Heresy! (or not?) Canon G9 better than M8?

Walk around shots with my new G9 - hard to beat with a stick

Walk around shots with my new G9 - hard to beat with a stick

I have been doing some walk around shots with my new G9. A very impressive and fun to use camera, especially if you stay within its constraints - mainly don't shoot above ISO 400. ISO 200 is quite good and below ISO 200 there is nothing to complain about at all. Does that seem restrictive? I was able to handhold a 1 second indoor exposure last night at ISO 100 at the widest focal length and f2.8 with Canons excellent sensor stabilization.

Outdoors today I shot this oriental carpet from about 30 feet away, zoom fully extended. The second shot is a 100% crop. It just gets more detailed up to a 400% crop, with no noise, image break up, or jpeg artifacts. All of my shooting so far has been in-camera jpgs at the super fine setting.

I don't own another camera that can duplicate what I did with this shot, including D200, R-D1, and various film Leicas.

I am happy with my new "toy" which, of course, one could never take serious photos with. 😕

/T
 

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Tuolumne,

wait until you shoot RAW with the G9 - it gets even better. There is so much more information in the RAW file which you can pull out with either DPP or the CS3 RAW Converter. I shoot RAW exclusively with the G9 - I don't mind the additional time it takes to convert the files. For $500 you just cannot beat that camera.
 
Soccer mum's SUV is better than a 6 speed manual gearbox Ferrari Daytona to transport 8 kids plus sports gear from A to B, undoubtedly.
 
teo said:
Just to stir up some trouble in the forum:😛
on Luminous Landscape Nick Devlin is thinking to sell his M8 with Tri Elmar after he found that a G9 is good enough...

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/G9-Japan.shtml
What do you think?

Before burning him on a stake, I've got to admit that I'm contemplating to buy a small digicam, sometimes a "quality" camera is too cumbersome to carry on trips...
Click to expand...

I don't know who Nick Devlin is and I don't read Luminous Landscape. I don't own a G9 but I do own a pocket-sized (sort of) digital, the DLux-3, as well as an M8. In fact the DLux-3 is my backup for the M8. But I can put a 12mm lens on my M8, for an equivalent of 16mm, and I can put a 135mm on it for an equivalent of 180mm. I can put a 50 Summilux on it and get shallow d.o.f. for subject isolation. I can even put a Visoflex and my 400mm Telyt. All things that wouldn't be possible with a G9. These are very different bits of equipment.
 
Ben Z,

Well my G9 actually can do all of those things (with only a little bit of extra, light weight equipment), and I can have it on my person hardly knowing it is there. You on the other hand, I will wager, have never and never will carry around all of the equipment you mention. And if you ever did you would wilt under its weight and bulk. Your comparison is a hypothetical supposition against my daily reality. This is a truly amazing little camera.

As for the comment about a Ferrari vs an SUV, the difference is that I wouldn't race a Ferrari if I were an SUV owner. But for all of the M8 owners, go shoot an oriental carpet out doors at 30 feet and compare your results to my G9's posted here. Zooooooom - you loose! 🙂😱🙂

/T
 
But for all of the M8 owners, go shoot an oriental carpet out doors at 30 feet and compare your results to my G9's posted here. Zooooooom - you loose!
Click to expand...

1. Are you saying the G9 equals the image quality of the M8? 😕
2. If yes, have you been drinking? 😀
 
The M8's shining light is in a zone that the G9 has no presence in ... even though it obviously is a fine camera the G9 just aint comparable and measuring it against the Leica is insanity!

Aside from the fact that the Leica's files are superior it has the ability to create them through a range of glass that most digitals can only dream about ... thirties uncoated up to whatever your budget will allow ... f1.0 to whatever!

The only time the M8 can be compared to the Canon is when it is literally being used as a point and shoot which it obviously doesn't do very well!
 
G9 is good enough for web-photos as I saw them on the website, don't use Leica cameras if the main concern is convenience and versatility.
 
Have been looking for certain G9 characteristics....

Have been looking for certain G9 characteristics....

I have been looking for certain G9 characteristics. Consumer camera with relatively fast lens and RAW. The 12 Mp is overkill for the small sensor. However, I will not spend $400-500 for a consumer level short telephoto camera with small sensor.

I had settled on finding a G6 with the f2 lens and RAW, selling for around $200-225. Plenty of them on eBay.

Then, remembering my little Fuji finepix e550, I recalled that it shoots RAW... unusual in the consumer, small sensor camera. So, I looked a bit further and came up with the Fuji e900. RAW, 9Mp, f2.8, and an added plus. Relatively good low light or low noise characteristics. I just picked up one on eBay last weekend. LNIB for $105. I'll let you know on followup when I determine that it shoots equivalent to the G9, as I suspect it will. I've had a number of Fuji products, including digital and never been disappointed.

I love buying equivalent products for 30 to 50% of the price of the competition.
 
Have been looking for certain G9 characteristics....

Have been looking for certain G9 characteristics....

I consider the G9 overrated and overpriced.

I have been looking for certain G9 characteristics. Consumer camera with relatively fast lens and RAW. The 12 Mp is overkill for the small sensor. However, I will not spend $400-500 for a consumer level short telephoto camera with small sensor.

I had settled on finding a G6 with the f2 lens and RAW, selling for around $200-225. Plenty of them on eBay.

Then, remembering my little Fuji finepix e550, I recalled that it shoots RAW... unusual in the consumer, small sensor camera. So, I looked a bit further and came up with the Fuji e900. RAW, 9Mp, f2.8, and an added plus. Relatively good low light or low noise characteristics. I just picked up one on eBay last weekend. LNIB for $105. I'll let you know on followup when I determine that it shoots equivalent to the G9, as I suspect it will. I've had a number of Fuji products, including digital and never been disappointed.

I love buying equivalent products for 30 to 50% of the price of the competition.
 
I got my G9 as a snapshot camera to take on a trip to Norway in Feb. My wife had just broken our shared A80. I took my trusty Bessa R2m for taking 'real' pictures. We were on motorbikes. The huge screen on the G9 actually worked and I didn't have to take the helmet off. This meant I continually kept using the G9. On that trip I hardly used the Bessa. This concerned me and I was convinced the images would be rubbish. Pror to the trip I hadn't had time to try it out. I was amazed. The G9 delivered sharp gritty images which looked particularily good in black and white. It goes everywhere now. For me though I still prefer the look of film images. Digital grain just doesn't look as good.....to me. You can get a Bessa with a small lens in your pocket anyway.
 
G9 is actually pretty good.

G9 is actually pretty good.

I got my G9 as a snapshot camera to take on a trip to Norway in Feb. My wife had just broken our shared A80. I took my trusty Bessa R2m for taking 'real' pictures. We were on motorbikes. The huge screen on the G9 actually worked and I didn't have to take the helmet off. This meant I continually kept using the G9. On that trip I hardly used the Bessa. This concerned me and I was convinced the images would be rubbish. Pror to the trip I hadn't had time to try it out. I was amazed. The G9 delivered sharp gritty images which looked particularily good in black and white. It goes everywhere now. For me though I still prefer the look of film images. Digital grain just doesn't look as good.....to me. You can get a Bessa with a small lens in your pocket anyway.
 
It is quite easy to use ASA 800 to take good low noise pics using the E900. Try ASA 800 with the G9 and tell us your results!

But once compared to 135 film..... Oh, I hate the pixels!!! ... and where are the details in the shadows??????

On comparison with 120 film..... What toy is this? How do I make 20x30 enlargements???

To be fair, there is one good thing about digital - You can immediately see your pics and that's about it.

So I bring my E900 only as a toy to take pictures for others as it won't cost me anything to email their pictures to them later. I can even cheat a bit with photoshop!

M8, with all the problems we have seen written up, no thanks. I will stick to my M3. It looks like that Leitz introduced this camera too early, that is, before they have sorted out all the faults.
 
in recent memory, two full page (glossy magazine) spreads using G9 captured images have appeared in National Geographic (China issue) and Outside Magazine, April issue.

Both images look stunning... if image quality is good enough for those publications i'm guessing it's good enough for most users (including those on this forum)...

no point in comparing image quality with a frame of reference... the harsh reality is that most 'pro-sumer' and many consumer grade digital cameras are more than capable of capturing print quality images...

differences in cameras these days have more to do with ergonomics and use (highly personal and subjective) than it does image quality in absolute terms...
 
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emraphoto said:
i thought for a moment this was a thread concluding that the g9 produced comparable images to the m8... then i came to my senses. anyone who has actually produced prints from each camera could possibly believe this to be true! silly me!
well back to reality!
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While it would be insane to think that the image quality would be equal, I have just seen some 13x19 prints from the G9 at a documentary gallery show and they are surprisingly not terrible, in fact they're pretty good. Now granted I have no clue as to what ISO was used or how much post processing was needed to achieve what i saw in print, but the bottom line was I didn't hate it.
 
Sorry for the OT,
Does anyone here wonder why Canon skipped G8? 😕
Canon might have figured that "G8" is pronounced exact the same as "cunt" (雞八) in Chinese? 😀 It was just my wild guess, but I could be right...
 
As a new G9 owner, I can tell you that what's important here is not the ultimate picture quality of the camera, but that when people pick one up, it quickly becomes their preferred camera to use. I think this is what all of the excitement is about. I have only printed a few 4x6s with this camera, so I can't yet comment on print quality. But I can tell you that I now carry this camera everywhere - literally. I even take it to bed with me and shoot pictures in the dark. Yes, you can hand hold it in nearly total darkness due to its ergonomics and the excellent image stabilization Canon has provided.

In many ways it exactly resembles what a rangefinder was good at, when they first burst on the scene, albeit without a rangefinder focusing mechanism: small, inconspicuous, fast, and inspiring, including the less than perfect image quality of the "miniature" 35mm format. The camera has become something of a cult favorite with interesting 3rd party add ons showcased here.

The good news is, it only costs $450 to give one a spin yourself, unlike the M8, which requires foregoing one or three mortgage payments to enjoy. I think people who are bad mouthing this camera feel threatened - and have probably never tried one themselves. If you think you can find the equivalent in some other P&S like Fuji, you're wrong. This camera is in a class by itself. And picture quality is only a small part of that. I'm thinking of doing a review of this camera if I can find time to take a break from using it.

/T
 
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