Camera Test: Canon PowerShot G9

	Photo by Jack Howard
	There's very good shadow and highlight detail on this city fountain and just a touch of blown highlights near the sky. ISO 200, JPEG capture. Click photo for more field test images from the Canon PowerShot G9.

What's not to love about a pocketable camera with a 6x Optically Image Stabilized lens, RAW+ JPEG capture with a cool new RAW converter, rock-solid build, full manual controls, spot, average or evaluative metering, advanced Face Detection technologies, EX-series x-sync hotshoe, time-lapse movie mode and more? Nothing fatal, but there are some eccentricities with this camera that have us scratching our heads.

• To begin with, we don't understand why RAW only works in certain modes such as P, Av, Tv, and Manual, but not Auto or Scene Modes. And we don't understand why RAW + JPEG only allows for Large capture. It would be nice to be able to pick a smaller-sized JPEG, like on the G9's bigger EOS siblings. But overall, we're very happy to see RAW back in the G9, even if it is implemented a little strangely.

• We love being able to use EX-series strobes with the G9, especially with an off-camera cord, but it is frustrating that you can only go with ratios in full manual mode. E-TTL and FE compensation work with Program, Tv and Av mode. But in Manual mode, it's ratios. Again, not a fatal flaw, but it does make creative control a bit more challenging, since you can't just dial back the strobe a stop or so. Instead, you've got to run the tables in your head (or just experiment and check the LCD and re-adjust).

• The PowerShot G9 has no usable internal memory. None. If you forget an SD card, you're out of luck. While many cameras ship with a piddling amount of internal memory, and some other new ones are loading up on internal memory, there's just none here. Not even enough for a single VGA cell-cam sized photo. In a nutshell: don't forget your SD cards!

• "My Colors" image quality adjustments also don't work with Scene Modes, so you can't use Night Snapshot to make a monochrome shot of your sweetheart in some romantic far-flung location in one step. It's possible to convert using the "My Colors" option in Playback, but where's the instant gratification of pre-visualization on the preview screen and during quick review?

• We love the Panorama Assist mode on the Canon PowerShot G9, although some beginners might be confused or frustrated by it. See, unlike a lot of competitors, it doesn't merge and downsample the pano-stitchers in-camera and output a low-resolution. It simply names and labels them differently, and then the full-resolution images can be merged in Canon's Photostitch, for huge, high-quality panoramics that can be printed huge. You can't merge the Pano-assist shots in-camera, so stop looking for this option! But do try this in Photostitch. The results are impressive, and the files are HUGE! Five shots merged together create a 100+ Megabyte merged image.

The Bottom Line

After the disappointing lab results of its predecessor, the Canon PowerShot G7, we were a bit skeptical of the Canon PowerShot G9. Not anymore! In general we like what we see. We like Adaptive Noise RAW conversion. We like a compact camera that syncs with external strobes. We like full manual controls. And we like Scene Assist modes to help beginners get better with their compositions before venturing into the uncharted waters of full manual control. We love the Focus Confirm and face recognition instant playback. We like the high-quality half-camera, half-computer Panoramic capture mode. Overall, we like this camera a lot. However, we're not so impressed with ISO 1600 image quality, nor the mostly useless low-resolution ISO 3200 mode.