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

As an enthusiastic photographer I wanted a good quality, versatile compact for those times when I didn't want to lug around my DSLR equipment. I read the G10 reviews and it seemed to offer what I was looking for and so took the plunge.

The camera feels sturdy and handles well although some of the controls are a little too easy to engage accidentally. The range of options available to me were impressive and I am quickly finding my way around them. One big minus though, and the reason why I have knocked off one star, is the lousy viewfinder. It offers very restrictive viewing (feels like about 80%)and suffers from distortion. Frankly I find it almost unusable and I cannot believe that Canon has let this slip out of its stable with such a poor design defect.

Results are superb providing you don't try to push sensitivity above 200 ISO as beyond that noise does start to become a bit of a problem. Exposure is good and automatic focussing is accurate. Great lens too.

Overall I am extremely pleased with the G10 although it is a pity that I can't open the RAW files in my Elements 5 and bundled software is really rather basic. Yes a great if somewhat flawed camera but one I will no doubt enjoy for some years to come

This camera is just lovely, really love the stitch function to get those panoramas..the start up time is super quick as is the reaction time. although it's not too fast with the face recognition.. I was expecting to be able to point and shoot with the sun infront and get the flash to work every time with the face recognition but I'm new to this camera, maybe there's something I could be doing to improve the function. It worked sometimes but quite a few shadow face shots too. LOve the wide angle and LOVE the amount of time it stays charged up! Took 800 photos and films and messed around with it loads before it needed charging and even then it hadn't run out of juice completely even after 2 weeks of every day use! I'm not easily pleased with gadgets but I wouldn't be without this camera it's on the way to being perfect and I get the feeling that it's the technology that's not 100% there yet with things like face rec rather than the camera not being good enough. I can't imagine anyone not loving this cam it's a great piece of kit.

I'll keep this brief as plenty of people have given chapter and verse on the technology and features and so on.

Came to the G10 from a Nikon DSLR (D40) and a long line of analogue SLRs before that. The D40 is a fine camera but I wanted something that was more portable without being completely lightweight. I've had it for a month or two now, and have used it fairly extensively. Here's what I've found:

Pros
Portability is great: drops down to an inch or so deep, easy to slip into a bag if a bit hefty for a pocket. Still offers plenty of grip and weight for steady pictures though.
Useability is very good, particularly the analogue switches which allow you to quickly and intuitively control ISO, shooting mode, exposure compensation and various menu functions. Reminds me of a Nikon F-series analogue SLR; ergonomically one of the best cameras I've owned, with all the important stuff up front and to hand, and plenty of extras in the background.
Excellent, bright screen *and* a viewfinder - essential for low or bright light situations. I've switched regularly between both. Yes, the viewfinder only gives you 70% of the eventual picture but compensating for that with post-process cropping hasn't been any problem.
Quality of the pictures is tremendous. Received wisdom seems to be that 14 megs is too many for a camera sensor of this size - what do I know - but it seems to provide fantastic potential for optical zoom - either when taking the picture (which gives you up to x20 effective zoom, though the quality is pretty ropey at the far end) or cropping in very close later..
Loads of features, which I feel I've only begun to explore.
Nice retro looks. Nice in the hand too. Really feels like an old school rangefinder. A joy to use, in fact.

Cons
It's not an SLR. It doesn't offer that real through-the-lens framing which any photographer loves, and that's the big tradeoff against size and convenience. But that's not a fault of the camera itself.
Response is good for a digital but again it's not an SLR so forget about action shots because - hey - they've gone!
It's pretty pricey - I'd find it hard to describe as good value, particularly once you've added on a good fast memory card (I was talked into the Sandisk Extreme lll SD 16GB 30MBPS) though it offers far mor storage than I'm ever likely to need between uploads, and a case (the Canon Digital Camera Soft Case SC-DC60A for the PowerShot G10 Digital Camera is also great, and highly recommended - though again, pricey).

Conclusion: it's a great compromise camera. Buy it if the size of an SLR gets you down but you still want features and flexibility - but don't expect SLR usability. Or if you're flush and you want a second camera for carrying every day - for what the industry seems to have decided to call 'decisive moment shots'.

After much research I decided that the Canon Powershot G10 was the one to buy. I got hold of this little beauty back in October 2008 and have been using it daily as my "carry with me at all times" camera. It's not the smallest of cameras by any stretch of the imagination but it's still small enough to be put in pocket or bag without any trouble and the many features it offers more than outweigh it size.
Having had a couple of month's use of this camera I can only applaud it's capabilities and excellent image quality. If switched to full auto mode it wont let you down - but it does offer the more adventurous or experienced photographer full manual control so you can take the most creative of photos. The macro facility is great with focussing possible to within 1-1.5 cm of the target.
When I was looking to buy I was looking at this camera, the Panasonic LX3 and also the Nikon P6000. One reason I opted for the G10 was that in all the reviews that I read (and there were many) the reviewers all said how much they had missed the G10 since reviewing it, having used this for a while now I fully appreciate that
and fully agree. If for any reason I lost or damaged my G10 I wouldn't hesitate in purchasing another. A really great product.

The camera is great but I have had dead pixels in all three cameras I have received. The dead pixels are in the sensor (not the screen), which makes all pictures have a little white spot corresponding to the dead pixel of the sensor.
Appart from that it is an amazing machine, with a vast array of tools and possibilities to help you compose nice pictures.