Canon PowerShot G9

At the present time it appears that digital cameras are beginning to divide into two distinct groups. Those who simply want to snap away, happy with the odd decent shot of friends on a night out or a family gathering, and those who want to take the perfect image of an opening flower or stunning sunset. Where compacts suit the happy snappers perfectly, DLSRs can often be too bulky and involved for a simple day out. The more discerning photographer won’t want to settle for a point-and-click model though, meaning a genre-straddling camera is required. Step forward the Canon Powershot G9, a compact with manual controls and options galore, but no removable lens and the ability to slip into a reasonable sized pouch.

The G9’s appearance certainly has plenty to thank rangefinder cameras for, possessing a similar layout. Being larger than the average compact in just about every respect, There’s plenty of room to deposit the various buttons and controls. The metallic black casing is basic but functional, giving the camera plenty of protection without belittling the main focus by adorning it with needless design flourishes. The boxy shape and prominent dials again prove that the G9 isn’t for the fashion-conscious snapper.

At the rear of the camera both the LCD and viewfinder are given prominence, which is unsurprising as the screen is a massive three inches, taking up the majority of the rear. Where the buttons are pushed to one side and forced to cohabit, the viewfinder is given a reasonable amount of space to breathe and a dioptre to adjust for eyesight. The dials and controls at the rear may be forced to exist in a smaller space, but fortunately it doesn’t have an overly negative impact. The outer edge is occupied by the multi-function dial, which changes values when the camera is set to Priority or Manual modes. In spite of being a touch tricky to use without interfering with the d-pad in the centre, altering settings is simple enough and there’s a favourable amount of resistance. One annoying aspect is the need to hit a Shift button, which also doubles up as a voiced record control in Playback mode, to alter the aperture when fully manual. The top right positioning makes it necessary to obscure the screen when in use, making it far less of an intuitive operation than the dial itself. In a similar vein the d-pad doesn’t have a massive amount of resistance, and is a little on the small side for the amount of functionality present. On a few occasions the Function/Set button was pressed while the d-pad was being used, leading to unwanted settings being activated. The top of the camera is a slightly different story, as the dials are given plenty of room to breathe. Having the ISO taking up such a large amount of room to the left of the flash shoe may seem like something of a waste, but it comes in surprisingly handy in lower light environments. The main Mode dial has a reasonably default layout, with the only majorly missed elements being the individual scene modes rather than a setting to allow the user into the relevant menu. The dial again comes into effect, needing to be utilised in order to scroll through the numerous scene options available. Both the shutter release and zoom control occupy the same area, placed to the right of the Mode dial. Where the shutter release feels spongey but becomes more intuitive after repeat usage, the Zoom dial continues to feel small and too far recessed against the body, making it far too easy for the notch to slip and zooming to cease.

Whenever hardware controls are utilised the screen reacts in an almost overly energetic manner. For example, altering the shutter speed not only makes the indicator enlarge on screen to denote the changes, but a scrolling level across the base of the display as well. The advantage of having both, or having almost a quarter of the screen suddenly filled, is negligible, but neither achieve more than a simple numerical indicator wouldn’t. It seems that almost every control provokes a similar result, making the LCD awash with icons and animations, obscuring the image behind.

Image quality is fortunately of a high enough level to ensure close attention is hugely necessary. Colour depth is superb at times, even on dull days, with reds appearing superbly vivid. On a few occasions the white balance headed into the overly blue territory, giving a couple of photos a colder cast, but this was a relatively rare occurrence. For the most part the focus was rapid and sharp, with a generally impressive level of detail overall. Noise wasn’t an issue, even when the camera was pushed to many of its rival’s limit.

As can be gathered from the appearance of the G9, this isn’t a camera designed to be taken out and about for happy snaps. For the task to which it is intended Canon has perfectly catered the G9, and other than a couple of handling and button placement issues the amateur photographer will be more than happy.