3rd day with my Canon G9 camera
I’ve decide to wait a bit before buying a gigantic Reflex (DSLR) camera like the Canon EOS 40D or Nikon D300, mainly since I will never be able to use these formula 1 camera in a so short period of time (I am leaving switzerland in 1.5 months). I’ve read a lot of forums entries at dpreview.com and found that this camera is a good compromise. So I order a Canon G9. This camera is able to work in full auto mode and has as many manual settings as a DSLR. I am in no way a professionnal photographer, that’s why I will just publish here some links and ideas that may help new buyers.
I’ve paid
664 CHF for the body , 141 CHF for the Sandisk Ultra 2 8GB memory card and 44CHF for a Joby tripod = total cost 877CHF (570€). Order at 9 o’clock, delivered at 18:00 (thanks to www.digitec.ch)
Reviews:
Dpreview : Canon PowerShot G9 read user reviews
TheOnlinePhotographer Canon PowerShot G9 review
LetsGoDigital Canon PowerShot G9 review Bag
Not even a small bag in the box. Canon has a limited offering, If you can’t afford the Cost of Canon’s bag, look at LowePro
DCC-600 DC55
I recommend you to go with the DC 55, it protect the G9 camera a lot better as seen on this page.
Battery
The battery you get from the package is just a shame: 800mAh and it cost between 100CHF (65€) and 141CHF (91€). As seen on dpreview.com Canon Talk, You can spare a lot of money by using generic battery. I’ve ordered 3 battery (7€ each) on ebay.de for a total of 21€ . Each battery being rate at 2500mAh -> 3 more times capacity equal to 3 times more fun!
What You must take into account before buying them on ebay (point 1,2 is common sense):
- A well know ebay power seller
- Pay with paypal to be protected against fraud
- Each battery must have a CE logo
- 1 or 2 years warranty
Memory card
Sandisk has a 10 years return warranty, Kingston is lifetime. I’ve choose a 8Gb because I want to order a solid state HD recorder later this week.
Best site found
Power Shot Valley
Features
- 12.1-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality poster-size prints
- 6x image-stabilized optical zoom; 3.0-inch LCD display; optical viewfinder
- Face Detection technology and in-camera red-eye fix
- 25 shooting modes, including 9 special scene modes; Print/Share button
- Powered by NB-2LH lithium-ion battery (battery and charger included); stores images on SD or MMC memory cards (32MB MMC memory card included)
- Type: Compact digital still camera with built-in flash, 6x optical / 4x digital / 24x combined zoom with Optical Image Stabilizer System
- Image capture device type: 12.1-megapixel, 1/1.7-inch type Charge Coupled Device (CCD)
- Total pixels: Approximately 12.4 megapixels
- Effective pixels: Approximately 12.1 megapixels
- Lens focal length: 7.4-44.4mm, f2.8-4.8 (35mm film equivalent: 35-210mm)
- Digital zoom: 4x
- Focusing range: Normal: 1.6 feet/50 centimeter to infinity; macro: 0.39 inches to 1.6 feet/1 to 50 centimeter (wide)
- Autofocus system: TTL autofocus
- Viewfinder: Real image optical zoom viewfinder
- LCD monitor: 3.0-inch low-temperature polycrystalline silicon TFT color LCD with wide viewing angle
- LCD pixels: Approximately 230,000 pixels
- LCD coverage: 1
- Brightness adjustment: 15 levels. Quick-bright LCD.
- Maximum aperture: f2.8 (wide) to f4.8 (telephoto)
- Shutter speed: 15s seconds to 1/2500 second (settable in Tv and M)
- Exposure sensitivity: Auto, High ISO Auto, ISO 80/100/200/400/800/1600 equivalent (Standard output sensitivity. Recommended exposure index)
- Light metering method: Evaluative (control to incorporate facial brightness in Face Detection AF), Center-weighted average, Spot (metering frame is fixed to the center or linked to the AF frame)
- Exposure control method: Program AE, Shutter Speed-Priority AE, Aperture-Priority AE, Manual; AE Lock, Safety Shift, Auto ISO Shift
- Exposure compensation: +/-2 stops in 1/3-stop increments
- White Balance control: Auto, Preset (Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Fluorescent H, Flash, Underwater), Custom1, Custom2
- Built-in flash: Auto, Auto w/ Red-eye Reduction, Flash On, Flash On w/ Red-eye Reduction, Flash Off; FE lock, Safety FE, Slow Synchro, Second-curtain synchro
- Flash range: 1.0 to 13 feet /30 centimeters to 4.0 meters (wide), 1.6 to 8.2 feet /50 centimeters to 2.5 meters (telephoto) (when sensitivity is set to ISO Auto)
- Recycling time: 12 seconds or less (battery voltage=7.4V)
- Flash exposure compensation: +/-2 stops in 1/3-stop increments
- Shooting modes: Auto, P, Av, Tv, M, C1, C2, Special Scene (Portrait, Landscape, Night Scene, Sports, Foliage, Snow, Beach, Fireworks, Aquarium, Underwater, Indoor, ISO 3200, Kids and Pets, Night Snapshot, Color Accent, Color Swap), Stitch Assist, Movie
- My colors: Vivid, Vivid Blue, Vivid Green, Vivid Red, Neutral, Sepia, Black and White, Positive Film, Lighter Skin Tone, Darker Skin Tone, Custom
- Self-timer: Activates shutter after an approximately 2-second/10-second delay, Custom
- Wireless control: Not available
- Continuous shooting: Normal: Approximately 1.5 frames per second (fps); AF: approximately 0.7 fps; LV: approximately 0.8 fps (Large/Fine)
- Storage media: SD/SDHC memory card, MultiMediaCard, MMC Plus card, HC MMC Plus card
- File format: Design rule for camera file system, DPOF Version 1.1
- Image compression: Still Image: Exif 2.2 (JPEG); Movie: AVI (Image: Motion JPEG; Audio: WAVE (Monaural))
- Image quality mode: Normal, Fine, SuperFine, RAW
- Number of recording pixels: Still image: 4,000 x 3,000 (Large), 3,264 x 2,448 (Medium 1), 2,592 x 1,944 (Medium 2), 1,600 x 1,200 (Medium 3), 640 x 480 (Small), 4,000 x 2,248 (Widescreen); movie: 1024 x 768 (15 fps), 640 x 480 (30 fps/30 fps LP), 640 x 480 (2 hours at 0.5 fps/1 fps), 320 x 240 (30 fps) available up to 4GB or 60 minutes, 160 x 120 (3 minutes at 15 fps)
- Playback modes: Still image: Single, Magnification (approximately 2x-10x), Jump, Auto Rotate, Rotate, Resume, My Colors, My Category, Histogram, Index (9 thumbnails), Sound Memos, Slide Show, Red-eye Correction, RAW playback, Resize, Image Inspection Tool; movie: Normal Playback, Special Playback, Editing
- Erase modes: Still image: single image, select by date, select by category, select by folder, all images; movie: part of movie, all of movie
- Computer interface: USB 2.0 Hi-Speed (mini-B jack)
- Video out: NTSC/PAL
- Audio out: Monaural
- Other: SD memory card slot; direct connection to Canon CP and SELPHY Compact Photo Printers, PIXMA Photo Printers and PictBridge-compatible printers via camera’s USB 2.0 Hi-Speed cable
- Power source: Rechargeable lithium battery NB-2LH or AC adapter kit ACK-DC20 (AC adapter is optional and not included–must be purchased separately)
- Shooting capacity: Still image: approximately 240 shots (NB-2LH/LCD on), approximately 600 shots (NB-2LH/LCD off)
- Playback time: Approximately 420 minutes (NB-2LH) (LCD screen on. These figures comply with CIPA testing standards and apply when fully-charged batteries are used.)
- Display languages: English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, simplified/traditional Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Greek, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Turkish, Thai, Arabic, Romanian, Ukrainian
- Operating temperature: 32 to 104 degrees F/0 to 40 degrees C
- Operating humidity: 10 to 90%
- Dimensions (W x H x D): 4.19 x 2.83 x 1.67 inches / 106.4 x 71.9 x 42.5 millimeters
- Weight: Approximately 11.29 ounces / 320 grams (camera body only)
- What’s in the box: Canon PowerShot G9 digital camera, lithium battery pack NB-2LH, battery charger CB-2LW, MMC Plus card MMC-32MH, neck strap NS-DC6, Digital Camera Solution CD-ROM, USB interface cable IFC-400PCU, AV cable AVC-DC300
