December 9, 2008 by Matt Suess

Canon G10 diary and review

This is an ongoing review of the new Canon PowerShot G10 digital camera.

Article by Matt Suess

December 3, 2008

I took delivery of a Canon PowerShot G10 point and shoot 14.7 megapixel digital camera today. It was not offered to me for review – rather I ended up purchasing one following some glowing reviews for the G10 that have already begun to surface online. The initial reviews have been so good that it is my hope that the G10 can be a modest back-up camera to my main camera – currently the Canon 5D – on my hiking and camping trips. When hiking and backpacking, every ounce of weight counts and I would much rather carry a small point & shoot than an extra (and much heavier) dSLR body.

I have not owned a point & shoot digital camera for a number of years, using my Canon 20D or even my iPhone for family snapshots and such. But carrying the 20D around on family outings was never a fun scenario for my wife Marci and I due to its size, and the iPhone camera – while great because I always have it with me – leaves a little to be desired in the megapixel count (it’s only a 2 megapixel camera), as well as offering no flash or zoom. So suffice it to say that I have been in the market for a decent point and shoot for some time.

I was intrigued with the G10 based on some eye-opening specs: 14.7 megapixels (my main camera as of the time of this writing, the Canon 5D, only has 12.7 megapixels), can shoot RAW, ability to record video, manual control, 3 inch LCD screen, etc. I won’t get into all of its features in this diary as there are a number of reviews out there that talk about each and every feature. All I really care about is the quality of all of those pixels and whether it is good enough to be used for an occasional fine art print.

A side note on image quality – this camera has already been receiving rave reviews for its image detail and low noise (using low ISO settings). In fact one reviewer has found that when printing up to 13”x19” the G10 can hold its own against prints from a medium format digital camera. That is pretty impressive. I don’t have a medium format digital camera to compare image quality to, but I do have a Canon 5D and will compare images taken from both cameras at a later time (as of this writing, Lightroom does not support the RAW images from the G10 – once it does I will do my comparison of the G10 vs. the 5D).

First impressions

Wow this camera is small. Others have said it is one of the largest point and shoot cameras out there – but for me, who hasn’t owned one in years and in that time have only owned dSLR’s – this is one small camera. Almost a little too small for my large hands. The feel is quite solid and weighs a little bit more than what I would have expected from just looking at it. The dial buttons on top click with a nice snap, and other buttons and menu navigation seems quick and responsive. The 3 inch LCD screen is huge, sharp and clear (remind me to get a screen protector for it).

It has a look and feel of a rangefinder camera. The viewfinder is pretty much useless, only offering 77% coverage. Why only 77% coverage Canon?? I would greatly enjoy using the viewfinder – but not with such a large hit to composition while using it. I really enjoy seeing dials on the top of the camera for ISO settings and exposure compensation. Very handy to have them on top allowing for quick access to important functions and complimenting the camera body style.

The camera is quick on start up and ready to go in no time. A live histogram provides constant exposure feedback on the LCD screen which is a great feature for dialing in the correct exposure before taking the photo.

One of the first photos I took with it is shown above. Photographed in my backyard in the late afternoon sunshine this photo shows both great detail but also some chromatic aberrations. Also note the distortion in the lower left corner.

The photo was taken in RAW using Aperature-Priority and -1.0 exposure compensation. It was hand held at 1/15s at f4.5 with image stabilization on. The ISO speed was 80 and it was shot at 6mm (equivalent to 28mm on a 35mm camera).

The RAW image was processed using Photoshop CS4 and Camera Raw 5.2. I adjusted color, saturation, sharpening and more in the conversion to make the most pleasing image possible (i am not interested in how it looks at default settings – only processed results).

You can see in the 100% crop above (100% view seen in the Camera Raw 5.2 window) the detail present in the leaves. Noise is minimal and there is nice detail in the shadows.

The 100% crop from the sky is more troublesome. There was a lot of purple and blue fringing present. The reason why I photographed this scene was to check on the color fringing. I was able to eliminate much, but not all, of the color fringing in Camera Raw. The highlights in the sky also went pure white with no recoverable detail.

One can not make many conclusions after using a camera for just 5 minutes like I did here. I do like the detail I am seeing, but it looks like there are going to be some scenes that are going to give this camera trouble.

December 4, 2008

Today found me with some extra time to walk around and photograph with the G10 before I set up my booth here at the Tempe Art Festival. I was able to find some excellent subjects to photograph to continue testing the RAW image capabilities of the camera. I must say that having a camera this size is great for certain types of photography as it draws little or no attention – something that is hard to avoid when shooting with larger cameras. In two very short days of testing I am really having fun using this little camera.

Before getting on to today’s images I wanted to talk just a bit more on yesterday’s photo. The reason I photographed that scene was because I knew it would have the potential to give the camera problems. There was a huge exposure range for one, lots of small detail, and very difficult lighting in the top of the photo with the extremely bright background and dark tree branches in the foreground – I knew that if I was going to see any chromatic aberrations I would find it there. And in that regard the camera unfortunately didn’t dissappoint. It isn’t as bad as from some cameras I have seen and like I said much of it can be cleaned in Camera Raw – unfortunately chromatic aberrations are still a necessary evil with such small digital sensors.

On to images from today, the first is of a nicely lit cactus. This is about as easy of an exposure as you can get – no major highlights to blow out, no dark shadows, and the camera exposed the image perfectly. It was shot in RAW at ISO 80, lens set at 10.8mm, at 1/250s at f4.0 in aperature priority with no exposure compensation. The final image seen here was processed in Camera Raw 5.2 where color, saturation, and sharpness settings among others were applied. It was finally sharpened for web with PK Sharpner.

You can see the great detail in the 100% crop just below. The only problem I am seeing is some very slight chromatic aberrations in the red/green variety along the edges of the cactus thorns. These are easily removed in the RAW software.

So what happens when we push things a bit? I am a big fan of pushing the envelope with lighting, preferring high contrast scenes. It doesn’t get any more difficult then when shooting directly into the sun. I remember my old Canon 1Ds never enjoyed looking into the sun, making some photos look like a nuclear explosion and producing all sorts of overexposure artifacting.

This image was shot using aperature-priority at ISO 80, at 1/500s at f5.0, with -1.0 exposure compensation and the built-in neutral density filter on. The built-in ND filter allows for up to 3 stops of light intensity reduction – a great feature. The image was processed in Camera Raw 5.2 and further adjusted in Photoshop CS4.

Well the G10 kept the nuclear explosion in check and the sun is quite pleasing. However the foreground in front of the sun is going to need some major cleanup. It is also difficult to see, but if you look at the sky above the sun, as well as the sky just to the right of the right-most pole, you can see some off-color circles. These are most likely caused by the bright sunlight reflecting off of the image sensor and bouncing off the rear lens element at the time of exposure. These two problems would have to be addressed manually in photoshop. There is also a little more noise in this image – not necessarily unexpected.

Another thing I love to do is photograph panoramics. I accomplish that by taking a series of photos and stitching the images together. Normally I am using a tripod and have the head completely leveled off. But in this instance I hand-held the G10 and took 3 horizontal photos that I first processed in Camera Raw 5.2, then stitched together in Photoshop CS4 using Photomerge in its auto setting. I then used the warp filter to return the resulting photomerged image into one that looked normal again.

The three photos were photographed in aperature priority at 1/640s at f4.5, -1/3 exposure compensation, ISO 80 at 6mm. There is nice shadow detail and none of the highlights are blown out. The foreground is tack sharp – but the background looks a little soft – perhaps my error in either focusing or by not allowing for enough depth of field by shooting at f4.5.

And finally for today I was able to photograph a nice sunset from the roof of my RV.

I was quite pleased with the color rendition. There were some red chromatic aberrations in the dark objects that were in front of the setting sun. I was able to clean up most of it when processing the RAW file in Camera Raw 5.2.

The photo was shot using aperature priority, hand-held at 1/80s at f4.5, with an ISO of 80, -2/3 exposure compensation with a lens setting of 6mm.

December 16, 2008

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about the dynamic range of the G10 – in particular about recovering detail in the shadows. The timing is perfect as Lightroom 2.2 was just released today allowing for full RAW processing of G10 RAW files in Lightroom (prior to LR 2.2 I was using Camera Raw 5.2 for RAW conversions for the G10). Lightroom has quickly evolved and has become my default RAW converter (although I still, depending on the image, will use other RAW converters for my Canon 5D images such as DPP, Capture One, and DxO). It is great that Adobe is supporting some of the higher-end point and shoot cameras as it allows me to use the same tools and workflow as I would with my regular work.

For this example I selected an image I photographed this past weekend. It was photographed in Tucson during the 4th Ave. Street Fair near the end of a spectacular sunset. The image was photographed in RAW in aperature priority, at ISO 80, and hand-held at 1/13s at f4.5 with no flash. The bottom half of the photo is underexposed by a good 3+ stops, while the top half of the photo is also underexposed slightly.

The above photos show the before and after versions of the same image. The before was processed in LR 2.2 with no settings adjusted from the default settings. The after photo shows the end result I obtained strictly from adjustments made in LR. I ended up going perhaps a little overboard in bringing out the shadows, but I did that to show what I found to be some fairly impressive results from this little camera. In the after image, we are looking at a foreground 4+ stops brighter than the original. I was a little bit surprised at how much I was able to bring out.

Of course there are consequences to bringing out this much in the shadows – a big increase in noise and a loss of fine detail. This is to be expected even in higher end cameras and the G10 appears to exhibit more noise and loss of fine detail than what you would expect from a higher end camera. But still, I was impressed with the results none the less. Below are a few 100% crops for you to decide for yourself.

May 15, 2009

A recall has been recently issued for the G10 camera. A free repair for certain cameras which experience a line problem appearing in images. More info on Canon’s website here.