Canon PowerShot G7

Opinion: I've owned the G7 for 2 years now and am very pleased with it overall.

The G7's strongest points are:

1. Image quality at low sensitivities (80-200) where it is very sharp.

2. Great quality of construction, i love the all metal body and retro look.

3. Good control layout and use interface.

On the negative side it does get somewhat noisy from 400 ISO onwards (as to be expected); I also find that it is more difficult to fine tune the colour output than my DSLR, but these are relatively minor points in the context of which I use this camera.

Overall a great camera for travel/landscape work which I would strongly recommend.

Opinion: I've had my G7 for roughly two and a half years. It feels solid like a brick, and colours and sharpness is excellent (at low ISO). The mode wheel is an excellent feature, including the two custom modes. The ISO wheel is nice, although one normally wants to leave it at ISO 80 for maximum IQ. To me, an EC wheel would be more useful (which the G10 in fact has). Still, dialing in som EC is relatively easy with the control wheel at the back, which is another nice feature of this camera. I appreciate the shooting priority design (refusing to buy any camera with an irritating playback/record switch which is always in the wrong position). Dynamic range is a little bit low and there's too much noise at high ISOs. I'd love a better sensor with "quality pixels" in a body like this.

Opinion: Top Kamera

Opinion: I am tired of having two SLR's hanging around my neck at many of the events I cover. I feel that I always need a backup camera.. for a grip and grin or general event, this camera fits in a waist pack BUT has a hot shoe and couples with my 580ex flash perfectly.. It has allowed me to leave the other SLR in the case and have more freedom of movement for certain shoots. I do alot of sports and nothing can replace the Mark II and a good telephoto... but this camera keeps coming out more and more often for unusual shots. I am still learning the controls, but they are manageable. It is truly stupid that every time you power off and power on the flash activates... while the built in flash has very little power it is not a good thing if you forget and pull it out for a wide angle shot at a basketball game. I would not have paid $550.00 for the camera... I did find it for $250 NEW at a local retailer... so that makes me feel like I got a lot for my money. A VERY good little camera that has a viewfinder (for those of us that can't get used to looking at an LCD screen to compose a photo.. The green "spotter" light is really cool when you hold the camera over your head to get a shot over the heads of a crowd in low light... The camera delivers perspectives that a heavier SLR might not capture... The video and sound is VERY GOOD for a point and shoot ... This is a very welcome addition to my camera bag... it changes how I pack for many events.. A very good camera...

Opinion: Poor dynamic range, optical distortions oftenly,noise.

Opinion: this is my first digital camera after using slr for 20 years (nikon f-301). I bought this cam 1,5 years before and overall i'm happy with most of it. Now it's time to upgrade. Why? It's because the G7 is a little bit too slow and noisy for what i mostly like to photograph: children and people in low light situations (image stabilization helps only for 'non-moving people'). But G7 will still accompany my life, because: it's small and easy to carry with, easy to adjust personal settings, great zoom (6x), good pictures (but only in good light, i.e. iso 80-200, 400 still usable, from 800 worse).

Opinion: Excellent Compact Camera!

In the past I used several analog SLR’s. Sometimes I felt crazy having so much equipment with me. Therefore I bought a small and “cheap” Noname-4MPixel digital compact camera. Some photos were nice but in total I was not satisfied with the quality.

I definitely need a better camera!

Then I started comparing several digital compact cameras and SLRs. SLRs were eliminated soon (I still don’t like too much weight and volume with me) but the decision which compact camera needed a very long time.

Well, yesterday I got my Canon G7 and after a first look I am very happy with it.

Construction and features are perfect. It feels more robust than other cameras and I like the way you can use all the manual settings. Only the auto focus is a little bit slower than expected. OK it is not an SLR.

My personal reasons for the G7 have been:

1. Tests promises good quality of the pictures
2. Compact enough to be carried all the time
3. Manual settings available
4. Image stabilizer
5. Underwater housing available
6. Optical viewfinder
7. Wide optical zoom range
8. Flash adapter

To 1:
After just about 50-100 experimental photos it is too soon to get the optimum out of the camera. My first pictures are very good and well balanced in color. Resolution of 10MPixels is really enough to get all the nice details. Even in automatic mode the photos are much much much better than of my previous camera. My big surprise: The flash is OK, at least in my living room. I tried my bigger flash from my analog SLR (now I can) and photos are even better, but not so much that it’s worth carrying this extra weight all the time.

For me the quality of the pictures is great, especially compared to other compact cameras. If you are used to the quality of a digital SLR, to the speed of a digital SLR …, the G7 might be poor in critical situation. But you have a compact camera, with all the benefits of a small camera. Sure, at higher ISO settings pictures become noisy. But this is not surprising me. When I had my analog SLR it was the same. I never used 400ASA films because pictures became grainy.

Here it is the same. I prefer ISO-80, but in case it is darker, I use higher ISO values, and till ISO-400 the quality of the photos is acceptable.

To 2:
The G7 is bigger and heavier than my previous one. On the other hand, this is a prize I’m not sad to pay because the camera makes so much better photos.

To 3:
This was one of my favorite features. I’m used to think before I take the photo. In case there is critical ambient I like the option of correcting the automatic mode of the camera.

To 4:
I took a 1/8s photo from hand and it worked. I think in total it gives you a wider range without flash than having just a better aperture range. Perfect would be both but if I have to decide I prefer the image stabilizer.

To 5:
I will order my underwater housing soon, at least I want to wait a couple of more photos.

To 6:
One of the competitors was the Panasonic LX2. But like most of the compact Panasonics there was no optical viewfinder. If you ever have been on a snowy mountain, you know why I need this option.

To 7:
For me the Panasonic TZ3 is one of the best you can get if you are looking for a big zoom range: 28-280mm (35mm equiv).
But with an aperture range of only F3.3 / 8.0 (Wide: 2 steps) F4.9 / 11 (Tele: 2 steps) it is much behind the G7. So, I accepted the missing wide angle of the G7.

To 8:
My old digital compact was poor indoors. My idea: If I could attach an external flash I still can take good pictures. G7 provides this option. But, if I really will use it very often? I don’t know. Even with the internal flash, pictures are good.

Opinion: This is my third digital camera. I chose this camera because I wanted the best possible compromise among IQ, features and size.

Overall I am satisfied with the camera. Image quality is good, there are a lot of features and I like the way you can access the various settings.

Opinion: i bought it in the end of the december, of the 2006th year, now i have a bi-big problem with it, i dont know how, but i get dust somehow between the lenses and on the sensorm i thought it is germetically closed. I wore it in the specially bought case for it... i think i will sell it after a small repair...