Canon Powershot G9 Review
Review Date: October 8th 2007
Author: Mark Goldstein
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Image Quality
All of the sample images in this Review were taken using the 12.1 megapixel SuperFine
JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around
6Mb.
Noise
There are 6 ISO settings available on the Canon Powershot G9 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.
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.
File Quality
The Canon Powershot G9 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.
RAW Format
The Canon Powershot G9 supports both JPEG and RAW format files.
Here are some RAW images for you to download and
evaluate.
Download
Example #1
Download
Example #2
Download
Example #3
Chromatic Aberrations
The Canon Powershot G9 handled
chromatic aberrations excellently during the review. There's
very slight fringing between
areas of high contrast – bright skies and foreground for
example – but it's only noticeable on really close inspection,
as shown in the examples below.
Macro
The Canon Powershot G9 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.
Flash
The flash settings on the Canon Powershot G9 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.
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Auto
Flash - Telephoto (210mm) |
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And here are some portrait shots.
Both the Auto setting and the Red-eye reduction modes caused
a very small amount of red-eye.
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Auto
(100% Crop) |
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Red-eye
reduction (100% Crop) |
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Night Shot
The Canon Powershot G9's maximum shutter speed is 15 seconds, which is great
for night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter
speed of 1/2 second, f/3.2 at ISO 400. I've included a 100%
crop of the image to show what the quality is like.
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Night
Shot (100% Crop) |
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Anti Shake
The Canon Powershot G9 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.
Overall Image Quality
As you'd expect from such an enthusiast's model, images appear sharp, well exposed
and crystal clear on the Canon Powershot G9's large 3 inch
screen – and happily the same is true once downloaded
to the
desktop
and examined in closer detail. There's no doubting that optical
image stabilization is a real plus at the longer end of the
zoom, meaning that any blurred images among the test shots
were few and far between. The degree of highlight and shadow
detail is also acceptable at this level. Disappointingly,
but not unsurprisingly for a 12 megapixel camera, 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). The built-in flash
worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure,
although the lens exhibits noticeable vignetting at the wide-angle
focal lengths. Macro performance is amazing, allowing you
to focus as close as just 1cm away from the subject and capturing
lots of
detail. The Canon Powershot G9'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 G9'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. There's some very slight fringing between areas of high
contrast – bright skies and foreground for example – but it's
only
noticeable on really close inspection, and certainly not
on an A3 print. Overall the Canon G9 acquits
itself very well in the area that counts the most, with noise
at ISO 400 and above the only notable complaint.
 PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Canon Powershot G9 have been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.
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