Canon G9

Only a few months ago, I realized that, with the possible exception of flash, my equipment was not the limiting factor in my photographic efforts. I do have quite a bit of equipment and although much of it is old and none of it is “high end”, equipment is not my problem. I resolved to study lighting, especially with small strobe flashes, and to somehow become more creative.

The Strobist is helping me a lot with lighting and flash; he’s even helped with creativity in the process. I’ve added some flash equipment and it’s fun to experiment with lighting. The camera doesn’t particularly matter as long as it can shoot in manual mode and link somehow with a couple of external flashes. I’ve used both a Canon 20D and G3 to study and experiment with lighting.

On the other hand, my Canon G3 was a bit long in the tooth. In the five years since I got it, Canon’s G Series of cameras had progressed from the G3 (there was also a G1 and G2) to the G5, G6 and G7. The G7 was completely unexpected because Canon was said to have dropped the G Series entirely. When the G7 came along, I was interested but then discovered that the G7 did not have RAW capture. The G7 is a very nice looking camera with many devotees (see MyCanonG7.com) but omitting RAW capture actually caused an uproar within the Internet crowd. I was among those who signed petitions of complaint.

Canon responded with the G9. (There are various stories about why Canon skipped G4 and G8 but who really knows?) The G9 has RAW! My bluff was called and I responded. I’ve had a G9 for about a week now and am really enjoying learning to use it. Much of the logic and use are somewhat familiar to me from my experience with the G3 and 20D. The G9 is very similar in appearance to the G7 and has essentially the same features.

So for the next several weeks I plan to tinker with and write about my G9.