Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon PowerShot G10 14.7MP Digital Camera - 5x Optical Zoom, 3 inch PureColor LCD II Viewfinder - Black

I bought my Canon G10 on recommendation from a teacher of a Compact Digital photography course. I was using a 3 year old Nikon Coolpix S1 and became aware that it really didn't do what I wanted it to do. What I was looking for was a camera that would give me aperture and shutter control, image stabilisation and a viewfinder. In the future I would like to get an SLR but at the moment I was looking for something I could take out walking. I felt an SLR would be too bulky and needs extra lenses which would work out more costly.

I am very pleased with the pictures I have taken so far using the aperture and manual settings. I have taken some really good close up pictures of flowers. I have also found that the people Mode gives far superior pics to my old camera.Having said that I chose the Canon as I wanted more manual control rather than lots of fancy modes.If you want a camera that does all the work for you another model may be more appropriate.

The Canon G10 is a lot heavier than my old Nikon. To my uneducated eye it looks like an old fashioned 35mm camera. However I have decided it way outperforms my old Nikon compact. I think it's weight and chunkiness helps keep the camera steady improving the quality of your pictures. It does feel very easy to hold.

I am disappointed that the camera doesn't come with a paper manual. When you are learning photography you need something you can take out with you. I also find the manual is a bit confusing. I think I will learn more by playing around with it.

Overall though I am very pleased with my purchase and am looking forward to taking some great pictures.

I've had my G10 for about a month now and I have to say it's the best digital compact I've owned. After years of using film based compacts, SLRs and medium format cameras, I started using digital about five years ago and have owned several compacts from Canon and Casio.

OK, the G10 isn't ever going to be as good as a decent DSLR with a good lens but for a compact it's great. The zoom range is roughly the same as a 35mm zoom of 28-135mm, which is pretty much the range I used to cover with prime lenses when I used 35mm film SLRs.In other words, it's fine for most non-specialised photography. The quality of images produced is excellent, so you can expect to be able to make your own A3 prints with no problem and it looks like the images will stand up to quite large size canvas/art printing as well (I haven't tried this yet but the images viewed on screen at 100% look sharp without any additional processing).

This camera has plenty of user control potential and all the main settings can be done with "hard" controls on the camera body, so you only need to go into the screen based menu for the less frequently changed stuff (the screen is fantastic by the way). I didin't think I'd use the two custom mode settings at first but after using the camera for a while I found that they are actually useful and I use one for my basic AV priority mode with all the other settings I prefer and the second is used for all of these same settings but using RAW + JPEG. Of course, if you want, you can shut down all manual control and use the camera on auto without having to think about anything but pressing the shutter release.

Personally, I like the feel of this camera - probably because it has a similar feel to the more advanced film based cameras of 10 years ago. That said, I also like the very compact digital cameras that that are light/small enough to always carry and use just as a visual notebook or at parties and so on. The G10 seems to be designed for quite serious image making but without the weight and size of a modern DSLR. It does have a small sensor, of course, so it has the limitations that go with this but up to ISO 200 the noise is OK (not too many people would have used film faster than ISO 200 for general photography anyway, and ISO 400 and above film was pretty grainy, as I recall).

Yes, there are cheaper cameras that might compare with the G10 in terms of lens spec or pixel count etc but this camera has the performance and the feel of a quality product - it's very pleasing to use.

Canon PowerShot G10 Digital Camera - Black (14.7MP, 5x Optical Zoom) 3.0" PureColor LCD II Viewfinder

I have had the camera for a month or so now and am extremely pleased with it.
I bought it because I did not want the bulk and hassle of a DSLR but wanted the flexibility of full manual control and high quality images. I was keen to have a view finder for those long exposure shots when you don't have a tripod to hand and have to brace nice and firmly. The view finder is compromised (77% field of view) but is better than nothing. I looked ay the Panasonic LX3 (lens range too limited) and the Nikon P6000 (Gimmicky) and decided that the Canon was the one for me.
I have used it in a variety of conditions from sunny landscapes to poorly lit restaurants and have managed consistently good images.
The build quality is excellent and battery life has been good even when using the camera hard with lots of flash work in a short space of time.
Using a decent 8Gb SDHC card I have found the write speeds good even when shooting RAW.
My only issue has been the size of the camera which is fine for a winter coat pocket but nothing smaller. Getting a case to fit has also been a bit of an issue. The one I have at the moment is too bulky but does protect the camera.
Overall a superb camera and one I would recommend to anyone who takes their photography seriously.

I needed a compact camera to compliment my SLR so I was very careful with my selection. There were several other cameras I considered but, having read all the reviews, I decided on the Canon. Since buying it, I haven't put it down. I carry it everywhere just in case. The quality of the build is excellent. The pictures it takes are sharp. The range of functions is fantastic. This camera has produced some of the best photographs I have every taken, especially the candid shots in Black & White. Of course, I haven't tried any of the other cameras to compare but if they can beat this one I would be amazed.

I was expecting the perfect camera based on all the fantastic reviews here on Amazon. As of writing this review, 17 out of 25 have given it 5 stars, 7 have given it 4 or 3, and 1 person has given it 2 stars. My previous digital camera was a Canon Powershot S400 (4 megapixel) camera that I got over 5 years ago. It was an excellent camera. I decided to stick with Canon because I loved the S400 so much (and my previous film SLR camera was a Canon too). So I got the G10: a 14.7 megapixel camera marketed as a midway between a point and shoot and a Digital SLR. It has a solid black body design and button layouts reminiscent of the old style of SLR. There is a whole heap of functionality built within this camera.

Image quality is what matters and I'm disappointed with this camera. The problems I have with it are:

1. Pixel noise. As others have mentioned, noise becomes apparent at ISO's 400 and above. However, when you actually analyse the picture taken at lower ISO's, noise is still evident. If you are going to use a camera outdoors during the day or if you are using this for regular prints or photos for the web, then this is not a problem. If you are using this camera for indoors, poorly lit situations, and want high quality images that you can blow up to maximum size then it does become a problem. Using ISO 800 and above is useless in this camera.

2. Focus. The camera reviews here state that the images produced by this camera are super sharp. I didn't find this was the case. When I viewed images at actual size (100%) in Photoshop, I noticed the image to be soft. The sharpness that I would expect is not there. I tested using a tripod, light box and ISO 80 setting, but still notice that the image is soft. I compared images at 100% with images taken with my S400 camera and the S400 was sharper. Once again, for regular prints or photos for the web, you won't notice a sharpness problem. Its when you blow images up to larger size that you may find an issue.

3. Bright lights are not handled very well by the camera. You will notice that areas of brightness (lights) are really blown out in the image.

4. There is already a recall on this camera to resolve fine lines in images issue and a firmware update to fix a hue issue (check Canon website for details).

5. What you see through the range finder and what you see on the LCD screen are two very different things. The rangefinder view is very cropped.

I can only give it a two stars. It is overpriced and doesn't live up to the image quality that I would expect from Canon.