100% Crop) |
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Sharpening
Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little soft at the default setting ideally and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes via the My Colors menu option.
Original
(100% Crop) |
Sharpened (100% Crop) |
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File Quality
The Canon Powershot G10 has 3 different JPEG image quality settings available, with Superfine being the highest quality JPEG option. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.
14.7M
Superfine (5.38Mb) (100% Crop) |
14.7M
Fine (3.21Mb) (100% Crop) |
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14.7M
Normal (1.34Mb) (100% Crop) |
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Chromatic Aberrations
The Canon Powershot G10 handled chromatic aberrations excellently during the review. There's very slight purple fringing between areas of high contrast, but it's only noticeable on really close inspection, as shown in the examples below.
Example
1 (100% Crop) |
Example
2 (100% Crop) |
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Macro
The Canon Powershot G10 offers a Macro setting that allows you to focus on a subject that is just 1cm away from the camera when the lens is set to wide-angle. The first image shows how close you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card). The second image is a 100% crop.
Macro Shot |
Macro Shot (100% Crop) |
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Flash
The flash settings on the Canon Powershot G10 are Auto, Manual Flash On / Off, Slow Sync Speed and Red-eye Reduction. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.
Flash Off - Wide Angle (28mm) |
Auto Flash - Wide Angle (28mm) |
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Flash Off - Telephoto (140mm) |
Auto Flash - Telephoto (140mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots. Neither the Auto setting and the Red-eye reduction modes caused any amount of red-eye.
Flash On |
Flash On (100% Crop) |
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Flash - Red-eye Flash |
Flash - Red-eye Flash (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Canon Powershot G10's maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds, f/4 at ISO 80. I've included a 100% crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
Night Shot |
Night Shot (100% Crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Canon Powershot G10 has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, I took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the ISO speed set to 100. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here is a 100% crop of the image to show the results. As you can see, with anti shake turned on, the images are much sharper than with anti shake turned off. This feature really does seem to make a difference and could mean capturing a successful, sharp shot or missing the opportunity altogether.
| Shutter Speed / Focal Length | Anti Shake Off (100% Crop) |
Anti Shake On (100% Crop) |
| 1/5th sec / 28mm |  |
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| 1/4th sec / 140mm |  |
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organisation. Our test results for the Canon Powershot G10 have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.