 A great in-between camera |
| Review Date: October 14, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Lauren Holmes, USA |
I'm a hobbyist who long ago owned a Konica SLR and shot lots of slides. In the digital age, I've only owned point-and-shoot cameras and have become frustrated by their lack of flexibility and quality. I looked long and hard at SLRs but don't yet feel I can spring for the price. I also wanted something more easily portable. But I wanted complete control over shutter speed and aperture, and I wanted to be able to shoot in RAW for more post-processing flexibility. I decided to spring for the G10.
Since purchasing this camera about a week ago, I've taken about 2,000 shots. (I went a little nuts!) Here's what I've learned so far:
-- Although the auto settings produced very good pictures, this camera really comes into its own when you shoot in Manual mode. I was able to routinely get some vivid fall sunset scenes on a lake with beautifully saturated color and contrast by tweaking shutter speed and aperture settings separately.
-- I'd say that the noise at 400+ without post-tweaking is considerable, though nowhere near what I used to see on 400 ISO film back in the day. It was easily reduced post-processing using a noise-reduction program that works within Photoshop, and I ended up with some beautiful indoor shots with minimal effort. I even took some night landscape pictures with a bright moon at 1600, and was pleasantly surprised at the results after tweaking them afterward.
-- I was able to get extremely sharp photos in macro mode (closeups of bees in flowers, that kind of thing), again without a tripod. I'm still getting the hang of focusing on the exact part of the flower that I want; I find it more cumbersome to do it with this camera than I did with my old SLR (where you just turned the lens with your hand).
-- The camera did a good job out of the box at face recognition. The built-in flash on auto settings was just OK; it didn't hideously over-expose the faces, but it didn't look entirely natural either. Again, moving away from the auto settings and using fill flash judiciously helped me create some much more natural and attractive portraits. I would imagine adding a separate flash attachment would help even more. I found my favorite portraits were taken with no flash at all and some light tweaking with contrast in Photoshop.
-- The optical zoom met my needs well. I loved having the wide-angle capability for landscape shots, and I got some gorgeous, very clear pictures of a bald eagle at the top of a tree with the telephoto zoom. The camera clearly showed me when I was moving beyond the optical zoom into digital zoom, and my pictures of the eagle deteriorated accordingly. I will probably turn off the digital zoom.
-- The camera comes with all kinds of built-in scene settings (snow, night snapshots, sunsets, underwater, etc.), most of which I haven't yet found that helpful. I did get a couple of fun foliage shots using the sunset and foliage settings, but in both cases I could've gotten the same results simply tweaking in Photoshop afterward. If you don't want to mess with post-processing programs or playing with the camera's controls, I could see how these scene settings could be useful.
-- Photoshop CS3 can't open the RAW files from this camera yet. This is a big drawback for my purposes. I have opened the RAW files in the Canon software that comes with the camera, but it's not nearly as powerful or intuitive as Photoshop. So for now, I'm exporting the RAW files to Photoshop as TIFFs, and they're enormous -- 85 MG. The quality is marvelous, however, and I'm hoping that Adobe will quickly add support for the G10.
I'll try to add some photo examples to this review. I noticed they get a little washed out when saved for the web; the originals are much more vivid.
As point-and-shoots go, this is about as good as it gets for my purposes. I gave it five stars, though I'd like to give it a half-star demerit for the lack of RAW support in Photoshop (a problem I hope will soon be corrected). If you're not quite ready for the leap to an SLR but you want more control and quality than the common point-and-shoot camera, this is an outstanding choice. |
Don't be afraid... buy this camera!
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| Review Date: November 1, 2008 |
| Reviewer: William E. Irving, Madison, WI United States |
I am what one may call a "serious amateur" photographer. My first serious camera was a WWII-vintage 35mm Leica rangefinder that my dad, while in the U.S. Army, got from a captured German Oberleutnant (he said he won it from him playing cards!). I still have that camera, though it needs work. My first "modern" SLR was a Canon F-1 I got back in the early 1980's. Wife Number One got that - along with all the lenses and accessories - in the divorce.
At this stage in my life, I still care about the quality of pictures I take, but I no longer have the money or the desire to carry around a bulky DSLR body with a satchel full of lenses, flashes, filters, etc. Forgive me, O gods that guard the purity of the photographic arts - I want a point-and-shoot! But I don't want a toy, either.
My first choices would have been something like a Leica DLUX 4 10.1-megapixel Digital Still Camera or a maybe a Sigma DP1 14MP Digital Camera. Both - sorry to say - are a little too rich for my blood right now. That left me with plan B - either the Panasonic DMC-LX3K 10.1MP Digital Camera with 2.5x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Black) or the Canon Powershot G10 14.7MP Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom.
As much as I have liked Canon products in the past (I have owned Canon scanners and printers as well as cameras over the years and have always liked their products), I was highly suspicious of the Canon G10 on the grounds of its 14.7 Megapixel resolution. How much digital noise would I have to endure so Canon could claim victory in the latest skirmish of the megapixel wars? I was also very intrigued by the Panasonic for its lens - extremely fast for a point-and-shoot at f2.0 and its unusually wide angle of 24mm (35mm equivalent).
In the end I got the Canon G10 for the following reasons:
1. Most of my shooting is either portrait or outdoor scenery shots, where short to long telephoto (60mm-200mm equivalent) is most appropriate, so the extreme wide angle of the Panasonic was less useful to me. If you are someone who takes lots of family group shots in close quarters, you may feel differently, however.
2. The Canon, though with a slower lens than the Panasonic, was nevertheless able to pass my "art museum test." In other words, I could take excellent hand-held shots indoors of art objects in available light at fairly low ISOs of well under 400, sometimes at nearly 200; shots clear enough to show the depth and detail of every brush stroke. I found that to be good enough for me. But if you are someone who likes to do available-light shots in candle light or outdoors around camp fires, the extra speed of the Panasonic's lens may then become crucial.
3. The Panasonic, though admittedly an excellent camera of its type, was awkward to use, at least for me. It was a tad too small for comfort (I am a big guy, 6'4", 280 pounds, with hands like catcher's mitts). The camera always felt on the verge of slipping out of my hands, especially when holding it in my left hand while messing with the controls with my right. And mess around I did, since the controls were not particularly intuitive in their operation. I'm sure one could get used to just about anything, especially if one reads the manual and practices with it long enough. But I am of the school that believes that good interface design means NOT having to read the manual!
4. The Canon G10, in my opinion, just fits. Big enough and properly shaped for my hands to feel comfortable gripping, but just small enough for carrying in a coat or jacket pocket (though admittedly too big and heavy for a shirt pocket). What's more, every major control is plainly marked and positioned right where God intended for it to be. I found that the Canon passed my "users manual test" as well. Only with the most obscure and least-often-used functions did I have to break out the damned book to figure out how they worked. The camera feels satisfyingly solid, with very good build quality; it just feels good in the hands. I found I felt comfortable with the camera very quickly, could take pictures right away, without hassling with learning the manufacturer's perverse sense of control interface logic.
5. I found the image quality to be generally excellent, with great detail present and surprisingly low noise at ISOs below 400. Left to the camera's automatic white balance sensors, I found the color balance just a tad bit cool for my taste, but what do I know... I'm an old Kodachrome guy. In any case, it is easy to set your own custom settings for color temperature to suit your preference. Even if forced to take shots at ISO 400 and above, all is not lost. For Photoshop users, I recommend PictureCode's Noise Ninja (http://www.picturecode.com/) plug-in. For users of The GIMP (excellent open source free photoshop alternative), try GREYCstoration (http://cimg.sourceforge.net/greycstoration/). Both of these software plug-ins do an excellent job of cleaning up noise without obvious objectionable artifacts. These tools enable shots at high ISO to be much more usable, unless you insist on those poster-sized blow-ups.
In sum, the Canon's worst shortcoming, noise at high ISO (a problem with ANY digital point-and-shoot that sells for less than a grand), is more than outweighed by its sheer usability, its excellent feel, solid build quality and intuitive interface, as well as image quality good enough to satisfy just about anybody. I will step out here and say that on prints 11x13 and smaller, it would take a keen eye indeed to tell the difference between most images from a G10 and those from a DSLR selling for more than twice the price.
What's more, the Canon G10 offers, for those who want to explore the deeper capabilities of the camera, a wide array of automatic shooting modes as well as excellent creative control options, including RAW image support (although Canon's implementation is STILL proprietary and not yet natively supported in Photoshop), shutter or aperture priority, full manual exposure mode, and precise control not only of depth of field, but independent focus and exposure locks, too. This is an easy camera for a novice to just pick up and use, but is sufficiently advanced for the serious amateur or pro when he or she needs high quality with low bulk, and for that novice who wants to grow into his or her new hobby.
For a novice, this camera may seem a touch pricey, but at less than $500 is truly a steal compared to the prices of other high-end point-and-shoots to which the Canon G series is often compared. |
G10 exceeds expectations
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| Review Date: November 18, 2008 |
| Reviewer: httivals, san francisco, CA |
The G10 is an amazing camera. I bought it two weeks ago based on Michael Reichman's (luminouslandscape website) and Thom Hogan's (bythom[...]) reviews. I am an advanced amateur/prosumer -- I sell fine art landscapes, and have been photographing for about 35 years.
The G10 is heavy at about a pound, but I like the heft. It is quite compact (at least from my perspective) -- the lens fully retracts and it will fit in a large jacket pocket. I have a medium-large Zing pouch I put it in and carry in my backpack, or alternatively put the Zing pouch on my belt loop.
I'm astonished at the image quality and functionality offered by the G10. I haven't shot any jpegs, only RAW (using DPP to process RAW; the RAW images will no doubt be more malleable with other software when they support the G10 -- DPP is fairly limited). In RAW, at ISO 80 on a tripod, I think the detail rendered by the G10 exceeds or at least equals the Canon 5D. It may have a weaker or virtually no AA filter.
The lens on the G10 is fantastic. There is very little resolution fall off, even wide open, edge to edge and into the corners.
In my mind, the closest equivalent to the G10 is a Fuji 645 medium format rangefinder (remember the small zoom range Fuji 645 compact?), but the G10 is better in almost every way. The G10 is far lighter and more compact, offers a great zoom range (and is sharp throughout the zoom range) and image stabilization, and has enough resolution to produce fine art quality prints, up to 18" or 24" in the long dimension without stitching.
I think the G10 is opening up a whole new world of landscape, street photography possibilities, and what about the incredible macro versatility?
There is a substantial drop off in image quality from ISO 200 to ISO 400 on the G10, but ISO 400 is still very very good (again shooting RAW), much better than the panasonic LX3 that I tried for a week or two at ISO 400.
I must be crazy. I can't believe a compact with such a small sensor can render detail this well. I'm seeing the G10 as a whole new tool that will open up different possibilities and different ways of seeing (and have different limitations than a Canon DSLR). I haven't been this excited about a photographic tool since I purchased my Canon 5D over 3 years ago.
The Canon G10 offers "automatic" settings that I haven't tried. For an advanced photographer it offers a wealth of manual controls and customization, which I'm still learning. One very nice touch is that the custom settings on the top dial (there are two) allow you to save the zoom settings and manual focus setting -- so I have one saved at a 35mm focal length equivalent and another at a 50mm equivalent. This allows quick, street shooting, similar to what one can do with a Leica rangefinder, though the G10 has a much different look given the virtually infinite depth of field due to the small sensor. |
The happy medium between dSLR's and point and shoot cameras
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| Review Date: October 7, 2008 |
| Reviewer: N. Hawkins, Chicago |
It's important to understand this camera within context: This isn't a digital SLR replacement or a pocket d-SLR. This is an excellent camera for someone who is a dSLR shooter as a backup, or even someone wanting to graduate from a point and shoot to allow them more control over the camera.
The Powershot G10 incorporates a few new features over it's predecessor, the G9. It loses it's 6x optical zoom down to 5x optical zoom, but packs 14.7 megapixels, features a wide-angle zoom compared to the G9, and uses Canon's new Digic IV processing engine.
The Pros:
* RAW capture. RAW photos don't feature any of the conversions that JPGs do, but also takes up a lot more space. Your typical RAW photo out of this camera will be 15MB, versus 4MB for a high quality JPG. It's nice having this flexibility.
* Supports Canon's Speedlite external flash units.
* Manual controls over aperture and shutter speed for additional controls. This is the single biggest advantage to the G10: if you have a SLR of any type, you're used to changing f-stops, shutter speed and other things on the fly to take better and more creative photos.
* Shoots VGA video. I would have like to have seen 720p video myself.
The cons:
* Expensive spare batteries. $70? Seriously, that's insane.
* Early adopters will find out that Adobe products (Lightroom, Photoshop) and Apple Aperture won't support the G10's RAW - yet. *fingers crossed* You can use the included Canon software, which I find unweildy and a pain to deal with.
I do recommend picking up a 4gb SDHC card, such as a Kingston or Sandisk. Class 6 cards are recommended to handle those large files that you'll be shooting. Also, this won't fit in most camera pouches (I couldn't get it to fit in any of the Lowepro pouches without me feeling like I'm smushing it in there) so you're better off going to a camera store and trying them out.
In the few days that I've had this camera, I feel happy for having it, and it definitely feels like a more "adult" camera than my previous Powershots (not to say that they weren't any good, it's just that I've gotten to the point as a photographer where I *need* the flexibility that this camera can provide.) If you're looking at making the jump to something more advanced, then give this camera a try. You won't regret it. |
A very pleasant surprise and upgrade from the G7
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| Review Date: November 1, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Gordon, Tucson, AZ United States |
MY MOVE FROM THE G7 to the G10.
I own and really like the Canon G7. I passed on purchasing the G9, not seeing much that would attract me over the G7. But as I read about the G10, I began to see enough new stuff to make it sound interesting to me. Little did I guess what a huge leap up this purchase was going to be.
I'll try to focus here on items you may not have read about in the reviews below, or at least items that may not have been covered in any detail.
Overall, the feel and build of the G10 is simply great. Nothing about it feels flimsy or cheap to me. It has a bigger grip on the right front where your fingers wrap around the camera and the camera is a delight to hold and use.
The LCD is now 3" of course, and much sharper and crisper than my G7. The G10 still uses my SD and SD HC (SD High Capacity) cards and I am happy about that.
I wanted to test the new "I-Contrast" feature I had been hearing about, so I sat my wife in the bay window with a fully sunlit window behind her. I took a series of photographs from several feet away, focusing (with face detect) on her face.
With the test shots where I had "I-Contrast" turned off, her face was visible but pretty dark as were the interior walls around the window behind her. Not an unusable picture, but certainly not a good picture either. I was surprised they were as good as they were but I still wanted better than this.
So I enabled "I-Contrast" and shot the same scene. The results were a very pleasant surprise. The outside scene through the window was still slightly overblown ... almost exactly as in the first series. But my wife's face and the interior walls were now much more properly exposed and the pictures were truly usable ... something most of us would be happy to have taken. It was clear that "I-Contrast" really does work and since it is easy (using the camera menu) to engage "I-Contrast" I will certainly be using that feature often in contrasty scenes where I want to avoid harsh black shadows.
I was quite impressed with the quality of this new lens. I thought I had a sharp crisp lens on my G7 but the lens on my G10 is a definite step up. Or maybe it is the additional pixels ... whatever, the difference is remarkable and was totally unexpected.
I was a bit concerned about the loss of Optical zoom range from the zoom range available with my G7. I never used digital zoom on the G7 because it was too easy to lose picture quality and I didn't want to risk that. But I had read about a new feature of the G10 where it if you set the digital zoom to "standard", the camera would combine Optical and Digital zoom and allow you to seamlessly use them together up to a point just shy of where picture degradation would begin. Then it would stop zooming. If you then tried to zoom some more, the G10 will allow that but you will then be digital zooming into the range where there is a risk of picture degradation. All very clever I thought, but did it actually work?
I decided to test that. I sat the camera on a block wall and shot the street sign across the intersection (about 150 feet). As I expected, when I zoomed in the zoom ran seamlessly to what appeared to be maximum and stopped. I took the picture. Then I twisted the zoom button again and sure enough, the zoom continued zooming (into the possible degradation zone) to the true maximum zoom using not only all optical capability but ALL digital capability.
I fired up my computer and loaded the first shot ... the "standard" zoom. Taken at 14.7 Mega Pixels, I was immediately stunned by the quality of the shot. It wasn't just good, it was simply flawless! There was absolutely nothing about that shot that I wanted to improve except, perhaps, it still didn't bring the street sign all that close. So, using my photo editor, I just kept zooming in on the street sign until it virtually filled my monitor ... and the image was STILL FLAWLESS! I simply couldn't believe my eyes. Color was perfect, edges of the lettering were crisp and absolutely sharp. There was nothing for me to improve in a photo editor. I was stunned. (I may have even laughed out loud). Even the leaves of the mesquite tree in my neighbor's yard which is some 20 feet behind the sign were all visible and definable. WOW! WOW! WOW!
Then I loaded the next shot where I had zoomed the G10 out until it paused, then zoomed more to push the combination of Optical and Digital zoom to the absolute limit. To keep it short: It was about as good as I was used to getting from my G7 using Optical zoom only ... which is OK, but not truly sharp, crisp and the green color of the sign looked somewhat faded. Also the tree leaves in the background were no longer distinct ... Again this is not a picture you'd throw away by any means and one which could be improved with some work in Photoshop but even with that effort, it would be nothing near the quality I could get with the G10s method of combining Optical and just the right amount of Digital zoom. And the G10 gave it to me without any additional effort whatsoever.
My future approach to photography of distant objects in the future was immediately obvious. I will use the G10's built in magic (as I did in the first zoom shot) and then simply crop and enlarge the crop to the size I want for flawless, effortless results.
As I said, I skipped the G9 so I cannot compare the G9 and the G10, but I couldn't be happier with my decision to upgrade my G7 to the G10. The G10 clearly takes this type of photography to a new level with features, a great lens and picture quality.
For several years, I actually had a $6,500 setup including the Canon Mark II and some "L" glass lenses. It was heavy, cumbersome and took pictures which, as expected, cried out for work in Photoshop. Professional cameras produce pictures that expect the photographer to work on them. While I enjoyed fiddling with the pictures from the Mark II, I eventually tired of that weight, bulk and switching lenses so I gave the camera to my son. Now, that I have this G10, I will never look back.
I guess I will need Photoshop again if I try to take pictures in the dark with the G10, it does have a bit more noise at higher ISOs. And if you are a true pro, you will probably rant and rave about noise at higher ISOs I suppose.
For the rest of us, the pictures up to ISO 400 are quite acceptable and if are really picky, noise removal is simple enough to accomplish with Photoshop or any other software capable of noise reduction. In real life, I guess I don't shoot much where I use ISOs beyond 400 anyway.
I have owned cameras all my life and I have never owned a camera I liked more than this G10, or from which I got better pictures right out of the camera than this G10. This camera is Worth every penny to me.
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