Recent G10 Reviews and Articles

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The Canon G10 has been getting a lot of press lately. Here’s a reading list.

My own “review” – well, I only handled a G10 in a retail store – seems like a good camera to me.

The latest G10 review is at Digital Photography Review. This is a somewhat controversial review for many G10 owners and would-be owners because the G10 received “only” a Recommended rating.

DxO Labs has established a database of digital sensor quality measurements. The Canon G9 and G10 sensors are included in their database. This is a very technical presentation and discussion of digital sensor performance.

Another controversial report is posted at the Luminous Landscape by Michael Reichmann wherein he compares prints from the G10 to a $40,000 Hasselblad system. The G10 came out very well! Previously, Michael had compared a G10 to the Nikon P6000 with some references to the Panasonic LX-3.

Thom Hogan also compared the G10, P6000 and LX-3. Thom uses and writes about Nikon equipment but liked the G10.

Ken Tanaka changed his mind about the G10 and decided to get one after all.

Edward Taylor’s first impressions of the G10 was one of the early reviews.

Amin posted his own comparisons of the G10 and LX-3 at high ISO.

Adobe has updated Camera Raw to support the G10 raw format; however, the updated Camera Raw (Version 5.2) works only with the latest release of Photoshop (CS4).
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Last Powershot SDK Released

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On November 12, Canon released the last Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Powershot cameras. This release has been expected for some time. As noted previously, Canon is ending SDK support for the Powershot cameras. Canon's announcement included the same wording as the previous announcements.
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High Dynamic Pumpkin

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I like High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography although I must admit that my results are still unpredictable. A new book, “Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography” by Ferrell McCollough, is helping me to become more consistent in my HDR processing.

This HDR image was made using four shots from my Canon G9. The G9 was in Av mode, ISO 400, manual focus. ISO 400 helped to avoid some very long exposures and also to dodge the Av “bug” that limits shutter speeds to 1 second. The four shots were combined in Photomatix and also tone mapped in Photomatix before final touchups, including noise reduction with Noiseware, in Photoshop CS4.

As an 12x18 inch on canvas, I like it a lot. A screen sized version is in my G9 gallery on SmugMug.

Why Av mode? A neat trick is to use Av mode and also set auto exposure bracketing. This produces three shots. Next, dial in some negative exposure compensation and fire again to get three more shots. Finally, dial in some positive exposure compensation and get three more shots. Depending on the settings for exposure bracketing and exposure compensation, some of the shots may be at the same exposure but you’ll only touch the camera twice during the process.

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G10 Review at Luminous Landscape

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At the Luminous Landscape, Michael Reichmann has posted his hands own review of both the Canon G10 and the Nikon P6000 - he even throws in a few comparisons and comments about the Panasonic LX3. This is a review well worth reading; in fact, Luminous Landscape is one of the sites that I check every day.
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Last Powershot SDK

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In April, I received an email from Canon noting that the next Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Powershot series would be the last one. I checked and Canon said that this information could be released so I posted it in my blog.

Since the Canon email said that a new G series camera would be available in the fall, I posted that information as well. It was interesting to observe that this disclosure was largely ignored in the various online discussion forums. Sometimes it is just more fun to speculate.

In late July, I made my own predictions about the upcoming “G10” and, luckily, did not miss the mark very much. OK, so I thought the G10 would come out a bit sooner than it did, thought it would have HD video and completely missed the wide angle, shorter zoom. Oh, well…

Yesterday I received another SDK announcement from Canon. Basically, this new announcement was the same as the previous ones except that the G10 and SX110 IS were mentioned by name. The last Powershot SDK will be issued near the end of 2008. It will support the G10 and SX110IS but will not be Vista compatible. Also noted, Canon expects the G10 and SX110IS to be sold at least through mid-2009 but this could change without notice. Not really anything new but nothing different either.

I still wonder: Is this the end of the “Powershot” series or simply the end of the SDK program? The Canon email would be true if a “Powershot G11” came out in the fall of 2009 but without an SDK. The email would also be true if Canon released a “StrongCam C-1” (with CMOS?) with its own, new SDK in the spring of 2009 and then ended the Powershot series. Now, there’s a rumor for you!
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A Year with the Canon G9

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Just over a year ago, I ordered a Canon G9 and made my first post about it. Since then, I’ve posted at least 80 articles about my experiences with the G9 along with an occasional bit of news or other link. (See the labels on the left hand side of the blog for an index.) In the past year, the G9 has been by my side (well, in the bag over my shoulder) almost every day.

Even though I’ve done a lot with the G9, yesterday was the first trip to the zoo for my G9 and also for my granddaughter. Another first – as simple as it seems – was that I used the on-camera flash for fill. The day was bright and clear but the zoo was full of shadows and I was not always able to get the best angle to the sun. As usual, I shot in raw, Av mode but this time turned on the flash with flash compensation reduced by 1/3. This worked out well.

Thinking back over the past year with my G9, I began by talking about my trusty G3. The G3 still works as well as ever but is rarely used. During Hurricane Gustav, I did use the intervalometer of the G3 but fortunately recorded nothing of serious consequence.

Noise at high ISO was an early concern for G9 images and I’ve worked with noise reduction techniques quite a bit ever since. In fact, noise reduction and comparisons is my latest on-going project. I’ll summarize my conclusions about G9 noise by saying that the results at ISO 400 are usually OK for me if I get the exposure right and use raw mode. In a pinch, I do use ISO 800 rather than miss a picture entirely.

I’ve used the G9 almost every day since getting it and have taken 8599 pictures with the G9. True, many of those were learning or experimental shots but most were taken with at least some hope of getting a ‘keeper’. My keepers include 22 photos posted in a public G9 gallery and roughly twice that number of more personal shots in private galleries. By my count, I’ve printed 11 keepers at 12x18 inches in addition to test shots; several dozen keepers at 8x10 (OK, mostly of my granddaughter) and hundreds of snapshots. Some of my G9 shots were entered into the monthly competition sponsored by my local camera club and occasionally get some sort of recognition. Like many photographers these days, most of my work lives only in computer memory and is shown only on a computer screen.

Friday, I held a G10 in my hot little hands. Having used the G9 so much, the G10 felt very familiar and almost intuitive to use. The G10 is a nice camera and I wouldn’t hesitate to get one except that I already have a G9.

For the foreseeable future, the G9 will remain my everyday work horse of a camera. I recently bought a few new flash gadgets as well as Photoshop CS4 and will be writing about those as soon as I finish my self imposed study on G9 noise reduction.

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G10: First Impressions

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No, not mine. There's a nice first impressions write-up about the G10 by Edward Taylor at the Online Photographer site.
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