Canon Powershot G7 review

Subtitle: My own damn fault (Explore)

 

I had a hard time deciding when I bought a new camera a year ago whether to go with DSLR or "single body". I knew from experience that carrying around a camera that can't fit in your pocket was a pain in the ass, but I also sensed I might be interesting in higher end equipment at some point. I decided on the single body Canon Powershot G7, which I viewed as the best single-body available. (Yes, I bought the best of the tube Sony TVs rather than a big screen and I think my picture is better!) Since some of you may be considering a G9, this review may be still useful.

 

Pros:

* Not a lightweight, but can indeed fit in pants pocket (barely).

* Very good landscape photos.

* Absolutely killer macro mode.

* Good battery life.

* Nice "manual" controls, easy to learn and use

* Lens fully retracts

* Incredible dof at f/2.8 in macro mode

* Very good image stabilization, autofocus

* Great digital zoom

* 10MP really helps when cropping

 

Cons:

* No swivel screen

* Mediocre DOF at f/2.8 on regular mode

* No RAW (they fixed this--G9 has RAW mode)

* Can only buy a few add-on lenses

* Can only go to ISO200 reliably; built-in flash sucks

* Reliability issues?

 

The final "con" I don't know who to blame. In the last two weeks the damper on the zoom switch has busted (have seen this complained about elsewhere on web); and autofocus seems to fail now sometimes, which freezes all the other controls and usually means a reboot. All of these problems started when I brought the camera on this golf outing. I put it in the golf cart unprotected and I think I underestimated how much bouncing around there was... Oh well, now I have an excuse to upgrade...

Done