Canon PowerShot G9

The G9 has been hyped as the compact camera that professionals like to use. The biggest reason for this is that the G9 supports a host of professional lighting and strobing equipment that are usually found in professional DSLRs, and that it has a good amount of manual options with detailed controls and an optical viewfinder. But is it the image quality as good as it is hyped to be? That's what we intend to find out.

Build Quality
The distinction between the G9 and a compact became apparent as soon as I picked it up. It was considerably heavy for its size at 370g, so it's not really as pocketable as you would imagine. But with great weight comes great sturdiness; the kind that wouldn't make you think twice while you pack it in a tight suitcase. Though the camera lacks a proper extrusion for a front grip, the sleek design along with a rubberized patch placed at the right location makes it very easy to hold for long durations.

The screen is a 3-inch 230,000 pixel display job, which may seem common, but is impressive nonetheless. The first thing that impressed me about the controls was a dedicated wheel on top for adjusting the ISO sensitivity levels. This very crucial feature is missing even on a lot of enthusiast level cameras as well as DSLRs – but the G9, in all its compact glory, had it!

Right next to the ISO wheel is the Canon hot-shoe, compatible with all Canon flashes and speed lights. I can see why a lot of Canon DSLR owners favor the G9 so much. With this hot-shoe, they can easily use their professional strobes with this camera.

The viewfinder is optical but not perfectly accurate, as the view you get is not through the lens. It seemed like a good idea at first, but after a few clicks using the viewfinder, I found the practice pointless and switched back to the more accurate LCD display.

Navigation is extremely comfortable. Canon has used its navigation wheel design (as in the higher-end EOS 40D) at the back of the camera, resulting in a fast and very controllable navigation system.

When it comes to the overall build quality, I would say the Canon G9 is nothing short of impressive. It is built like a tank and is fast and easy to operate, thanks to the number of hard buttons provided.