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Featured Review: Canon PowerShot G10
by cgarrard (Professional)
| Price Paid: 199.00 from Amazon Review Date: April 5, 2009 Used product for: 3 Months to 1 year Overall Rating: |
5 of 5
4 of 5
Summary:
The Canon G10 is a seriously spec’d digital compact camera. With 14.7mp of resolution, an almost perfect 28-140mm optical focal length lens, 460k 3″ lcd, optical viewfinder, excellent on board flash, full manual control (including manual focus), and much more, this camera will leave you with little to desire. Its feature list is too extensive for a user review, but I can tell you that the G10 covers almost every single base of a baseball diamond.
Its heft and build quality remind you of this every time you pick it up. It just begs you to pick it up and be used, not only because of its masculine and classic range finder look, but also because of the extensive manual controls, excellent and comfortable grip, customizable features and in camera processing choices.
The G10 is as simple to use, or advanced to use as you’d like. Used in auto, the G10 performs excellently for the amateur. It seems to know just what ISO to use while still preserving image quality as a priority, the flash works very well, and auto white balance will be very good most of the time. Simply a great point and shoot.
For the professional, the G10 does not disappoint. For whatever your reason for using a compact vs. your DSLR gear, the G10 will satisfy your need for extensive manual adjustments, speed, performance, battery life, and of course low ISO image quality. It comes with a smart hot shoe too for flash photography.
Add that the lens isn’t all that slow either, personally I find f2.8 at the wide angle to be pretty fast, and good for indoor photography when you need to shoot in ambient light. At f4.5 at full telephoto, I’ve seen much worse specifications, and I’ve seen better, but I am not personally disappointed.
If you want the most image quality and dynamic range (10 stops according to DXO Mark), shoot in Raw. The Jpeg engine just doesn’t keep up with what you can do with raw and there is plenty of headroom to re-capture highlights and shadows. While not quite DSLR capable specifications on image quality, low ISO comes very close. Prints to 20×30″ for the discernible professional are completely capable and acceptable.
Go higher than ISO 400 however, and the G10 starts to show its weakness- too many pixels crammed onto its 1/1.7″ sized sensor. Nope, this camera is a 80-400 ISO machine, all the way. Use 800-1600 in a pinch for small prints however, and you will be glad you got the shot rather than being a low noise snob.
Yes it is a bit heavy for a compact comparatively, but lets put things in perspective here. Its really not that heavy. You certainly won’t find a DSLR/Lens combination anywhere near its 390gram weight, nor, the much smaller dimensions this camera affords.
Vacation camera, absolutely. Heck, its an anytime camera.
On performance, the G10 does very well on startup and shutdown which both feel almost instantaneous. The lens does not wheeze or whine, it comes out with full authority and very quietly in under 2 seconds. I really like a compact that starts up quickly like this, and the G10 never disappoints me here.
Battery life is excellent, higher than most cameras. It comes with a rather large (almost DSLR sized) lithium battery that for me can pump out easily 400 shots. The amount ranges a bit depending on how much you use the LCD and flash, a good rule of thumb range is about 300-500 shots. Either way you stab it, thats a great performance for a compact.
A statistic/specification that cannot be mathematically measured is the G10′s fun/usability factor. Normally I am not much of a Canon fan, they do make an excellent product don’t get me wrong, however to each his own … I normally do not like how the user interface operates (both compact and DSLRs), but the G10 is an exception to me.
To say it is fun to use is a complete understatement. This is a camera that you’ll want to have next to you at all times, if anything to just pick up and wander through its vast menus searching for new and creative settings in which to create your images. The LCD is a marvel, one of the nicest I’ve ever seen on a compact to date, and it is protected by a nice thick multi-coated plastic cover. Viewing your images on the LCD is often more enjoyable than viewing them on your CRT/Flat panel at home.
The manual button arrangements work. A couple are in a quirky place, and sometimes the icons next to/on them can be a bit confusing to anyone who doesn’t normally use Canon cameras, yet you adapt to them pretty quick. It is nice that you have a dedicated button that can be set for quick access to just about any setting the camera has.
Overall I could be more pleased but not by much. The G10 ticks off just about everything I could want or need in the camera’s operational specifications sheet, yet, using those specifications are a complete joy. The G10 does a very good job at not getting into a photographers way.
Personally I think the G10 and Ricoh GX200 are the finest fully featured compacts currently on the market (and there are MANY), but the G10 has the best build and operating speed. In fact, the G10 may very well be the best built compact of this decade.
My hope is that Canon does not abandon what has made this camera great in the inevitable future replacement of it. If they do, rest assured I will buy another brand new G10 just so that I can have a back up in case anything goes wrong with my current model, yep…. its that good.
-Carl Garrard
Strengths:
-Build (best in the business)
-Manual Specifications
-Manual Controls
-Best resolution of any compact ever in low ISO settings, bests 10mp DSLR’s
-Good overall color
-Very good Dynamic Range when using Raw
-Real raw files that are ACR supported through free conversion software
-3″ LCD
-Excellent Grip and comfortable controls
-Huge specification sheet for an excellent learning curve for amateurs, or to satisfy professional needs.
-Good to very good macro performance
-Near perfect 28-140mm focal length
-Optical viewfinder better than most compacts yet (see weaknesses)
-A whole heck of a lot of control to the advanced photographer
-Sharp prints to 20×30″ hold up well even when viewed at close range (in low ISO shots)
-EV, ISO, and Power all have a small lit LCD on top of the camera (nice touch)
-A lot for the money (especially that prices have come down from its initial 499.00 price tag)
Weaknesses:
-Image quality over ISO 400 (including raw processed)
-B/W and Duo tone/Sepia not offered contrast/sharpness/filter color adjustments in camera as custom color setting
-Shot to shot time when using Raw can get a bit slow
-Auto focus sometimes had a hard time locking an subjects without sufficient contrast
-15 second only max exposure time, 3 minutes would be best
-No supplied lens hood
-Optical viewfinder could cover more of the actual scene, and have better magnification
-Not pocket friendly in size or weight (yet works great for coat pockets)
-Be nice if it had a 3 color histogram
Similar Products Used:
Ricoh GX200
Sony V3
Canon S70
Panasonic FZ28
and more…
Customer Service:
No experience, no comment.
This Canon PowerShot G10 review was written by Carl Garrard, a long time contributor to PhotographyREVIEW.com and a truly excellent photographer. Take a look at his member gallery to see his excellent photos. Carl runs a Sony Alpha DSLR Web site, AlphaMountWorld.com.
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Congrats, cgarrard!