Canon G9

I recently bought a Canon G9 -- a 12 mp P&S. It has great handling characteristics and its capabilities are very impressive so far. The manual focus actually seems useful and the 3 inch screen is great. Images are noisey but not unplesant. I'm still getting used to using it and have not done anything "serious yet.

I'm posting an image right out of the camera to the man and nature forum Its called Nabnasset Lake -- I shot it in jpeg because my PS CS3 hasn't arrived yet and I'm waiting for it before I use raw mode.

Can you tell anything from this image? Probably not but comments welcomed.

Image shot at ISO 80 1/125 @ F7.1

Frank

P.S. dpreview has posted some better samples of this camera

Go here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0708/07082005canong9.asp

I had a G6 that I now deeply regret selling. I'd be interested in your experience with the G9 - I'm tempted to get one myself.

I picked up a G9. I have not used it much yet, but so far I am impressed. The camera is very full-featured, easy to use and the images are pretty dang good for a P&S. I was worried about noise, but shooting at 80 ISO, it is not much of an issue. Amazon now has it at $467 with free shipping. I have read newegg has it for around $450.

Jay -- I'm selling my G5 as we speak -- hope I don't regret it!

Harley, I paid $450 at Circuit City using a discount coupon from AAA. So far I really like the camera and am trying to learn enough about before trying any thing 'serious.'

What do you think of the digital zoom? Pretty slick if you ask me. 24X and I think with 12 MP the images wil be useful for small illustrations and such (I have an application like that)

Thanks,
Frank

I'd like to get people's thoughts on how noisy the G9 is in RAW mode, especially as ISO 400 and 800 (beyond that I'll never use it). I have an LX1 which is quite noisy as well, but the noise cleans up very nicely using Noise Ninja. I am hoping the same is true of the G9.

Vandit

Vandit,

I just received my copy of CS3 upgrade so I'll test out the raw & the noise. I guess I'll also buy Noise Nija -- or is there a better choice??

Thanks,
Frank

I don't have CS3 yet, so I have just been using it in jpeg mode. From all I have read, anything over 200 gets pretty bad. I plan to shoot it at 80 and 100 pretty much all the time.

Frank, I've only ever used Noise Ninja. I downloaded the pro version a year or two ago and have been very pleased with it.

Ditto what Steve said, Frank. I gather NeatImage works quite well too. I doubt if there is a huge difference between either of these. I picked NN b/c you get a PS plugin as well as a standalone app, in case you ever need it.

And thanks for your offer - look forward to getting your feedback. I'd ask on DPReview but to be honest, I find the opinions from NPN contributors to be a lot more credible.

Harley, I've found JPEG noise reduction to be less than ideal for most compacts. Usually, the camera picks a level of noise reduction that is different from what I would prefer. The LX-1 is a camera with a pretty noisy sensor - quite substandard, actually - but the ergonomics of the camera are such that it is worth living with that noise. And shooting RAW, I get quite decent results. See a comparison here:
http://www.photosafariindia.com/articles/rev2-lx1.html

Cheers,
Vandit