Canon G10 14.7 megapixel digital camera ....excellent!

I recently purchased a new Canon G10 “pocket camera” to replace my aging Olympus C-5050.  The old Olympus offered a “mere” 5 megapixel resolution sensor, while the new Canon sports an incredible 14.7 megapixel resolution!  Before buying the G10, I did a lot of research and read tons of reviews; both by professionals and amateurs.  The professional consensus was that Canon had come up with a wonderful camera that was hamstrung by poor high ISO/low light performance.  Contrary to this, the vast majority of consumer reviews had nothing but praise for the G10.  In the end, in spite of some reservations, I opted for the Canon G10.

I have owned several Canon cameras, and currently use a Canon 40D digital SLR for my more “serious” photography.  As good as the 40D is, there are still many times when it’s just not practical to lug around a full sized SLR.  I needed a high resolution, compact camera that offered RAW shooting as well as the standard JPEG, a real viewfinder, manual control capability, and a decent LCD.  The G10 offers all of those features, and much more. 

It does have a decent viewfinder but unfortunately it only shows about 75% of the image, so you have to be careful about how you compose an image when shooting through the viewfinder.  The LCD, luckily, is just beautiful.  At 3” in size and with 460,000 pixel resolution, this is one of the nicest displays I’ve yet seen.  The brightness is adjustable, although the midrange default setting is just fine.  It’s easy to use in all but the very brightest, direct sunlit conditions.  Canon has also provided some really large and bright lettering on the pop-up displays, so everything is very easy to read.

Canon has also opted to give some important functions their own dedicated dials.  Most notable are the big exposure compensation and ISO dials, both located right on top of the camera.  On top of the ISO dial is the standard mode dial … in front of that, the shutter button and zoom ring.  The shutter button and zoom ring are both a bit too small for my big mitts, but not difficult to access or use.

The camera has a very simple menu system which provides full control for exposure, focus, and flash.  The playback menu allows for red eye correction as well as several editing features like trimming, and resizing.  There is also a side bar which opens up when the “select” button is pressed.  This allows access to the Auto White Balance, a Neutral Density Filter, several color filters plus black & white and sepia, as well as several other functions.  The main dial allows instant access to macro, flash control, and manual focus.  In manual focus, the center of the image is magnified and a an analog scale shows the distance.  When using the dedicated exposure compensation dial, a very clear analog scale pops up showing the level of compensation.  It’s the same when using the Av (aperture priority) or Tv (shutter priority) modes. A nice analog scale appears on the LCD showing exactly what your setting is.

In addition to the Auto, Program, Av, Tv, and Manual modes, the camera also has two custom settings, a scene mode position, stitch, and movie mode.  The scene mode position allows access to 12 different sub menus.  These include landscape, portrait, sunset, snow, two night modes, an aquarium and even an underwater mode.  The stitch mode allows you to accurately frame up to nine images that will be later combined for a panoramic view.  PhotoStitch software is provided with the camera and easily produces usable panoramic views.

A movie mode is provided, although it is not HD.  Canon now uses a .MOV format.  This is supposed to be more efficient than .AVI with fewer compression artifacts.  The quality seems fine for non-HD, but my primary use for this camera is still photography.

The f/2.8 lens is quite good and covers 28 o 140mm, providing good wide angle and moderate telephoto shots.  If you need more “zoom” in your shots, you can activate a digital zoom or one of two available teleconverters; 1.7 or 2.2.  The camera offers excellent image stabilization so, combined with the incredible resolution of the sensor, the higher zoom ranges are actually usable.  Yes, the image stabilization on the G10 is very effective, worth about three f/stops with no visible shake.  I have taken handheld shots at ¼ second that were totally free of motion blur, which is very impressive.

The camera feels very responsive.  Start up time is quick at just over a second, and shutter lag is barely noticeable on most shots.  Auto focus is very quick although, especially in low light, it may hunt until a lock is achieved.  Automatic, flexible, and “Face Detect” modes are available for focusing.  The “Face Detect” will lock onto one or more faces and use them for its focus and exposure settings.  Surprisingly, it works quite well.  Three metering modes can be chosen…evaluative, center weighted, or spot.  In most conditions, the camera did a good job at finding the correct focus point and exposure setting.

At just over 14 ounces, this is not a lightweight camera.  If you’re looking for a super slim, light camera to slip in your shirt pocket, you’d be better off looking elsewhere.  The Canon G10 is heavy and on the bulky side.  It is a ruggedly built camera and uses an all metal body, although the battery cover and accessory plug covers are plastic.  It will fit in a jacket pocket, but you’ll know it’s there.  A small belt or shoulder case makes this much easier to transport.  I was unimpressed with the flimsy neck strap included with the camera.  It was soon replaced with a simple wrist strap.

The included battery is a 1050mah unit that is capable of providing up to 400 shots, depending on flash usage.  In practice, this camera goes a very long way before the battery gets low.  An extra Canon battery goes for about $50-60.  The included charger takes less than two hours for a full charge.

The included DVD includes EOS Utility, DPP, and PhotoStitch software.  DPP is an excellent photo editing program and can handle Canon’s RAW file format.

So, after all this, does the camera take good pictures?  Yes, it does.  Using mostly ISO settings of 80 or 100, the output is absolutely stunning.  In fact, I think the image quality can match or even exceed the output from my Canon 40D DSLR.  The images are crisp, have excellent color saturation and tone, and are free of noise and lens distortion.  They also respond well to post processing, and maintain good detail even with heavy cropping.  In difficult, harsh lighting, the camera offers something called i-Contrast, which enhances shadow detail.  It works well and is user selectable.  I have this function assigned to the shortcut key so I can easily turn it on or off as needed.  The built-in flash is more effective than most, with a usable range of about 10 feet.  The camera has a hot shoe and will accept external flashes.  It works beautifully with my Canon 430EX flash.

I am impressed with this camera.  It won’t replace my 40D because it just can’t match a DSLR for low light performance or for burst mode speed.  It’s an easy camera to like though; with a comfortable feel, an easy to use menu, a gorgeous screen, and a very sharp lens.  If you want a well constructed and easy to use camera that’s not quite pocket size, but still much smaller than a DSLR … and capable of extraordinary picture quality … the Canon G10 would be a strong recommendation.  It is not a particularly good high ISO/low light performer, but that’s about the only qualitative drawback I can find.