Direct Comparison – Canon G9-G10-G11
This post may cause some of you to reboot. Sorry for that. Not everybody is a photography geek. However, since I find myself today with all three of my Canon G series cameras at the office, I decided to make an extremely unscientific comparison of them. Canon has been all over the map with megapixels in the G series. The G9 was 12 and shot pretty good pictures. The G10 went to 15 and gave amazing detail in good light conditions, but was too noisy for the low light levels that make such sweet available light shots. The G11 gives you 10 megapixels. Why the backtracking? To give you a better all-round experience. Fifteen megapixels are overkill for most uses. And, the “buckets” are too small to catch enough photons to keep the sampling fair. Remember, all this dancing around of pixel counts was done without changing the size of the sensor.
Anyway, that’s way too much detail for most folk and the geeks already know what I’m talking about. Here’s a series of three shots at my bolted-to-the-wall computer in my office. All were shot at ISO 1600, which is adequate for most indoor shooting without flash as long as there are no kids or pets in the shot and you can brace a little to avoid motion blur. Just the ticket for those romantic, candle-lit dinners. All of these are a small portion of the centre of the frame – about a 300% enlargement:
Here’s the G9:
Here’s the G10 image:
Here’s the G11 image:
So much for low light. How about normal shooting? I grabbed this image in front of my office today on the G11:
Here’s a blowup from the G9:
Pretty crisp. You can read the PNG on the plate.
Here’s the G10:
Here is the shot from the G11:
So, what does MadDog think?
I’m probably going to start carrying my G11 as my daily camera, though I’m a bit nervous about that, given the security situation here. When my G9 was stolen and thrown to the pavement, it still worked, except in the UW housing, Still they are tough cameras. I can’t think of many cameras with which you could club a thug unconscious and then take his picture.
I’ll still use the G10 when I need massive detail. Good light and lots of pixels can’t be beat for some jobs. But, my new sweetheart is the G11.
I’m so fickle.
Related posts:
- The Only Harley Davidson in Madang – The Coastwatchers Monument Some of you may have already seen the image below of me sitting on my Harley Davidson 883 Sportster with the famous Madang Coastwatchers Monument in the background. I put it up on my Facebook page a couple of days ago. Even if you have seen it, you may want...
Hey Mad Dog,
Congratulations on aquiring your Canon G11. I liked your comparisons, and found your post quite informative and useful as another layman photography geek.
I’m afraid I am a Nikon faithful (currently with a Nikon D90) but…but I have a compact Sony Cyber-shot DSC- T900 and a Canon camcorder. Both are a joy.
I am always keen for good shots in low light and find that an ISO 800 or 1600 worked better depending on how bad the lighting was. I seldom use my Nikon flash gun but since Sunday evening (farewell pics were horrifically blurred) I think I’ll use the flash gun even when ISO is set at 800 or 1600. My Sony self-adjusts the ISO levels depending on the lighting so I don’t have to worry about that – it’s a beauty in that sense. I used it for all my recent snow photos and some photos in low light especially at Church.
I enjoyed your underwater pics with your G10 and look forward to the pics from your G11 in that environment.
Cheers,
Mari
Mad Dog,
Forgot to mention that when I set the ISO to 800 or 1600 on the Nikon D90, I take all shots on the Auto P setting – once in a while on Auto A or S depending on what and how I really want to capture at that moment. I find that the Auto setting which triggers off the built-in flash can over expose the photo so I stopped using it unless I really have to.
Cheers,
Mari
Your photography “analysis” with various forms of equipment, leave me amazed, confused, bewildered and God only knows what else!
I loved this report:
Don’t ask me why, but I think of nudibranchs as the furry little bunny rabbits of the sea. They’re not furry. They don’t breathe air. They have no legs. They do sometimes, however, have what may appear to be ears, but are not. Here’s a little funny-bunny Nudibranch (Phyllidiella pustulosa) for you:
When I saw the report, my first, very wicked impressions were, “Good God a nudist beach in Madang”!!!!
Does this thing shown actually swim?
The report by you either above or below showing the footpaths (?) of Madang were very distressing to view. Such a pity for what could have been.
You certainly go into great detail and it is remarkable. So good to view. I have forewarded your site to friends to see, here in OZ , Europe and the USA. I’m surprised that they haven’t made a comment – maybe your technical skills frighten them?
Cheers
Colin
So happy for you! And the upshot, is we’ll see the results of the new capabilities of your new tool/piece of art right here on the blog.
Go MadDog!
Steve
I have a couple of sunrise shots from today. Nothing special yet.
Thanks, Mari. My first dive with it this weekend will tell a lot. I’ve been looking for less noise and more dynamic range, which is exactly what the G11 is supposed to give me.
I wish that I could afford a camera with a bigger sensor. That alone solves a lot of problems. Aside from the price, though, I just can’t carry around a big DSLR every day – it gets in my way and slows me down. I’ve promised myself I’ll never walk out my door without my camera. I’m a photographer. When I was in another world, I never walked out the door without my gun – same premise. So, for me, the G11 is perfect. It covers 99% of a professional’s needs (just check out the G11 Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1095006@N23/) and it fits in a pouch hanging from my belt.
My first tests indicate that the noise at ISO 1600 is manageable – the first time that I’ve seen this in a G series camera. It may even work at the special “low light” setting which pushes to 3200. I haven’t tested that yet.
When walking around town I use a custom button that pops in all of my favourite settings. However, when I’m shooting seriously, I set my camera on full manual. It takes a few seconds to get everything the way that I want it, but it pays off when you open the RAW file and have all of those delicious settings available.
Keep shooting and send me your favourite shots. I’ll do a GUEST SHOTS post on you.
Later,
Jan
You’re going in the right direction by staying away from the auto settings except for casual snaps. I’ve been a photographer all my life, so the controls and their cross-effects are burned into my mind. I now do all my serious shooting in the full manual mode with spot metering turned on. I make a lot of use of the exposure lock button. My sequence is set my shutter speed or aperture for what I need (action or depth of field), point the spot meter to the area that I want to expose for, press the shutter half way, reframe, shoot.
I bet you use a very similar method. Send me shome shots!
Later,
Jan
Woah, Colin, you pack a lot into a comment. Very efficient!
I wouldn’t have bothered to do that post except a lot of people ask me, “What camera should I buy?” Of course, there’s no proper answer to that. All I can do is say why I like what I’ve got. Now, what I’d LIKE TO HAVE, if I could afford it – that’s another story.
In actual fact, there IS a sort of floating nudist colony in Madang.
Some nudies DO swim – they’re called “Spanish Dancers” – try Googling it with “nudibranch”. You’ll be amazed. I’ve seen them only a few times.
My sadness for Madang reflects yours. Such promise wasted. I lay it all at the feet of elected officials.
Thanks for spreading my URL to others. I wish all of my readers were so courteous.
Later,
MadDog
Hadn’t thought about “Spanish Dancer” nudis in a long time, and then remembered their amazing, flowing movement in the water, and had to go watch a video or two…simply magical! Thanks for mentioning them, and of course, I love your images in the post…
This was my favorite YouTube short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyEDPtUThVo&NR=1
Yes – just have and naturally was not sure of what was in store for me.
Such an amazing “fish”, I suppose????
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dancer
The fact that you are displaying all these remarkable photos, really should be seen by more.
Schools – (Biology classes) I think would benefit. Have you ever suggested this to US and
Australian educationalists?
You’d be wasting your time with the PNG education system – they seem to be in total
disarray and at the rate they are going, education as it was pre-Independence will soon be
no more!
I make it a habit of viewing your blog every morning.
Cheers
Colin
Hi Colin. Yeah, the Spanish Dancers are amazing, though more like worms in their anatomy than fish. Try YouTube. There’s some amazing videos there of them swimming through the water.
I can’t imagine anything more completing in my life than if my drivel became classroom fare. However, I’m not holding my breath. It’s not that I couldn’t produce the product. It’s just that I still have to eat and my web postings don’t make me a dime. I do it for love and everybody knows that Money Can’t Buy Me Love.
I agree that if education in PNG could just manage to get back to where it was in 1975 it would be an order of magnitude improvement. Anybody care to argue that? I didn’t think so.
Thanks for being a steady reader, mate. You must have a cast iron stomach.
Later,
MadDog
Nice post! I’m also very happy with G11
That makes two of us, mate.
Great stuff- thanks for the comparison. Yeah, I’ve been really suspect of the recent trend to up the megapix on each new iteration of the same camera without a proper rework, but the G11 looks like they’ve taken the quality piece a bit more seriously. After all, anything much about 10MP is, as you say, overkill with few exceptions.
That said, I’m currently tempted by the Canon EOS 7D, which has a brand-new and extremely sharp 18MP sensor, as well as the ability to shoot 1080HD video through SLR lenses… a beauty, and relatively reasonably priced (AUD 1,500 from the right retailer)- a nice compliment to my current 400D and 5D…
Wow… I’m a cameraholic… If I wasn’t talking to a guy who has 3 Powershot G-series cameras at his desk I would almost feel bad… ;o)
Hey guys, this is good wook!
I love cameras too…just discovered a new one yesterday but my conscience ruled that I stay away from it so I did.
I like your full manual mode…one day…perhaps one day…I get to that stage. Haven’t been uploading any pics on Flickr perhaps…one day…lol
Am coming home soon to head up a govt office and hope we can stay in touch. We could use some of your underwater shots – good publicity of tourism.
Am off to Church in an hour then at midday to a Kiribati national day celebrations – got my camera (Nikon D90) charged up and ready – just hoping it stays dry with lots of sunlight otherwise the tricky bit comes in – whether to use my flashgun or not. I carry my small Cannon Ixus 200 15 just in case.
Have a great day.
Mari
Don’t fail to contact us here, Mari. What camera did you turn down?
Sure will Mad Dog. When I get there i’ll let you know.
The camera I turned down was a Nikon Coolpix. I might pick one up on one of my travels.
Have a great week.
Cheers,
Mari