Customer Reviews:
 Excellent camera January 3, 2009
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I've been into photography for more than 30 years and although I am not a professional, I do have some technical skill with the old SLRs. My first digital camera was a Nikon4300 which was the first generation of cameras of this type. It was an "ok" camera. Pictures came out decent but the lag time in between shots was annoying. It had "some" manual function which I liked but after 4 years of owning it I was ready to move up to something more similar to my old Minolta X700. So I decided to try this Canon and I'm not sorry I did. I've taken some great evening shots of NYC Times Square and I must say that they look fantastic!. I have pets and grandchildren who are always moving about and it's hard to get a great shot but this camera came through with flying colors! The auto focus and face detection is a life saver for sure. And it has all the manual controls I need to keep me busy with my creative side. All in all, this camera is a gem. It is "high end" for point and shoot and I'm just surprised that I paid the same amount for this camera as I did for the Nikon4300 (when it was new) but hey, that's technology for you.
 lot of bang for the buck.... January 2, 2009
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Powerful small camera,instruction booklet a Must read,,,A wonderful alternative,when my SLR becomes a little
to intimidating in the back streets and alleyways of Baltimore city and elsewhere...Image quality suffers @--
higher ASA options.....This is my third G camera.....Not much to report re. print quality as of yet.......
Always in my pocket.........................................
best point and shoot I have ever owned January 2, 2009
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This camera is for someone who knows what an F stop is, as well as aperture value. ISO speeds, RAW, exposure bracketing and more. If this is all Greek to you than move on, this is not the camera for you. This camera is for professional or amateur photographers who do not want to lug their big SLR with them everywhere. This camera has amazing quality and is very easy to use. It is also extremely flexible for people who know what they are doing. Exposure compensation, ISO, and shooting modes are all conveniently located on the camera with real actual dials. The camera looks and feels very classic. All black is beautiful. It's also metal and feels Hefty. Years ago when I used to shoot with real film cameras I could drop old Minoltas and Nikons and not be too worried. This feels like it might survive a small accidental fall. The design harkens back to some small miniature Lieca, Minox, or olympus models of long lost film models. James Bond might use this. It has a large battery and also a traditional viewfinder that even lets you focus it. The manual focus on the camera is it's weakest trait. You need to clumsily use the dial on the back. Had they only made the ring on the front adjust manual focus this would have been extra credit and A++. Still for a point an shoot to even have a manual focus option is great. This is a bit bulkier than the miniature card deck cameras available out there. It is still, in my opinion, small enough to put in your wife's purse, take to a wedding, and even place in ones suit pocket, minus the strap. You can buy add ons for this like a telephoto convertor and external flash. I guess if you only have this one camera and need as much flexibility as possible theses add ons could be helpful. I personally have a full frame SLR for all the times I need 100% flexibility, more lenses and such. I would only need the underwater case for this. Underwater cases for small cameras like this can be so much fun at pools and swimming at sea. All I need now is the Canon case, the underwater case and I'm set.
I am not sure why point and shoot cameras do not have the same frame proportions to current SLRs by Cannon. Perhaps someone can explain this to me. I am sure it has to do with sensor size, or printing sizes or something. Still, My 20 D and 5D Mark II both are wider while this and my older SD 750 have a more narrow, more square file format. This is a mystery to me. You can set this to current TVs 16:9 aspect ratio but that is wider than the traditional SLRs. This must be an industry thing. Also, it's not a huge deal. I can not criticize the camera for this since it seems to have it's origins in the industry or point and shoots in general. I only shoot with Cannons now so it remains true to other point and shoot frame file format size.
The rear screen is very big which is nice. You can also turn it off, which is nice too, especially when you are at a dark event where the lit up screen would be an annoyance to others. You can also disable the phony shutter click. For traditionalists who like that click, there are 3 versions to choose from. If only it had a photochemical darkroom smell. :)
All in all a great camera. The price here is excellent too. I overpaid at Best Buy.
I would like to add that Best Buy is charging $495.75 for this. They do not price match and on the phone a sales clerk lied to me and said Amazon sells only used equipment which is utter nonsense. Everyone please buy this camera from Amazon.
 Noise problems December 31, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
The G10's build quality and external controls are extraordinary, and the 3" LCD display is stunningly bright and clear.
I gave this camera a 3 star rating because of the image quality. During the first two weeks that I owned the camera, I noticed the noisy images, but initially downplayed or ignored them. But after viewing one noisy image after another, I finally and grudgingly had to admit that the Q10 had problems.
About a month after I purchased my camera, dpreview reviewed the G10 and compared its image quality to a Panasonic LX3. The side-by-side image comparisons were an eye opener. The LX3's images were noticeably better.
Below are quotes from the dpreview G10 review. I include them in my review of the camera because they closely echo my viewpoint:
START QUOTE from dpreview:
"But the problems arise when the user gets back to a computer and downloads the images from the G10. In trying to keep ahead of the megapixel race, Canon has produced a camera that in the real world can't deliver on the promise of the styling and control layout. In the studio it produced some incredible results at base ISO, but out in the real world and as ISO settings increased, the loss of fine detail and increase in noise really let it down. A camera is ultimately about taking pictures, and that is why we put so much emphasis on the image quality output.
Considering the wider market, with pressures coming from the cheaper LX3, and with low end digital SLRs getting cheaper all the time, it is hard to see who the G10 audience will be. Mainly those who own higher end DSLRs (especially Canon ones) looking for a compact second camera? Perhaps, but these users would certainly be discriminating about image quality, and the G10 might not live up to their expectations. So the G10 is in the 'flawed gem' category that, while great fun to take pictures with, is surpassed in image quality by other cameras in the same price range, and the same market segment. At its price the G10 just cannot overcome the image quality shortfalls to achieve our highest rating.
The G10 leaves that lingering question. Just how good could this camera have been, had Canon taken a more conservative approach to resolution and put as much effort into optimising image quality as it did into making such an impressive camera body?" END QUOTE
My feelings about the G10's noise problem have ranged from denial, to excuses, and now, after having viewed hundreds of noise-contaminated images, to disgust. Canon's decision to increase the G10s sensor resolution to 15 mega pixels has ruined what could have been a fabulous camera.
UPDATE January 1, 2009: To add insult to injury, the G9 is currently selling on Amazon for $499 and G10 is currently selling for $412. How often does it occur that last year's model commands a significantly higher price than a newly released model?
Decent camera December 31, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this camera as an addition to two Digital SLR's. I guess as a point and shoot camera it is probably above average but it comes nowhere close to a digital SLR.
The G10 is fairly heavy and large, which I consider as an advantage. External controls for exposure control are easy to operate, playback and menu options are plentiful and very elaborate (although I would call myself technically literate, I had to read the manual several times). Picture quality looks good to me, the high mega pixel count allows for some cropping without loosing too much quality. Battery life time is good for some 300 shots with extensive flash use and playback reviews.
Even my four year old digital SLR has much less noise in the higher ISO range but then .. you can turn it into a creative composition. Exact zooming is a joke, the zoom button over- and under-shoots quite a bit, it is easier to step forward and back a few yards. The view finder maybe shows 80% of the actual photo, very disappointing, I almost never use the view finder. The large display works well, albeit very noisy as soon as the ambient light disappears. Good playback options, surprisingly there is no RGB histogram.
Almost as expected, most of the times there is a significant shutter delay, autofocus is slow. Any kind of action or fast portrait photography is challenging. For a camera of this size I was hoping to have a fast 2.8 lens across the whole zoom range (even at the price of a larger, more heavy and expensive camera. Ideally at a zoom range of 20-80mm). The aperture closes quickly to 4.5 or 5.6, basically placing everything into (boring) focus.
I still like the camera and since I carry it always with me, I find myself taking a lot more photos than with a digital SLR with some large 2.8 zoom lens. The 16:9 option is a nice addition, interval shooting would have been a nice add-on as well. It seems that cameras in this price range have a lot of gimmicks, face recognition, anti-shake, but kinda distracting from focusing on a good composition and a small tripod. I have the controls pretty much locked at Av, f2.8, center weighted, 16:9 and fill flash. Changing the battery or memory card without taken the camera off the tripod would have been helpful too.
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