Canon’s PowerShot G9 offers serious shooters and value-minded professionals a feature-packed camera with many of the advanced photographic capabilities of a high-end Digital SLR camera, in a lightweight, compact package at an affordable price. The G9 features the same matte black, retro design that G-series fans have come to appreciate, with a simplified control layout that is versatile yet easy to understand. This camera is loaded with Canon’s latest and most advanced technologies, while raising the bar with the addition of RAW Mode, usually reserved for larger and more expensive SLR cameras.

“In the final analysis the G9 has more to recommend it than most enthusiast compacts we test, and at ISO 80 the quality is simply superb. It’s a pleasure to use, is built like a tank and offers an SLR-like feature set in a compact format. Yes, you can buy a PowerShot A650 IS (same lens, same sensor, similar feature set and a vari-angle screen) for around a hundred dollars less, but take my word for it, the G9 is in a different league. And yes, it’s pricey ($500 or thereabouts) for a compact, but look at what even $1000 would have bought you a couple of years ago and you realize it’s a lot of camera for the money. The RAW mode makes a big difference too, and really helps overcome some of the issues we had with the G7’s and this camera’s JPEG output.

It’s not a camera for everyone; you need to know what you’re doing to coaxe the very best out of it, and it doesn’t operate that effectively as a ’point and shoot’ model (especially in low light), but in the right hands it’s a real step up from the mass of indistinguishable compacts on the market, and the more you use it, the more you’ll grow to appreciate it. And so, like the G7, the G9 only just scrapes into our highest rating bracket.”

Canon PowerShot G9
Read DPreview’s full Canon PowerShot G9.