G10 Announced

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Today Canon announced the Powershot G10 as the replacement for their G9. The G10 had been anticipated for months although there was much debate about the name and features. My own predictions – not perfect, but not too bad – were made in late July.

There are good summaries and preliminary reviews at Imaging Resource and DPReview . I’m sure those same sites will soon have more complete hands-on reports and sample pictures. Full size sample pictures from Canon have been posted although all are at ISO 80.

As for my own predictions, my biggest surprise is that the G10 has a new, wider angle zoom lens: 28 – 140 mm (using 35mm equivalent). I appreciate the wider angle even though some photographers wanted an even longer telephoto than the 210 mm of the G9. It was good to see Canon responding to the need for a wider angle zoom.

I probably will not be getting a G10. Although I’m sure that the G10 will be a good camera and it has some nice features – especially that wider angle lens -- the G10 is not really a major upgrade to the G9 for those who already have a G9.

This Light Description blog is sometimes said to be specific to the G9 but it really isn’t. My intention for Light Description has always been to create a platform for presenting my photographic thoughts, experiences and results as well as simply learning how to write a blog. In getting the G9 last year, I noted that equipment was not the limiting factor in my photographic efforts. Of course, since then I’ve bought more equipment – including the G9! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed learning to use the G9, pushing it to the max for performance, and blogging about the experience. In fact, I’m still learning to use my G9.

I use my G9 in some way nearly every day and have taken nearly eight thousand pictures with it. But I’ve used video only a few times, the voice recorder only once, and haven’t used the special scene settings at all. I have plans to test and write about the various exposure modes, light metering modes, more about noise reduction and high ISO, more about HDR , raw processing, software, etc., etc. I’m very interested in learning to use off-camera flash. Much of these thoughts and experiences will also apply to other cameras, especially the G7 and, I assume, the G10.

So Light Description will go on. Everyday several hundred readers check in; most readers have been particularly interested in the G9. Those G9’ers will see the emphasis continue on the G9 for a while and then gradually shift to general techniques even though the camera being used will probably be the G9.

But I really do like cameras …

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