Cheap & Cheerful: How good is the Canon Powershot G9 in 2023?
Why did I buy a camera from 2007? Well I honestly believe that older cameras still have a use and that when you're starting out in photography you don't need to spend hundreds just to get something that takes a good photo. In a series of posts, starting with this one, I'll be putting that belief to the test!
So the Canon Powershot G9, here are a few details about it:
Cost me £65
Released in 2007
12.1 Megapixels
Size: 106 x 72 x 43 mm
Weight: 364 g
1/1.7 inch CCD Sensor
When I first got this camera, I instantly liked it. Its easy to hold/use, the menu is clearly laid out and its pretty light but as soon as I took a photo I thought my belief that "any camera can get great photos" was going to be disproved.
I took a few photos around my house to test it and as soon as I looked at them on the cameras screen, I was disappointed.... but after putting them on my laptop I was pleasantly surprised! Turns out that the 16 year old screen on the camera is, as you'd expect, not great.
Here is the first photo I took, it's just a simple shot of my bass guitar:
It has a few basic edits in Lightroom but I was amazed at how clean the image was and how little noise there was.
This filled me with excitement, so the next day I went to Brighton with my friend Jono (@fixing.shadows on Insta) to spend the day taking photos and took the G9 along with me!
I know I'll probably say this about a bunch of older cameras but honestly I love this camera. It made me want to take photos of everything, not just try and get "the shot" I was looking for and taking more photos is always a good thing!
So rather than waffle on about the camera, here are a few of my favourite shots from the day:
The colours that come out of this camera are soo beautiful! The orange in that sunset, the pastels in the upside down house and the sky in contrast to the outlines of people on the beach make me so happy!
The photo of the guy sitting alone on the beach might be my favourite though. I took the photo from quite a distance, I was at about 80mm and then cropped the image a little more and the camera still managed to capture so much detail. The fact that I was about to remove the shadows from him so cleanly blew my mind.
So what do you think, would you pay £65 for G9 from 2007? Put your thoughts in the comments below and I look forward to testing the next cheap and cheerful camera!