Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon PowerShot G9 Digital Camera - Black (12.1MP, 6x Optical Zoom) 3.0 inch LCD

I use professional Nikon DSLRs, and like other people, wanted a small camera I could put in my pocket when I travel light. I travel a lot, and I have bought maybe five or six compact digitals over the last few years, hoping to find one which really filled my need. The Canon G9 looked and felt right as soon as I got it out of the box, and I was just hoping that it's image quality lived up to it's appearance. It does. It is much much better than any other compact I have used. The manual controls are excellent, the handling is very comfortable, and the operation is very well thought-out. I really enjoy using this little camera. The image quality is excellent, if not as good as that of my Nikon DSLRs. I did consider the Nikon P5100 compact (and I have not used one, so it might be superb!), but I decided to go for the Canon based on exhaustive trawling of forums and reviews by people who had used both cameras. It seemed to me that most people thought the image quality on both was good, that the grip on the Nikon was better, and the controls on the Canon were better. The Canon G9 has RAW as well as JPG, which is a big plus. I find that the low-light performance of the G9 is great - it really TRIES to get a decent picture! It will end up a bit grainy (noisy) if the light is really poor, but it does a good job in situations where you would need 3000 quid's worth of DSLR and lens to get a better picture. The build quality is excellent as well - some people have commented that it is a bit heavy, but I find it hefts very comfortably and FEELS like a decent bit of kit. Highly recommended!

I researched online for a long time before settling on this piece of kit and I must say I am absolutely delighted with it. I previously owned a Panasonic Lumix FZ30 which was great in good light but terrible in any other conditions. The Canon trumps it on outright picture quality and user friendliness not to mention size. It is a fairly bulky camera by modern compact standards but I think it feels nice and is quite portable. Will easily fit in a coat pocket for instance.

I am not a professional photographer but I wanted pro-looking results wihtout having to go for an SLR with all the hassle and expense that represents. In short if I see a scene that I would like a photo of then I want a camera that can make this possible as close to what the eye sees as possible - night, day, inside, outside etc. A major strength of the G9 is that it can do just this. At low ISO settings it gives truly remarkable picture quality. At ISO400 its a bit grainy but in a nice film like way. Above 800 I would accept that it is no longer of sufficient quality or detail to print. It can handle a wide variety of situations very well. The scene modes are useful and there are loads of them. The video mode is one of the best I've ever seen. Its manual controls are easy to use and the interface is superb. RAW capability means you have seriously useful post-processing control on issues such as exposure, white balance, colour saturation etc. I had never used this facility before but now I've seen the benefits I always shoot RAW+jpg. Many shots can be recovered using this. One more thing - its macro mode is absolutely superb.

Overall the greatest thing about this camera is that it's small to take with you wherever you go and capable enough to get the pictures you wanted whether they be still or video. Therefore I get many more pictures now than I did previously because the bulk of my previous camera meant it got left at home most of the time.

In short if you're looking for a single camera that pretty much does everything to a high standard - look no further !

Bought this to replace my beloved Sony DSC H1 which I managed to lose. This is without doubt the most well laid out camera I have had. It is really "usable" and encourages one to take photo after photo. The controls have a logic about them and it's easy to be creative. Manual mode is excellent. RAW image mode (you have to work out how to tell the camera to store them) gives great control and produces better "post production" images. The main drawback is that with such a small sensor using 12.1 million pixels, there is more noise over 400iso than with a DSLR. If this bothers you then stick to DSLR's. But if you have a good noise removal program such as 'Noise Ninja' then this is not such a big problem. The usability factor of this beautifully built, solid, camera, puts it way ahead of the DSLR's in sheer practical usability and enjoyment. It takes great photos and you will not put it down. The bright 3" LCD screen, gains up and down giving a good idea of the final image. The 6*zoom is really adequate considering at 12 megapixels you can double up if you want to using the digital zoom. The image stabilisation works better than my old sony. I've had good results at ridiculously slow speeds. The battery has a very good life too. A real joy.

The Canon G9 is an amazing camera. I can't fault in any way. It's feel is solid and seems reassuringly well built. It's not a true "point and shoot" as you can have the same level of creative control as with a DSLR.
I have three Canon DSLR's and love them all but this is the camera that I find myself taking on daily excursions to just about anywhere. The controls are very "Canon" and so anyone who is familiar with Canon controls will get it almost without looking at the instructions.
to me, this camera fits neatly into a position in Canon's camera range. It is a clever addition to somebody like me who is an enthusiastic amateur photographer but does not always want to lug the DSLR around.
It is a good uprgrade from a true "point and shoot" and will quickly reward you just hours after it comes out of the box. It's movie capability is also great and with a 4gb card in there I reckon it makes a video camera a bit redundant, particularly if you have a laptop and cardreader handy so that you can wipe the card clean after every day's shooting.

I love mine and I am really pleased that I bought it.

I absolutely love this camera, I'll point out some features it has above standard camera and drawbacks.

Advantages:
-6x optical zoom lens
-my canon colours: are very easy to use and allow colour accentuation/swap that would take a lot longer to do post-processing.
-build quality
-time lapse video mode
-1 cm macro zoom
-RAW mode
-tons of controls
-customisable

Disadvantages:
-no 28mm wide view as with panasonic lumix and canon ixus 850
-bigger than other compacts: not that big a deal.

dpreview and tipa are good websites if you're buying a new camera.