Thoughts on My new Canon G10

I wanted a compact camera with great IQ and can shoot raw. I checked out reviews for both the Canon G10 and Nikon P6000. Nikon's decision to use some dodgy new raw format and coupled with the less than stellar performance of the P6000 gave me no choice.

Being a Nikon boy this wasn't an easy decision to cross over to the dark side and buy Canon. It's a shame that Nikon, once king of the compacts, cannot make something to compete against the G10. I don't understand how a company that can produce the D3 and D700 can miss the mark with the P6000?

Front View

I like the retro look and feel of the G10 and its black. I particularly like the 3 control dials on the top which makes it easier to access and change the iso, mode and compensation settings without having to fumble through the menus. However, on the minus side, it is rather bulky.

Top view

The menu is rather straight forward, fairly intuitive. I managed to use most of the G10 features without resorting to reading the manual. A no-no for techos:-)

The lcd screen is very very nice indeed, bright and sharp. Shame the histogram is not RGB but its still better than nothing.

Back view

I was disappointed that Adobe Lightroom 2.1 still has no support for the G10 but do for the P6000. I use Lightroom to process all my shots and only use Photoshop when I need to. Adobe just released Camera RAW 5.2, for CS4, on the 24/11/08 which supports the Canon G10. Lightroom support to follow soon, perhaps sometime in December.

I have no idea how to use Canon's DPP, its counter intuitive. I gave up and just converted the raw files to TIFF and then edit them in Photoshop. Since Adobe released Camera Raw 5.2, I use CS4 to do the raw conversion.

This is the first digital point and shoot I've ever owned. I am still getting to grips with taking shots via the lcd screen. It just doesn't feel right. Hopefully, I will get use to it.

I have to admit that it is much easier shooting macro, hand-held, using the lcd screen on the G10 than with my Nikon D200. I seem to get a higher percentage of "pin-sharp" macro shots on the G10. Perhaps this can be attributed to the G10's IS.

macro

macro

This is my first attempt at panoramic, pretty straight forward, the G10 allows you take up to 26 shots. Next time, I will make sure to use manual rather than aperture mode to ensure that the exposure is the same for each shot. I tried both Canon's software and Adobe CS4 to stitch the shots together, CS4 did a much better job IMO.

Panoramic - Campbell Cove, Sydney

Sample Shots






The low light performance was very disappointing anything above iso 400 is not great but I don't really care. So far I am very happy with the G10 and I am looking forward to taking many more photos with it. Highly recommended.

As part of Canon's Big Red promotion, if you purchase the G10 you get a genuine Canon powershot leather case. I sent in my details over 4 weeks ago and I am still waiting.

Reviews

Here some interesting links to more in-depth and technical reviews of the G10. Check out Bill Lockhart's review it has some really amazing shots from the G10.

Michael Reichmann
Thom Hogan
Bill Lockhart - Some really awesome shots
dpreview - Not so glowing review