CANON G9. Review on Canon PowerShot G6

Oh boy.even after all these years MS does not allow us to update the categories/products.I have sent them the requests to enable that feature and looks like nobody wants to.

Anyways.for the benefit of the brethren I will continue with the main purpose and consider 6 as 9 inverted. I am reviewing the Canon G9 now that I have owned it for a while and taken quite a few pictures.

One statement sums it up."The point and shoot of choice for the serious photographer". Launched in August end and in my possession by October.

Rules: Get a tripod, if you are into serious photos. You dont have to depend on others to get a good picture with you in it and many of the modes require a very still hand which is really hard to come by unless you are a sharp shooter with the gun. Get a full length tripod and not the wrap around or table top models. Believe me, those never really work well outdoors.

Here is a pic of the camera too.with its custom made case.

Be prepared: Get ready to learn. This camera is for the serious photographer.(I am not one, but trying to get there.) or atleast you need to have the will power to sustain your learning curve. You need to understand how light affects photography, how the colors work, how much aperture you need, what should be your shutter speed etc.Not to worry. you will learn from it. One good feature here over SLR is that you can actually see on the LCD what you will get before you click it. That gives your time to correct. Cool, huh.so you can learn here and move to the SLR.

If you do not want to learn you might be better off with a digital elph or something else which you consider chic.

Battery: Get an extra battery for your road trips or be prepared to sacrifice the display. One extra battery cannot hurt. Or atleast get a car charger. Couple of times on our road trips I have had to switch to my w810i phone cam just cos my battery went down. Or be prepared to rush to the nearest restaurant for a quick grab and use of an electric outlet. I cant blame Canon for this. I shot nearly 500 pictures a day! Crazy! Wonder what I would have done with a film based camera.

Flash: Is really good compared to other cameras. But once you readup on flash photography, you will notice the flaws with it and would want to buy  a better  flash with which you can diffuse the light.(Sometimes I wonder, where will I end up? Carrying those umbrella lights to the beach to get good pictures:))

Cover: You need to buy a good cover for this. Unlike the regular camera stuff, you need the one sold by Canon which fits it like a glove and makes it easy to do a quick draw. I got one and busted 75USD. It is mentioned only on the Japan site of canon and I got it through an ebay seller.

Lenses: You can get some snapon lenses that fit over the existing lense and increase your wide angles/telephoto. Fitlers are also available on the internet.

RAW mode: This is a highlight of this camera. We all know that images lose quality when converted to JPG. This is what all cameras do including the G9. But you have the option of storing it in RAW format and then process it later.( Honestly, I have not  reached there yet.)

WEIGHT: I found this to be a drawback, but then thats the reason why I bought this. I dont want a heavy item to lug around. But when you are using large apertures or slower shutter speeds, if you dont have a tripod, getting it stable is hard. If you reached this point you need to upgrade to the SLR. But even the SLR would need a tripod but I would say it should be  tad better to have a weight that stabilizes.

I will try to add a few pics that I have taken from it to display its prowess exploited by my limited abilities. But one thing you should have noticed by now, is that it keeps adding to your expenses as your tastes are refined. If you buy the ELPH or A series or a Sony normal, you might end your expenses there. But with this you keep adding stuff.like battery, case, tripod, lenses, flash etc.which will keep your cost of ownership high. So unless you are serious about photography, do not consider this. Some may ask you why not an SLR when you go for a point and shoot of 450+ USD. Well, with SLR you do not get the WYSIWYG mode and morevover the body of the SLR might come cheap. If you are adding stuff to it, your costs are going to zoooooooom. And again, you have to lug all the items of the SLR with you, which is what I try to avoid. I walk around with my camera on its tripod slung on my shoulder and draw it quick to capture the scene I like.