Canon G9

I have had my canon G9 for approx three wks now. Although I am still learning the basics of the camera, it takes awesome pictures. The camera has more than ample setting for you to take pictures in all sort of environments, to include taking pictures in low light or no light at all.

The camera so far has preformed flawless and produces rich vibrant color full pictures. The camera has a 6x optical zoom and a 24x digital zoom. Several accessory's to compliment the camera. One such item is a water proof case that allows the camera to take pictures under water and this case can be found on the Internet for approximately $172.27 usd. The macro mode on the camera allows for close proximity pictures that show even the slightest d-tail of the object being captured. I bought my G9 for $400 usd, I got lucky and found it on sale at Circuit City.

The camera comes with one battery that is a 720 mah batt. This batt on a full charge lasted for over 300 pictures before I had to recharge it. The battery charging takes approx 1.5 hours. I suggest that you buy extra from canon and not from a "third party" site. This is due to most sites on the net will not have the important battery cover that will prevent the terminals on the battery for arching or shorting out due to contact with another battery or metal object.

I have found the battery from canon will cost approx $70 usd if bought in the store or from canon. I have also done research on the net and the cheapest battery I found with a battery cover is a 800 mah battery that cost about $45 usd. The camera has several settings to help you take the perfect shot or you can go all out and go to manual where you can have a c1 and a c2 setting that allows you to set every aspect of the camera from flash output to shutter speed, iso setting shutter speed and film speed.

Another interesting feature of the camera is that you can take video with it and the video also records sound. My suggestion if you are going to be doing this with the G9 is do what I did and buy a 4 gig HDSC card or go all out and buy a 8 gig card. From what the canon rep told me over the phone the camera can accept a HDSC card up to 32 gigs "no that is not at typo" I bought my 4 gig card at a local store and it cost me almost $60 usd. But have found a 4 gig card online for around $25 usd. The camera can accept several different kinds of lens to enhance picture taking.

The camera comes with a 32 meg card but after a few pictures even on the lowest setting the card becomes full and that is why canon tells you in the manual "to take full advantage of the camera you need to buy a larger HDSC card" There are two ways to access the pictures and download them to your computer one way is use the usb cable that came with the camera, the other way is to buy a all in one card reader.

I found it to be most easy to transfer pictures with the all in one card reader to your computer. I also noticed that the usb connection was fast and the software that came with the camera allows easy and fast downloading of the pictures to your computer. The software also allows "some" picture editing, but if you want to be able to fully edit you pictures you are going to need a second party software. Basically all the software that came with the camera allows you simple things to do to the photo IE. removing red eye, rotating the picture. If you want to resize the picture or add effects to it that is where you will need a second party software.

One major drawback about the camera is that it takes the NB-2LH battery pack. I would of like to have used regular AA batteries, because if the batteries ran out you can always find AA batteries in just about any store. But I did get a sweet deal on two "OEM" NB-2LH batteries they are 1700 mah batteries and will last longer than the battery that came with the camera. I picked up the batteries online and I paid approx $40 usd for both of them. The only drawback to that was that the batteries that I ordered did not come with a terminal cover and I searched all over the net and was unable to locate a store that would sell just the terminal cover. So be WARNED if you buy other than the canon battery it may not come with a terminal cover.

Bottom line camera is well worth the $400 usd, I paid for it but if it had not been on sale it would of cost approx $600 usd and for that much I would go and get a digital SLR