Ian Lind’s Photo Blog

We were coming up Hiwahiwa Road, just a block from home, when we ran into this beautiful white cat that shares a home on the corner with an equally beautiful black cat. I thought I was going to get a photo of him/her in the middle of the road, but it moved out of the way as we approached. The arrows on the road, some kind of instructions for things to come on the empty lot to the right of this photo, add to the mystery of the moment.

Anyway, I just thought the image was more than the sum of its parts.

Taken with my new Canon G9, ISO 100, 1/50 second.

[Click here to read my earlier first impressions of the G9]

After ripping into the G9 package when it arrived and getting an introduction to the camera, it went back into a box to await the arrival of Christmas. My only justification was that this arrived as a present from “Santa”, not a simple case of near photo gear lust.

In any case, Christmas finallly arrived and with it the G9’s official opening. Later in the morning we headed to a holiday brunch on the other end of Kaaawa, G9 in hand.

Like other Canons, the G9 had trouble with color balance in a room with a mix of artificial and natural light. The color will have to be cleaned up in post processing. There’s a bit of distortion at wide angle. And there’s a substantial amount of color noise in the image at ISO 200, more than I expected.

It was easy to shift from normal to macro mode but takes two steps, similar to other Canon menus. First you press the macro button on the multi-function toggle switch on the back of the camera, and then select the macro icon. It will take some trial and error to get familiar with the macro range and performance, however.

Color rendition, exposure and focus outside under cloudy conditions was excellent. Several shots of this water lily came out quite well.

Overall, the G9 handled well, was reasonably responsive (although I wouldn’t call it very responsive) and relatively easy to use in this first use.

I would like to use the viewfinder, but the lens intrudes into the frame, which I found distracting. The LCD screen is large and bright, easy to see, but when viewing images the colors seemed a little “off”, but that’s just my subjective impression.

The on-off button and the separate button for the diplay are flush with the surface of the camera, and several times it took me repeated tries to turn the camera on when trying to rush. It’s probably something you get used to and better at with additional use.

Overall, my second impression is that the camera is relatively easy to use, feels solid, gives generally good results, but the significant image noise already apparent at ISO 200 is a disappointment.

It was raining when we left the house this morning for the daily walk to the beach to watch the sun rise. Umbrellas were the order of the day. On wet mornings I carry the tiny Panasonic LX1 rather than the larger Canon XTi. The Panasonic has the virtue of being much easier to shield from the rain. If necessary, I just pop the whole thing into a plastic bag and head into the deluge.

We moved from the beach to the back roads on our return walk after a pretty good rain squall moved in. We were on Kekio Road in the back of Kaaawa when a dramatic double rainbow formed.

I first tried to capture an image of the whole rainbow and it’s double, but even with its 28mm equivalent wide angle, the LX1 couldn’t quite fit the whole view. And even as it got close, I had trouble with the intruding utility wires and the lens distortion that made houses in the foreground look strange.

In the end, my favorite shot was taken after I abandoned the broad perspective and accepted the wires as part of the scene. Here the rainbow retains its brilliant colors, but the viewer is left to imagine it’s overall dimensions. Somehow this sparce approach worked better than the frantic attempt to jam everything possible into the single frame.

Panasonic LX1 • 25.2mm (35mm equiv of 112mm) • f/4.9 • 1/125 sec • ISO 80

December dawn, Kaaawa, Hawaii. December 2007.

It was cloudy and threatening to rain, so I left the Canon XTi at home and took along the much smaller LX1, which is easier to shield from rain. The morning was gray and dull until the sun started to rise beyond the barrier of clouds, and glowing light slipped around and between the layers of clouds.

Panasonic LX1 • 12.5mm • f/4.0 • 1/400 sec • ISO 80

We were cutting through a small park along the ocean in Kaaawa this morning to avoid the high tide along that section of the beach, and the color and textures of this scarred picnic table caught my eye.

Canon XTi • Canon 24mm f/2.8 lens • f/2.8 • 1/30 sec • ISO 200

We didn’t run into anyone else on the beach this morning as we walked at dawn.

Canon Digital Rebel XTi, Canon 24mm f/2.8 lens at f/5.0, 1/100 second, ISO 200.

This is an underappreciated lens, and I’m not really sure why. It is an older design, but does its job admirably.

When used on a 1.6 crop camera like the Canon Digital Rebel, it’s the equivalent of a modest wide angle of 38mm.  It gives a pleasing perspective and very reasonable image quality.

It is small and light,  important virtues for a walk-around lens, and it’s also very reasonably priced. I consider it an important part of my overall camera kit.

Every morning, we walk a three-mile route down to the beach and back to watch the sun rise. It’s a daily photo walk, among other things. The light at the point where a small stream had dug a new exit to the ocean caught my eye on a recent morning, and this was the result.

Let me set the stage. I’ve had a number of Canon digitals, including an A50, S20, a G2 which was my favorite for years, and an S410, as well as a Digital Rebel XT and XTi. For the past year, my carry around camera has been a Panasonic LX1, which feels wonderful, and has taken some very nice photos (here’s a batch from a recent trip to Hilo on the island of Hawaii, all taken with the LX-1). The problem is that I’ve never really warmed up to or gotten to feel totally comfortable with the LX-1. While others have cited the problem of image noise at any other than the lowest ISO setting, that hasn’t bother me much. Instead,

I received my G-9 via UPS at about 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon and quickly ripped into the box, which contained the camera, battery and charger, strap, usb cable, software and several manuals. As usual, I set the manuals side for future reference and ripped into the camera.

It’s large by today’s point & shoot camera standards, small by DSLR standards. Square and boxy, a hefty black body which feels like it is metal. It measures about 3 inches high and about 4-1/4 inches wide, fractionally larger than my old Canon A-50 and S-20, although at least in my sense memory feels about the same size as those cameras. It’s quite a bit smaller than the G-2 in all dimensions, I believe. This photo shows the G9 alongside the LX-1.

Construction feels solid, and the metal body and weight convey the impression that you’re dealing with a substantial piece of equipment.

Unlike some reviewers, I did not take an immediate liking to the feel of the camera in my hand. Actually, at least initially, it feels somewhat awkward. The shape of the camera body doesn’t really provide a comfortable way to hold it in one hand, and it weighs a bit too much for a very casual grasp to be sufficient. So despite its relatively diminutive size, this camera seems to want to be held in two hands, with one hand providing support and the other used to operate the camera.

Canon did leave a good space at the upper right rear for your right thumb to rest without easily hitting buttons and causing general havoc, as is more easily done on the LX1.

Users of other small Canon cameras will find most of the visible controls familiar. The one difference tha jumps out is a dial on the left for setting the ISO rather than through a menu other shared control. Looking down on the top of the camera, to the right of the flash hot shoe and viewfinder, is a round dial for selecting the mode of operation, with a number of choices ranging from total point and shoot automation to full manual. These appear to be pretty much the same choices as in other recent Canon offerings. There are separate on-off buttons for operating the camera and reviewing photos. The lens does not have to open and extend when all you want to do is review your previous images.

Most of the back of the camera is taken up with the large LCD screen. Other controls are accessed via the menu button at the lower right rear, and the function button at the center of the round toggle switch on the right. The main menu is where you start to set up overall camera preferences for a long laundry list of settings, many of which may never need to be changed, while immediate preferences for white balance, color correction, flash, metering, and image quality, are set via the function button and a convenient display on the main LCD screen.

The G9 uses the same battery as the Digital Rebel XT and XTi, so I was able to grab a fully charge battery and pop it right into camera instead of waiting to charge the one that came it. The camera is delivered with a 32-MB memory card, which is almost useless if you want to shoot raw or in large jpeg, so be sure to order a card that’s at least 2 GB at the same time as you order the camera.

This was my first snap after installing the battery and memory card. Nothing fancy. Indoors, available light, relatively slow shutter speed of 1/60 second at f/2.8. Nothing amazing about the result, but a reasonable beginning.

I’ll add an update after a session or two of more substantial shooting, when I can comment more on the feel and responsiveness of the G9.

[click here for my second impressions of the G9 on its first morning outing.]

This is it. A new beginning with promises of something good.

Actually, I just decided it’s time to begin organizing the flow of photos in a separate place to allow those so inclined to skip all the other content at my main site, www.iLind.net, and land directly on the visual site.

Putting this stuff into WordPress will also facilitate being found and tracked by others.

So enjoy and come back often.

Click on this photo for more.