Is the Canon G9 a DSLR replacement, or just another point and shoot?

During the last week of August I finally decided that my kids were old enough to make the pilgrimage down to Disneyland in California. Like most photographers, my immediate thought was of all of the great pictures I could get with those wonderful colors found in a place like Disneyland. Of course, my girlfriend could read my mind and informed me that she would not be a happy camper if I went to Disneyland to take pictures instead of having fun with my kids. She was 100% right so I began to think if there was a way I could still have a great trip, yet get some high quality pictures too.

Initially, I thought I would bring my Canon Rebel XTi with the EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens so it would be nice and compact, yet I'd still get super sharp images. I gave up on this idea rather quickly as I didn't like the idea of not having a zoom, and my other L-lens choices weren't a good match (and I couldn't imagine going with an inferior lens on a SLR).

Now I was back to square one and trying to figure out how I could get DSLR quality RAW images when it hit me - the Canon G9 could be the answer to my problem! This image stabilizing camera has 12.1 megapixels, saves in RAW format, is durable, and supposedly has a good lens that supports f/2.8 so this was the solution to my problem.

Now all I need is a Canon G9

Now I needed a G9 and in a hurry, so my friend Luc loaned me his G9 and I was off to Disneyland!

In Disneyland I took many pictures, and immediately I fell in love with the powerful features of this camera. It supports up to ISO 1600 so I could get the picture in just about any condition, and its RAW support meant that I could adjust the white balance and exposure +/- 4 stops after shooting if I didn't get the right results in-camera. I was in business and getting great pictures in no-time.

Ease of Use

As Peter Parker's Uncle Ben said, "with great power comes great responsibility" and immediately I found myself falling into the DSLR trap with this camera by spending time fiddling with all of the controls while my family waited in frustration for me to get the shot.

With this in mind, I quickly switched my mind set from DSLR photographer to touron so I stopped shooting in Av (aperture priority) and went to P (program mode - let the camera decide) with my only control being the focus mode and the ISO settings. In this mode I found myself generally happy with the results early on when it snagged great shots like this:

However, I also became very annoyed with this camera's rotating knob that allows you to switch the ISO settings on the top of the camera because every time I'd take it out of my camera case it would get switched to a different ISO setting and sometimes I wouldn't notice. This of course lead me to do boneheaded things like setting the camera to ISO 80 when I should have been at ISO 800. This of course resulted in long exposures and blurry results as was the case in this photo, which otherwise would have been a cool shot:

That issue aside, I still managed to get plenty of shots that I was quite pleased with (from looking on the G9's display) so I thought I was in good shape.

Gee Ron, these pictures look pretty good, so what's your verdict?

At Disneyland my verdict was that the Canon G9 was an awesome camera, and a legitimate DSLR replacement. Many of the pictures I had taken looked fantastic on its display - like this one:

 

so I began to wonder if I really even needed a DSLR which has massive bulk, greater cost, and fewer megapixels (12.1 on the G9 versus 10+ on my DSLR's). The G9 was a complete success and my borrowed version was first on my wishlist of purchases when I returned back to Seattle.

Oh but wait, there's more - the devil is in the details

When I got home I quickly downloaded my pictures on to my drive and into Lightroom 2.0 so I could see the fruits of my labor. I was good and only took about 190 pictures (where if I had my DSLR I probably would have taken about  1000 per day), and I was pretty sure my keeper ratio was pretty high with shots like this:

However, I was very disappointed when I saw that in digital camera technology - size does matter - pixel size that is. The bottom line is that while the G9 is a great point and shoot camera for sure - way better than any I've seen or used, it simply packs too many pixels into a sensor that is too small with the result being a noisy and soft images. More megapixels aren't always better if your camera can't resolve those pixels properly on an adequately sized sensor so the result of too many pixels for its tiny sensor which means massive noise in shots like this at ISO 800:

Even shots in the daytime like this one seem to be perfect when viewed at a smaller size, but when when you click on the link below to view the original image you'll notice that there's tons of noise even at ISO 200:

But wait Ron, except for those two images above your pictures look pretty darn good

Welcome to the magic of photography post-processing, and in this case in particular - Noise Ninja. With the aid of Lightroom, Photoshop CS3 using some Scott Kelby's 7 Point System techniques, and Noise Ninja I was able to rescue most of my photos so that they would like like this:

In fact, if you hover over most of the photos previously mentioned in this article you'll see a small version of the unprocessed RAW shots the way they came out of the G9. The net result is that you can get some good shots like this:

 

but you'll have to do some hard work in Photoshop (sorry Lightroom 2.0 alone is insufficient) to make them look like they were taken from a Digital SLR camera. If you do, you'll be rewarded with some decent shots and happy memories of a trip enjoyed with your family instead of a trip with your camera. You'll family will love you for it too, so everyone will leave the trip as happy campers.

Conclusion

If you are reading this article to try to decide if you should pick up a camera like a Canon G9 as a complementary camera for when your DSLR just won't do, then I can tell you that this is a fine DSLR companion to own when family comes before photography.

If you are reading this article trying to decide if you should buy a high-end compact camera instead of a DSLR, then I say heck no - they suck in comparison so go read this article and get a proper camera.

If you are reading this article because you are going to Disneyland or some other family-oriented vacation then I can say without question that this is the camera for the DSLR junkie who has to leave their beloved camera behind. Use it and just plan to spend the extra time you would have spent taking photos in your post-processing in Adobe Photoshop CS3 when you return home.

NOTE: The above picture was actually taken from the flight out to Disneyland from the plane by my girlfriend Moonhee Kim. It proves three things:

1. You can get good pics from the plane no matter how crappy the windows look
2. Any G9 photo can be made to look good in Photoshop
3. Anybody can take a good picture (Moonhee is not a photographer)

Photography Contest Winner

I just returned from a trip to Disneyland and was looking at my local newspaper when I discovered that one of the photos I had submitted to their photography contest had been selected as a first place winner. I had no idea I had been selected, so it was a pleasant surprise.

I had actually written about this photo many months ago in this blog article, so it was fun to see it get some recognition.

REVIEW: Layers by Matt Kloskowski

Layers by Matt Kloskowski

For those of you who watch the popular podcasts at Photoshop User TV, you'll recognize that this book is by the same Matt that is on the show. This popular show also co-hosted by National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) experts Scott Kelby and Dave Cross features lots of great tips, and I've noticed that some of the best of them come from Matt.

With this in mind, I didn't think twice about ordering this book. I typically get a book from the library and decide if I should purchase it after reading it, but in this case I went straight for the purchase. Read on to find out if that was a good move or not.

First Impressions

I was surprised to see that this book was fairly thin given its hefty price, but some of my favorite books are thin so I figured that it was probably light on theory and heavy on good useful information. After all, Matt Kloskowski is a pretty sharp guy so I was hoping his extensive knowledge of layers would translate into some really great tips and tricks.

The pages looked nice and the organization of the book is pretty good, so now all I had to do was read it. And read it I did on a flight to Chicago (not recommended for most since this is an interactive book that requires using your laptop to do the samples as you read along). It took about 4 hours to read straight through without doing the examples, so plan for at least 3 times that if you follow along as you should.

Chapter by Chapter Comments

Here are my thoughts of each of the chapters of this book after reading them, and later going back and doing the samples.

Chapter 1 - Layer Basics

This chapter is for the true beginner who doesn't have a clue about layers. If this is you, then definitely read this chapter. If it isn't you, then still glance at it to make sure you aren't missing any fundamentals and then move on to chapter 2.

Chapter 2 - Blending Layers

There's some good stuff in here, especially for those who are clueless about layer blending, that will help you understand how blending works and why gradients work the way they do with a specific blending mode. It starts off with the most popular blending modes, and then quickly puts them into use (doing tricks like using threshold to allow for a slick blend). The chapter quickly fades as he does some rather lame examples which prove a point but build something utterly useless. Overall it is an A+ start with an F middle, and an A+ finish where Matt shows how you can use blending techniques to add a Moon to a shot in a very convincing way. The moments of brilliance in this chapter are very useful in real-world applications and demystify some of the things you may have never other understood from reading other books (I know I didn't).

Chapter 3 - Adjustment Layers

This chapter goes into one of the most useful features in Photoshop and explains them in a fairly simple manner. Unfortunately some of his techniques are a little more cumbersome than they need to be (i.e., he chooses to layer mask brush everything you don't need instead of what you do need), but most of the concepts are sound. He leaves out some important details and doesn't really go too in-depth on the how to use these adjustment layers like Scott Kelby does in the 7 Point System for Photoshop CS3.

Chapter 4 - Layer Masks

Layer masks changed my life and improved my Photoshop skills dramatically. In fact one of my first blog entries was about an overlay (blending mode) mask that changed the way I do photo editing forever, and it was a tip I learned from Matt on the show.

Matt shows some cool tricks here and overall the chapter is successful, but I left wanting for more and thinking that if I wasn't already very comfortable with this feature that I might have been a bit confused by how to do some of the tricks he showed. Matt definitely makes assumptions about people's Photoshop knowledge, and this is one of many chapters that really demonstrate that point.

Chapter 5 - Type and Shape Layers

For some this chapter might be great and super useful, but for me it was more of a filler chapter as I have little use for the concepts presented in this chapter. However, I can say that I did learn some new tips and tricks which might come in handy at some point, so it was still worth reading.

Chapter 6 - Enhancing Photos with Layers

This is where Matt could have written a phenomenal book, but instead he wrote a pretty brief chapter that covers the basics. Sure, there's some great stuff in here for those who don't know about the techniques show, but if you've read Scott Kelby's 7 Point System for Photoshop CS3 then nothing here is news to you.

Chapter 7 - Retouching with Layers

Again, like Chapter 6, this is the chapter that screams out for the kind of useful details provided in Skin, The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers and Scott Kelby's 7 Point System for Photoshop CS3, but fails to deliver on it. Sure, there's some good stuff here, but he leaves a lot of critical details out (especially in the teeth whitening section) which novices will find to be very frustrating.

Chapter 8 - Layer Styles

Once again, Matt only touches the tip of the iceberg on this complex and rarely discussed feature set. He provides some great examples of how to apply them in a meaningful way, but he only scratches the surface. Towards the end he really gets lazy and only provides the dialogs to show what you set to get a particular effect, but I think he's missed some useful instructions along the way.

Chapter 9 - Smart Layers

Smart Layers are super helpful and it is good to see Matt trying to make an attempt at demystifying them, but sadly he does nothing different from all of the other books out there that talk about smart layers. There's plenty of oddities about this feature that he could discuss, but he simply dives into some examples (some of which are excellent) and moves on.

Conclusion

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Value: Poor (a bit overpriced for what you get)
Recommendation: Recommended*

I really wanted this to be a great book that I could recommend to anybody, and I wanted it to be a book that really advanced my skills. However, I think what we have here is a book with lots of good information, but even more potential because the author simply failed to follow-through on a good idea. This book convinces me that Matt is probably a bright guy who likes to start great eyes, but who fails follow through and finish them. This book could have been great, and it could have been a Kelby-killer, but in the end it is a brief but useful primer on Layers. For a better value, consider getting The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers and/or Scott Kelby's 7 Point System for Photoshop CS3 instead.

Canvas on Demand

After hearing lots of great stories from friends, I decided to print my first canvas at Canvas on Demand. It was a picture I took at Deception Falls (not to be confused with Deception Pass) along highway 2 in Western Washington State. Here's a picture of the shot, which I admit has some flaws:

I chose to get a 16x20" photorealistic thick gallery wrap with no additional processing. I created the image myself using a 100% crop of my image and then I added a border (because I didn't want to scale the actual image any larger so I could see a 100% print on canvas).

The shot itself may not be to everyone's taste, but I enjoyed it because it reminded me of my favorite trail in Washington State. I also chose to use it for my first shot because it wasn't a perfect capture, and I wanted to see just how good this service really was. I didn't have a tripod for this shot so I was shooting hand held (well actually partially hand held and the other part of the body was on a crooked rock), so the 1.6 second exposure shot ended up suffering from camera shake (no IS on my 16-35mm lens). As a result the image was a bit blurry and needed some help.

The original unmodified image isn't bad, but it isn't the type of picture you usually use for a $100+ canvas. However, I had a good deal on this one so I decided to experiment to see what the worst a canvas might look like. After all, we pixel peep a lot on the screen, but the reality is that most prints are going to look way better than what we see on our screen. In addition, everyone was bragging how wonderful there canvas' were, so I thought I might be able to save this shot with a nice canvas.

I was concerned about color space issues so I was sure to stay in Photoshop CS3 using the Adobe RGB color space (per Canvas on Demand's web site instructions), and create the required JPEG file to upload using the same application (i.e., instead of using Lightroom which I normally use in my workflow).

I also wanted to make sure there was no upsizing/downsizing issues so I created a 17 1/2" x 21 1/2" image to account for the 3/4" wrap edge, and placed my image in it with no cropping or scaling so it would be EXACTLY as it came out of the camera.

Of course, I did apply the Scott Kelby's 7 Point System to it so that the overall exposure was better, and I used his frame idea from The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers. The result wasn't probably the best choice for a wrap, but it was going to tell me what an average picture would look like on canvas as well as what text might look like as well.

I placed my order on Friday, July 11th 2008 at 2:13 AM, and it shipped on 7/16. It arrived on my doorstep via FedEx on 7/23, so it wasn't the fastest turn around time, but it got here safely.

The Result

When my canvas arrived I was immediately impressed, but I also felt something wasn't quite right. The first thing I noticed was that the image was darker than I expected. I had used the color space they suggested - Adobe RGB - and I have a calibrated display, so I was bit perplexed by the difference.

I also noticed that my image, which already had plenty of sharpening to compensate for some slight camera shake on a long exposure, had obviously been sharpened again - and too much this time. The result was an over-sharpened image, but honestly if you stand a few feet away it looks fine (great in fact).

The last issue was one that I didn't notice, until a co-worker pointed it out - my border was crooked because the canvas had shifted a bit during stapling.

The net result was that I had a canvas that I liked, and it looked okay, but it was over processed and too dark. I solved the dark problem by putting it in a window of my office so it is backlit (like my display :) and that helped. Viewing distances of  greater than 2 feet helped the over-sharpening problem, but the crooked problem just couldn't be ignored.

I wrote customer service and they immediately responded to try to make things right!

The Do Over

Since my canvas didn't turn out perfect, the folks at Canvas on Demand (CoD)wanted to make things right, so they asked that I submit another image - but this time in the sRGB color space. They explained that they have a different printer now and that sRGB works better, but they hadn't updated the web site yet. This means that if you are reading this and decide to do a canvas, don't forget to submit in the sRGB color space!!!!

I resubmitted, but when I did they asked if I liked the image despite the minor issues previously mentioned. At that point, I explained to them that I was using an experimental image and what its flaws were. CoD asked me if I could submit a good image instead, so I see what a good picture would look like.

With this in mind, I scanned through my collection and decided to provide one of my Formula 1 photos as shown below. This time I just sent them the image (which was actually a cropped JPEG from this original image) without any modifications and asked them to do the hard work. My image didn't meet their minimum size requirements by a few pixels in one dimension, but they took it anyway and simply added black borders for the wrap portion as shown below in the actual image they built (and sent back to me per my request):

My order was submitted on August 1st, shipped on the 6th (via FedEx ground) and arrived on  the 12th. Again, not as quick as I would have liked, but when you know you have a canvas coming I suspect that time moves a little slower! :)

The Do Over Result

As I write this blog, I sit in awe of the canvas that sits next to my TV. The image and its quality are fantastic and I'm simply blown away.

I'm not sure what they used to do the upscaling, but I've asked and will report back as I'm impressed with the results. I knew this image was too small for a 16x24 (yeah, I went larger this time) but I thought I'd try just to see what they could do and the results are breathtaking!

I've observed that the image is slightly darker than my on-screen version, but I think that can be attributed to just having a backlit display is going to add something you can't capture on print. However, the highlights and shadows on the print are identical to the on-screen version and the Ferrari red is spot on.  It honestly looks like it did in real life!

I also observed that the printed version is sharper on the nose of the car than my submission which suggests that they might have applied some sharpening (perhaps selective since the car isn't over-sharpened anywhere). I also observed that the wing, which seemed like it might have been over-sharpened on-screen looked perfect in print, so the theory still holds - you can get away with a lot more sharpening in print!

My only disappointment with the result is that I wish the road surface was part of the wrap instead of the black border, but that's a minor nit. In reality, I'm giggling like a schoolgirl every time I see it!

The canvas is straight this time, so all seems to be well.

Lessons Learned

1. Submit in the sRGB color space!!!!
2. When doing a canvas, just make sure your aspect ratio is correct and send it to the folks at Canvas on Demand (CoD). They know what they are doing, so save yourself the hassle and let them do what they do best.
3. When adjusting your image, lighter is better than darker (within reason) so if your image looks too dark on calibrated screen then you won't be happy with the print.
4. I learned my lesson from my first canvas to only hold on the sides of the wood because if you cup your hand inside the wooden frame you can leave fingertip indentations on the canvas - argh!
5. Pay for faster shipping, because when you get that notice that your order has been shipped it can't arrive fast enough!
6. The folks at CoD really know what they are doing and care about the results you get. From the care taken to prep the shot, to the excellent packaging to make sure it arrives safely, and through the follow up to make sure you are happy. These are the pros and you are getting what you pay for with these guys - premium results!

Order yours at a Discount!

I'm happy to announce that Canvas on Demand is offering my blog readers a $25 gift voucher towards the purchase of your own canvas simply by clicking this link and giving them your email address.