Canon G9 - Reviews?

[keith204]

Tonight I stopped in Circuit City and drooled all over their Canon G9 that I've been eyeballing for quite some time now. Searching Google, I see most people like it. Does anybody here own it? What do you think?

 

[keith204]

Also, does f/2.8 in a P&S suck just the same amount of light as f/2.8 in a DSLR?

 

[Iron Flatline]

No, f/2.8 in a P&S just sucks...

fnarrrrrrrr

Sorry, couldn't help that set up.

I have one of the other manual P&S cameras in the market, the Leica D-Lux 3. It also shoots RAW, and opens up to f/2.8. Don't expect too much.

For what it is worth, I have noticed two things:

1 - a lot of photographers who take themselves (too) seriously over at the Leica Forum own the G9 as their "easy" camera.

2 - two fine art photographers I know each bought the G9 for their respective spouse.

Make of this information what you will.

Also, once I lose my D-Lux 3, I will replace it with a G9.

But don't expect miracles. You'll get great family pictures, and RAW will allow you to fix up serious bloopers after taking them, but you're not the next Robert Frank with that thing.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

Hey, Iron and Keith, I looked at a G9, but decided against it. Shutter lag was a primary concern of mine.

I shoot a Lumix L1 with the Leica 14-50 zoom for a lot of my street work, but as you know, it is kind of big and cumbersome. So I just ordered a Ricoh GRD II with the external viewfinder. I am not worried about the small sensor as I will not be printing very large. What do you think? I should have it sometime next week.

 

[Iron Flatline]

I gather the Ricoh is a great camera. I've only seen one, and read a number of positive articles about it, but I've never actually held one in my hand.

 

[Rick Waldroup]

You know, I actually had a chance to play around with a Canon G9 at a camera store. I was really impressed with the build quality. However, it was a little larger than I expected and like I said, the shutter lag, while not bad, was still a little slow.

I have a friend that shoots the Ricoh and he swears by it, so we shall see. It should be arriving later on in the week. I'll do a little street shooting with it and post some shots.

 

[Nein-reis]

I have a G9. Wonderful little camera, nothing bad about it also nothing incredible about it. I would recommend it as a professionals P&S but not a pro camera.

I like to use it when I go on family outings and I don't want to pack around one of my DSLR's. I also like to cary it wherever I go to and shoot textures for photoshop work. The raw and 12mgp makes that nice.

 

[keith204]

I have a G9. Wonderful little camera, nothing bad about it also nothing incredible about it. I would recommend it as a professionals P&S but not a pro camera.

I like to use it when I go on family outings and I don't want to pack around one of my DSLR's. I also like to cary it wherever I go to and shoot textures for photoshop work. The raw and 12mgp makes that nice.

exactly. I shoot with 40Ds so this won't be used as "pro" gear, but something to take to family events and simply around with me everywhere I don't want to haul my big cameras.

At Circuit City I was very impressed with the sharpness. I shot at f/2.8 (whatever that means in the P&S dictionary), 800 ISO, and at the wide end. Zoomed in on the little LCD screen, I could read price tags on the other side of the store. As for the size, the reviews say "this camera is not pocketable, and much bigger than I thought" BUT, going in with this, I was very impressed with the small size. IMO it's certainly pocketable, but then I am a nerd who doesn't mind bulging pockets, and often wear cargos.

What I'm really after, is a good compact camera, that doesn't attract tons of attention, but allows me control & versatility. From what I hear, this one seems to wrap it up as long as I don't have the expectations of a pro DSLR body.