Canon PowerShot G9

Justin Blanton -

First of all, thanks to everyone who e-mailed me regarding the initial post about point-and-shoots — your comments, suggestions, and questions were much appreciated.

About a week after I published the aforementioned post, I picked up the FinePix F50,¹ and a week after that I bought the Canon PowerShot G9, which I’m here to tell you is awesome. I’m in love with this camera. Plain and simple.

It’s built like a tank and comes packed with pro features, and this combination combats well the inescapable thought in the back of your mind (if you shoot mostly with a DSLR) that you’re taking throwaway shots on some shoddy point-and-shoot; indeed, you feel like you’re taking legitimate photographs on a DSLR-in-the-making (save the shutter lag). Canon gets it right in its ad copy when it says something to the effect of, It doesn’t know it’s not a digital SLR, a phrase buttressed by the camera’s many features and niceties, including:

  • RAW support
  • Full manual shooting mode (plus aperture-priority mode)
  • 12.1 megapixel sensor
  • Available wide-angle, telephoto and macro supplementary lenses
  • 3-inch screen (which just looks wonderful)
  • Flash hot shoe
  • Optical image stabilizer
  • Face detection
  • Brilliant build quality (had to mention this again)
  • Optical viewfinder (not always the easiest thing to find in a point-and-shoot these days)

If you can’t afford a DSLR, simply don’t want something that large, or just want a less cumbersome complement to the DSLR you already own, and you are OK with not having the smallest camera on the block, then the PowerShot G9 is probably a good choice (assuming you have at least a moderate understanding of how to operate a camera outside of auto).

Overall, it’s a great little camera that I’m happy to have with me when my DSLR just isn’t practical.

Various reviews you may find helpful: Digital Photography Review, PhotographyBLOG, and LetsGoDigital.

FOOTNOTES

While I liked the F50, I quickly realized that I just couldn’t live without RAW and an optical viewfinder, and the camera was almost too small. ↩