Canon G10

Lensflare

Lensflare

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Simon Everett
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Well, having had a play with it for the first time...it arrived while I was away working, so only got to try it yesterday.

Just playing with it, because the first niggle is NO MANUAL, just some bloody CD thing to put in a computer....I want a BOOK that I can sit in a comfy chair with, noggin of whisky or a large glass of red wine...and peruse at leisure. You can flip from one page ot another and back again with a book. That blasted CD, you get to one instruction that says, for more info see page 242....so you have to scroll from page 19 to 242. Then back again. Absolutely USELESS means of providing instructions. Also, half of the page numbering is wrong....so you scroll to page 119 and it doesn't have what it is supposed to have on it.

Anyway, that aside, playing around it works very well. The shutter lag is the same as an SLR, OK I am not counting in milliseconds, but trying to get some kayaks seal launching I was hitting the go button too soon, anticipating the shutter lag that simply isn't there.

Tricky lighting is tricky lighting everywhere. But witht he spot meter or centre weighted meter able to be coupled to the focus area it works a treat even against inky black backgrounds. No complaints there.

Exp comp - a knob where the film rewind would have been if it was a real rangefinder. Very easy to use, but only 2 stops each side available.:thinking:

I keep bringing things up on the screen which I don't know how I did it.....but a half press of the shutter button gets them to go away! Also the images keep getting turned round, and then turned again - the poor people in the pictures must be very dizzy by now. I haven't found the button i pressed to make this happen yet either - why? Because there is no bloody manual......and out on the motorbike to use the device, if I had a manual I would be able to look up what to do.....but I can't take the computer with me to view the CD......so round and round and round they go.:bang:

Focus tracking for the kind of thing it will be used for is great. And you can alter the size of the focus point - I worked that one out all be myself DESPITE THERE BEING NO MANUAL.

Results for the dozen or so shots I have taken with it are very encouraging. I don't need the extra pixels over the G9, but not having had one of those, I am glad I got this little gem - it will do my fishing/shooting and kayaking pictures, which is what I got it for.

Here are a couple from those first dozen.....
IMG_00582.jpg


IMG_00552.jpg


IMG_00602.jpg


Oh - found the image stabilising thingymajig tonight - handheld, doing pictures of my long suffering wife reading the paper....1/4 sec resulted in perfectly sharp pics.
 
just one thing, a friend of mins has a G9 and if you turn the camera around from landscape to portraight while looking at the pic on the back screen, the image turns, maybe that is somethign similair to what you are doing to turn them around?

was just asaying today, to him, if digital compacs keep improving the way they are, Dslrs will soon go out of fashion.
 
Thanks for that - exactly what is happenning. Now I know not to turn the camera round when viewing!
 
Bumping this because I know a few folks were waiting to find out what the new version is like.

I do like it, but trying it at 400 the other day....VERY GRAINY with a whole load of noise in the dark areas - which is exactly what we all thought would happen with so many pixels on the chip. Certainly I don't think I could use it at more than 200, and that would be in an emergency....the 400 splatter is truely horrid.

I'll see if I have any left. I think I threw them all out I was so disgusted with them.

As I learn more, I will post it up. So if you are new to this thread, you'll have ot read from the begining, because I am not going back oveer to summarise everything!
 
You are exactly right! I have contacted Canon about this and by using a few strings through contacts they are arranging for one ot be printed out for me - they use a third party firm to supply manuals of their cameras. I have been honoured, I have been given a Canon code which will ensure I do not get charged for the manual. Otherwise, that is exactly what would have happened - I would have had to buy one.

I think the Freedom of Information Act would actually come into play on this one...in that, having bought their kit, I am entitled to the information on how it bloody well works. Of course, they can counter by saying they did provide it, it was just in unusable form.

Funnily enough, Canon them selves DO NOT HAVE A MANUAL for the G10.....but they will send one PDQ as soon as they do.
OH, thank you, that is so kind and generous of you.:canon:
 
Hate to say it but the manual thing sounds reasonable to me. How many people don't even open the manual that comes with their electronic gear? And those manuals will have been printed, shipped, stored somewhere. All of this wasting resources.
Way better to give it digitally and then provide copies to those that really want it.

Maybe I like trees too much :D
 
I nearly always judge a purchase on how quickly I can do stuff with it without a manual. If you can do the basics, take snaps and preview them without resorting to a manual (try that with some Olymous compacts) the you're halfway there.

Of couse a compromise would be a printed quick users guide and the techy stuff on CD.

Canon provided one on my last compact...
 
How does this camera compare to other P&S regarding bokeh? I think it is the chip size that has an effect on it but can you get nice backgrounds with this thing?
 
Do you mean nice "out of fiocus" backgrounds? Depends on the aperture you use...so yes, if you go to the tele end of things (140mm max at f4.8)

I didn't get all those kayak seal launches sharp because I hadn't found where the shutter speed was displayed at that stage...found it as I went along though.

Point and squirt, review - that is dead easy. What I wanted to know was how to change to spot meter, or centre weighted metering. How to move the focus/meter point about the frame. How to get the thing to take RAW rather than standard jpgs - why? Because I am using it professionally, that's why.

When I am on a shoot and I need to know how to do something that is rarely used - I want to get the book out and find out how to do it....I am likely to be at sea, in a kayak, bobbing about on the waves. Not somewhere to look at a computer screen to read the Fing manual. AND, yes, I do take the manuals with me, in a poly bag...I still take my D3 manual around the place withme, because when I want to do an image overlay, there and then....I can look it up. I will probably use this function twice a year, at most. Soyou can't remember it. Likewise the multi exposure - you need to stop the motordrive form winding on, basically. In a film camera, it was dead easy, you pushed the button that disengaged the gears. job done. In the digital age, it is a sequence of buttons and menus to do the same thing - so infrequently used that they are buried away deep in the back of the system and hard to get to. Because you use them infrequently and the timing is hot, you can't remember how to get to it...come on, times ticking, I want to get that shot NOW. Not in half an hour when I have figured it out...the manual, index, page...look it up. Oh, that''s where/how to do it....job done. set shoot. Reset., On we go again.

A manual out in the field is a must.
 
Lensflare said:
Do you mean nice "out of fiocus" backgrounds? Depends on the aperture you use...so yes, if you go to the tele end of things (140mm max at f4.8)
Click to expand...

ok ta, ill have to look for some examples.... off to flickr :cautious:
 
Sorry I can't be of more help - not used it since. Not been the right sort of job!

I only got it for those jobs you don't want or need to lug the slr kit about the place for.....basically fishing and kayaking stuff fo rme.

I will have a play with it though, when I get a day to myself! I'll even try some portraits with it - should be OK in close.
 
Mine's arrived now - bought it from the US and guess what : it's got a manual with it!
Small consolation because with the exchange rate being up the shoot I didn't actually save much money at all, and the warranty will be tricky if it goes wrong. I stood to save over 100 quid when the rates were good so it looked like a sweet deal at the time :(

Anyhoo - ignore what I said about the manual in my post above - this camera NEEDS a manual! Sure, you can do the point and shoot stuff on it with ease, but to use the extended functions you really need to RTFM because it can do SO much.
Very impressed with it so far though.

Edit: I have a couple of pictures, one at 100 ISO and one at 800 ISO for people to see the difference (both in the same low lighting)...bah, I can't post flickr links on here, and I don't think people would be happy with me posting the full 12mb files in line!
Here's a link to my flickr photostream - you want the pictures of the dogs:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dvf-woz

Beware - the full sized pictures are BIG.
 
What were they shot in though? Were those straight jpegs out of the camera, or RAW converted....because I must have done something wrong looking at the shadows in that 800 shot, it doesn't show the noise that mine did.

Come on, spill the beans as you have a manual to look at!
 
I only ever shoot RAW, it's one of the reasons I bought the camera - I wanted something portable to back up my EOS DSLR.
The images were converted to JPG with DPP - I probably upped the sharpening slider because it defaults to none and they're soft right out of the camera. I don't think I made any other changes.
 
What's DPP? I have the Canon software that came with it - took an age to get it to download....you have ot use TWO seperate programs! Bloody nuisace not having a manual to tell youhow to do anything other than shoot a jpeg and print directly off a printer - that is all the basic guide tells you.

I have the Digital Camera Solutions...but again, no instructions on how to use it from Canon....just guesswork - which takes time, which I don't have much of (wasting some now I know, but you do need a break occassionally for a coffee!)
 
It's OK - I have worked it out. I have DPP too - just hadn't twigged the initials!
 
Sorry! Yeah - it's Canon Digital Photo Professional.
I find it a very good program for editing RAW files. It's not got much functionality, but if all you want is to get the colours right, edit the odd spec out and crop a little it does the job admirably.
 
Are there any instructions on using it anywahere?

I have had a play and using my lack of intuition have managed to tweak the curves/light/colour. BUT the other two tabs on the top I haven't opened up yet.

I amone of those people who don't go searching around programs - I tend to get lost!
 
I only tend to use the RAW tab to be honest.
I've not seen a manual - I'm very much a fiddle and see what happens kind of guy!
 
Isn't it a shame that Canon are slapping more and more pixels onto such a tiny sensor! I wish they'd just put a bigger sensor in the thing and drop it back to 8mp... At least it would be both usable in low light and not overly competitive against its line of DSLR's.
 
Actually Hursty, I would like them to produce a compact that is a DIRECT competitior to something like a D£ or 5DII or some such top end SLR.

I would buy a compact (the G10 is the best so far) that rivalled an old Leica M5 or M6....similar size chip to a Nikon F2, F3, F4, F5....or canon A1, Eos 1 etc, so produced images of the same qulity - with the f2 summicrons better than many SLR lenses of the day. It was quiet, portable, quick to use and easy to carry.....

So the G10 will do for now - it actually produces a bigger file than the D2x did. It works OK at 400, but by 800 it starts to get luminance noise badly, but funnily enough the chroma noise is very low, which means the lens and pixels are actually doing a good job.

For normal light levels it is going to be a very good little unit - even for stock stuff and for portability it is brilliant. Well built - proper metal housing, not a plastic box. One or two of the buttons do get knocked as you are working with it.....so they could be better positioned, or protected - but I will get used to holding it so that doesn't happen. Familiarity will come. It is quite intuitive with the normal controls, it is the menus that are a bit complicated until you know what lives where.

The sensor is actually very good - the resolution is superb. It just starts falling apart at higher iso speeds - or does it? Is that we have just become spoiled by the newest sensors? Compared to the sensors of the previous generation of SLRs I don't think it is far behind and in good light it is absolutely superb - you will be able to print full resolution (300dpi) photographs at A2 without any problem at all. For something that fits in a pocket that, for me, is getting close to a really good photojournalists camera - more so than the D3 with 3 lenses. The SLR is fine for feature stuff, but for off the wall, unobtrusive shots.....the G10 is going to be very useful.

I thought like you - when I saw the increase in pixels on the stats before I bought it. BUT, when youthen learn that the extra pixels have come about because of the savings in space between them, not by making them smaller, then things begin to make more sense.

I agree, a bigger sensor with larger pixels (like putting a D3 sensor into the G10 body.....) would be brilliant. On the face of it. BUT, would you actually need it? I think the G10 will do me for many years to come.
 
Sorry to resurrect this thread from the dead, but I just got my G10 and searched 'G10' to find what other people were making of it, and I can't help chipping in.:)
I have no problem with the manual being on a cd. If you want it on paper, just print it out! What's the problem???

To be honest, I printed out the manual, which turned out to be 300 pages long:eek:, the 'printing stuff' manual (70-odd pages) and the software manual (80-odd pages), which together made a MA-HOOSIVE wad of paper. Seriously, it's about 6cm high!!!! Just the actual camera manual is about 4cm high, so if you got a manual with each camera there'd be no way you could carry it all about with you, the bloody thing would be huge. What Canon have done here is fine - you can just select the bits of the manual that you think you'll need (the bits explaining the stuff you rarely do and will forget) print those out, and stick them in your camera bag. No need to look after it and struggle to keep it dry, if it gets wet or knackered, just print out the bits you need when you have to.:)
To say there's no manual, as you have done, is incorrect.

Anyway, it's a cracking little camera, I love it!
(I still prefer my OM2's, mind!:D)
 
I just got a G10. While the images taken seem to have no defective pixels, the LCD screen has two green pixels top left quarter. I don't know whether to bother treturning it or not, it's annoying but I'll forget about them in a few days. What does everyone think?
 
craigatkinson said:
I just got a G10. While the images taken seem to have no defective pixels, the LCD screen has two green pixels top left quarter. I don't know whether to bother treturning it or not, it's annoying but I'll forget about them in a few days. What does everyone think?
Click to expand...

I've been lusting after a g10 for a while now, but have so far resisted. It seems (almost) ideal for when you can't be ****ed to carry your DSLR around. I'm always interested in other peolple's impressions of it. :)
 
craigatkinson said:
I just got a G10. While the images taken seem to have no defective pixels, the LCD screen has two green pixels top left quarter. I don't know whether to bother treturning it or not, it's annoying but I'll forget about them in a few days. What does everyone think?
Click to expand...

I've been lusting after a g10 for a while now, but have so far resisted. It seems (almost) ideal for when you can't be ****ed to carry your DSLR around. I'm always interested in other peolple's impressions of it. :)

i did some research about what adaptors you need to use filters with it.
 
jerry12953 said:
I've been lusting after a g10 for a while now, but have so far resisted. It seems (almost) ideal for when you can't be ****ed to carry your DSLR around. I'm always interested in other peolple's impressions of it. :)
Click to expand...

Well I've only had it a few hours but it does look , feel and seem the best compact[ish] I've used. Just wondering about the defective pixels!
 
I'd get it replaced if they're bugging you (assuming they'll replace it - normally you have to have above a certain number of dead ones before an LCD is considered 'faulty').

I'll say one thing - the G10 is definitely built like a brick. I was at a family gathering over Christmas where the camera was being handed around to the relatives and one of them dropped it onto a hard floor! Made a horrible noise as it hit the ground.
Having had a DSLR break from a similar fall not that long ago, I was pretty worried, but I literally can't see a mark on the G10, not even the slightest scuff on the paint. Still works as good as ever too!
 
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