Canon Powershot G10 14.7MP

 Is the Canon Powershot G10 still a good camera?

Canon Powershot G10 14.7MP (circa 2008)

I purchased this camera because I have always wanted one. It has been added to my Canon collection: Eos 40D, Eos 20D and Eos Rebel XT (350).

All of these EOS cameras are extremely well built and take really good clear pictures. The more modern ones are ok for amateurs but the build quality has suffered unless you get into the EOS 7D, 6D, 5D, 1D etc.

Right, let`s talk about the G10. It was advertised as `The Legend G10` when I purchased it. When I got to the guy`s house, he said he was selling it because he didn`t know how to work it but had taken some pics on it. You could see when he turned it on that he had no clue what all the buttons and dials did. He just liked the look and feel of it and walked about with it to pretend he knew what he was doing since 2008 (it`s now 2021). He didn`t seem to like the more modern plastic cameras and believe me, this is no plastic lightweight camera. The pictures he left on it were typical long shots of kids playing football about 200 yards away. He didn`t even know how the zoom worked.

As you can see from the picture above, it`s in really good condition. I didn`t want to show him how it worked when I looked at it in case he changed his mind, so I turned my back to him and went through the settings to make sure it worked ok and it did. He just used it on what he called `the green settings` (auto). Right, it`s time to rescue this camera and put it to work.

The G10 is not a `point & shoot` camera really unless you use it on full auto and is not made for the snapshot brigade. You can see many reviews on places like Amazon where people complain about getting fuzzy pictures and grainy effects when using it. Did they even take the time to get to know the camera before starting to use it? I doubt it very much.  If you want a point & shoot compact camera then please go and get one that switches on and is ready to shoot straight away. The G10 is a thinking person's camera. It is more suited to enthusiasts and professional photographers who don`t want to carry their DSLR`s around all the time.

The G10 has got a small sensor 1/1.7 and packs 14.7MP and takes standard SD Cards That`s a lot of megapixels to cram into a small space. It has a 28mm - 140mm zoom which works very smoothly and is controlled by the button surrounding the shutter release. There is also a 58mm thread at the base of the lens where you can attach lens extensions to widen your photographic skills. 

However, the results you get from this camera are very impressive indeed. They are much better than I anticipated. Yes, if you raise the ISO, you get more grain but that`s the same as any camera if you understand them. With high ISO settings, you get that old-style 35mm film effect which is quite pleasing to a real photographer.