The Trees of Golden Gate Park
August 29th, 2008This is a crop of a portrait oriented shot taken with the Canon Powershot G9. I almost bought this camera back in April 2008 as a pseudo back-up for our 5D should we ever need to send it in (probably for service soon). I decided then to wait. I saw a bunch of great shots with it on flickr and elsewhere online and decided that if we ran into any clearance issues at Outside Lands, we’d have a backup that would at least give us RAW files to work with. I picked it up at a big box retailer with an included 4gb card for $439 US. Not bad at all for a super portable yet powerful point and shoot.
While the range isn’t even close to what one would get with an SLR, if the controls are tweaked correctly, the shots are very usable and I’ve heard stories of outdoor photographers using a G9 for cover shots of rock/mountain climbers.
I’d say the camera was worth it given the quality of the Radiohead shots alone. Those shots were taken under extremely difficult and challenging circumstances; low light, crowd jostling, heavy fog (natural and artificial, which both mess with auto-focus) and ever changing lighting.
I’ll be sharing a few more from this camera from time to time. I’m traveling next month and I’ll be seeing how far I can push the G9. o
Click to see nerdy information about this photo
Tags: golden gate park, summer, trees
Are you guys expecting again? http://twitter.com/dooce/statuses/903480889
I have this camera… I love this camera. We chose this one after reading all the photographer reviews of this camera (as opposed to the tech reviews we used to choose our last camera – which I did not love)
I am very interested in photography but know very little and for me the digital SLR that I was looking at (the Canon Rebel) was somewhat intimidating. I hope to get to that eventually but this camera has an easiness to it that is awesome – it is great a a point and shoot but still takes really good quality photos, and in the RAW format.
So I am learning the more technical side of photography with this camera and it does have some fun features but it is easy to pack around and the quality is good – you will be happy with it I am sure.
(p.s. a photographer named Darren Wigget uses this as his back-up camera also and he has some stunning photos on his website using it. He uses it when his SLR would be too cumbersome…)
lol
i want the camera specifically for rock and mountain climbing. ascending a rock face with a seven pound camera on your butt is a pain in the ass.
so to speak.
You got a good deal on your camera.
I really dig my G9.
I’ve been looking at getting a G9 since my Nikon D80 isn’t allowed into most concerts I go to. I’ll be very interested to see how you like the camera, especially in low-light situations. So far from what I have seen, it’s the best point and shoot out there for low-light and so far your pictures have confirmed that. I will be looking forward to seeing what you manage to get the camera to do!
I’d love to read about the specific settings you use for your G9. I got one for xmas and haven’t been able to produce even one good photo with it. I’m no camera slouch, either, so the whole thing has me pretty perturbed.
I use my Canon Powershot ALL the time, it’s my favorite accessory. I get great shots of my area (Tahoe), the only thing I can’t figure out is action shots on the basketball court with the kids. It’s either too dark or blurry, never just right.