Canon G9 - The Perfect Travel Camera?

[Walter_Kimmel]

I've been using the G9 for several weeks now. I've gone through several phases in my assessment of the camera's usefulness.

Before I bought it, I had waited years for a pocketable camera with more than a 3X zoom, RAW capability, all of the manual overrides for control, a hotshoe, and decent performance. The goal was simply to have a camera with me at all times when I didn't bring the Slingshot 300 filled with lenses and 1DII. The hope was simply to have a camera handy for the occasional "must have" shots that pop up whenever you don't have your camera with you.

As I opened the box, my secret wish for a $500 camera that would do everything the 1DII can began to take over, and I became really disillusioned the first week I used the camera.

I bought the adapter to use with my old Oly B300 1.7 converter, and a little shoulderbag. I carried that around for a few days, wondering if I should also get the wide converter, a bigger bag to hold my strobe, an Arca type tripod plate, etc, etc, etc. After a day of shooting with the B300 attached, which limited my zooming to the 100-200 range, I began to be frustrated about the camera. The loss of light meant upping the ISO and tweaking Noise Ninja very very carefully to save detail. Because the optical finder is basically uselessly inaccurate, I resented having to hold the camera at arms length, using the image stabilization to compensate for the loss of the third anchoring point when shooting. And so on, and so forth.

The next phase was the realization that if I really wanted the capabilities of my "regular" gear, I should use that! How insightful! At any rate, I figured out that I didn't want to carry the adapter, converter(s), strobe, etc., and went back to using the G9 as a pocketable camera for the original purpose.

I now love it again, with its true good points as well as its several warts. I too wish that it had only 7 or 8 megapixels, or a larger sensor. And I still am puzzled by the crummy viewfinder...even a decent EVF would have been preferable. But the camera does just what I had wanted when I decided to buy it, and if used right, I can make some very decent 11x17's or larger with it.

Just some reflections on how I came to love the G9. Again.

[JohnLund]

That's a very insightful post Walter.

I too accept the G9's shortcomings and only ask it to do certain tasks i.e. I only use it at 100 ISO on sunny days outside while exploring new cities.

It is not a fast action camera, it is not intended to replace a Series 1 camera body, it is not intended for delicate framing and focussing, it is simply a walkaround camera...although I admit to carrying a w/a converter...it does a fine job for its original intent, that of being there when the DSLR ain't.

Good one.

John

[JohnLund]

It has been awhile since I checked out this thread. Almost 20,000 visits...Wow!

I still like and use my G9. It has proven to be a great all round carry camera just as I thought it would when we started this thread back in 2007.

Greetings to all. I am still doing some magazine photography for boating magazines but the recession has knocked the meat out of the business at least for now. Therefore I am working on a book project I have been carrying around with me for years.

All the best,

John Lund

[JohnLund]

Howdy gang...just thought I would check in one last time. I got a "Time is up" notice on my membership so thought I would check to see if ProPhotoHome is still active and full of useful info. I see that we set some kind of record with the G9 thread. I still use mine and it still works great. I think Canon really did take the feedback from our travel camera thread and made it work. Now of course it has gone even farther and made better G? model cameras. Good work I say. Thanks for all the good input along the way. I think I won't continue my membership as I am more interested in breaking 80 on the golf course than I am in working as a magazine photog. I still do some boating magazine work but mostly I spend time writing a novel about rumrunning on the West Coast. All best and please carry on the good work. Sincerely, John Lund