CANONS SUPER COMPACT IN A RUGGED CLASSIC BODY

As I sit here eating dry strawberry frosted mini wheats out of the box I have no idea what I am going to write about this little Canon Powershot G10. When it was released in October 2008 I saw it in the store and thought it was a VERY good looking camera. No, correction...a SWEET LITTLE BITCHIN’ camera! Yea, those were my words.

Black, square, manual dials and controls and a whopping 14.7 mega pixel sensor. After handling it in my local best buy back then I put it back on the shelf as

A: I could not afford yet another camera

B: I did not need another camera

and

C: I had my sights set on a Leica D-Lux compact for when I was ready to take the plunge. (well, my wife did)

Fast forward to June 2009. I was speaking with a representative from B&H Photo and due to the huge success of the camera he offered to send me a G10 so I can review for this site. Finally, I said to myself! I can now see what all of the hoopla is about with this little guy. Many claim this is the BEST compact on the market, and I wanted to see for myself if this was the case.

Many who own this camera love it to death. What is not to love? It sure looks the part, and reminds me of an old classic rangefinder style camera. When it arrived to me I opened the box and WOW, I was still impressed.

THE BODY AND THE BUILD

Just as I remembered! The body is SUPERB! I love the look, the style and the very solid feel. None of that plasticky feel like many other compacts out there today. Nope, in the hand this feels very solid, and much more solid than the Leica D-Lux 4. But, it is also quite a bit bigger as you can see in the image below.

So while the D-Lux 4 is small, sleek and smooth with that typical Leica design, the Canon G10 is more of a beast. Rugged, tough, and ready for action.

Before I get into my real world shooting opinions and samples, let me go over the specifications of the Canon G10, direct from Canon themselves:

• 14.7 Megapixel Resolution - Great, high resolution!

1. •5x Wide-angle Optical Zoom Lens - A 28 to 140 lens on this baby!
   

2. •
   

3. •Optical Image Stabilizer Technology
   

• DIGIC 4 Image Processor

1. •Intelligent Contrast Correction - I-contrast, basically a shadow/highlight feature!
   

• Advanced Shooting for More Creative Control - has a stitch mode for panos, but it is not nearly as cool as the pano feature in Sonys HX1. Also the G10 has color filters and even a “positive film” mode to mimic film. Face detection? CHECK!

• RAW File Mode for the Ultimate in Creative Control - This is GOOD, as many compacts leave out a RAW mode all together!

• High ISO Sensitivity - Up to ISO 1600 but is it even usable that high?

• Movie Recording

The PowerShot G10 can record only VGA (640 x 480 pixels) and QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) NO HD!!! That is a bummer.

• Large 3.0-inch LCD Monitor with Wide Viewing Angle - The LCD is indeed very nice!

• Compatible with Auxiliary Lenses and EOS Speedlite Flashes

• Flexible Direct Printing Options - YES< you gotta love these direct print buttons (does anyone REALLy use this??)

• Stylish, Retro Design - As mentioned, the look and feel of the G10 is superb!

So it appears this little guy is pretty packed with features BUT I am a bit disappointed in the video. No HD? It seems that all cameras coming out these days have HD recording but then again, if you REALLY think about it, do we NEED HD shooting on a still camera? Besides, the AF does not even work in video mode on nearly all digital cameras so what is the point?

I have to confess. My Leica D-Lux 4 (SEE REVIEW HERE) has HD video capability and I was excited about That when I bought the camera for my wife. But, to this day I have yet to use the damn video besides using it for testing. As for the G10, the video is fine if you just want to upload to youtube. In this review I will not be shooting any video with the G10. I am mainly concentrating on its image taking capabilities.

So, after I checked out the camera I charged the battery in the small “wall wart” charger and inserted a fresh Extreme III SD card into the camera. I then headed out to see what I could find to shoot. I shot in JPEG mode on the first outing and when I came back to view the results I was a little disappointed. Why you ask?

The 4:3 format of the images! I am used to the 3:2 format and really never got on with 4:3. It is like they are almost square but not quite. Not square, not rectangle. Just an odd size. Still that is just me nitpicking and is a personal preference. I am sure many of you could care less about the aspect ratio of the image. Or do you?

WHAT ABOUT THE IMAGE QUALITY?

Onto the image quality...

My first set of images were shot in JPEG mode and here are two of those images...

So far so good. The images look pretty nice. How about a full size image? Click the image of the tree below to download the full size 14 MP version converted from RAW.

MORE ON PAGE 2 OF THE REVIEW - CLICK HERE >>>