Is it a car? Is it a plane? No, it’s the Canon Powershot G7. Canon have really gone to town with the latest in their digital compact camera range. It doesn’t look like your average digicam and looks rather like a digital SLR, but it is superbly featured and has some of the highest spec we’ve seen. Let’s get up close and personal with the Canon Powershot G7. Design | | A very different and refreshing design has taken place with the Powershot G7 and very welcome it is too, depending on your individual taste, of course. Your average digicam today is very small and slim, with a popular silver finish and minimal buttons and controls, but Canon have decided to steer away from this mainstream approach and opted for a more analogue and 1980’s style which we are not sure will be too appealing. It is a very different look and size to its older brother, the G6, but over the last 2 years since he was designed, cameras seem to have shrunk somewhat and Canon have not included the grip on this model which does help with the size issue and they have included and rubber grip on the front of the camera instead. The front of the matte black camera is quite plain and has a large zoom lens with adapter ring, a viewfinder, and flash. On the flipside, a 2.5” LCD dominates the rear with the viewfinder just above it. On the left side of the viewfinder is a very handy shortcut/Printshare button and on the right side is a playback button. Next to the LCD screen is an AE/FE lock button, AF Frame Selector Button, Exposure/Jump Button, Manual Focus Button, Function/Set Button, Multi Control Dial, Menu Button and finally, a Display Button. |
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The back takes many of its design features from Canons Digital SLR range. The 2.5" LCD Screen is excellent to view your images on.
Functional Retro Design, Good Quality Materials Have Clearly Been Used In This Cameras Creation.
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On top there is (starting from the left side) an ISO Speed Dial, a Hot Shoe, a Shooting Mode Dial, Shutter Button/Zoom lever, and a power button. So, as you can see there are a lot of manual functions, which for the professionals out there are just great, but for the amateurs, not so great and can be really confusing. On the underside there is a tripod adapter and Memory Card compartment hidden behind a little door. Although a little on the large side, the Canon Powershot G7 is only 320g which we were pleasantly surprised at, as it looks as though it will be heavier. The dimensions are 106.4mm (w) x 71.9mm (h) x 42.5mm (d) so it still pocket size, but maybe not your jeans pocket! | Features | | Well, where do we begin? The Canon Powershot G7 is richly featured, so we think we should start with the impressive 10 mega pixels that it boasts. Combining this with the 6x optical zoom with optical Image Stabiliser you are sure to achieve some outstanding sharp snaps, as we did (see Performance). You have several focusing options to choose from, so you can switch between manual focus, rapid 9-point AiAF or Flexizone to manually select a specific auto focus point. There is an ISO speed dial which allows you to quickly select between 80-1600 ISO so you can achieve the best results in a variety of lighting conditions. The ‘My Colours’ option is available, as with all the Powershot range, so you can have some fun swapping and changing the colours of your subjects and backgrounds during or after you have taken your shot. There are some features that have been improved on compared to the G6, but some that have not (e.g. reduced battery life to name just one), so it may not be the perfect upgrade to the G6. | | Performance | The colours produced are of an amazingly high standard and detail is superb. We took a shot of a sky soaring oak tree and the mixture of colours, deep greens, sky blues and dark browns were crisp and clear and true to life. The detail of the bark of the tree and the grain of the wood really stood out. The Face Detection feature is great for focusing in on faces and picks out features superbly, such as cheek bones and sometimes even eye colour. This may look like a tank and it sure does move like one (quick that is!) with the first shot coming in at only 1.5secs and the shutter lag is a cool 0.5secs. The battery life is a bit below average, taking 220 shots (by CIPA standards) which is 80 less than the G6, so not too impressive really. Another let down, was the LCD screen that disappointingly doesn’t rotate like its predecessor. This was a great feature and we have been scratching our heads on this one trying to work out why Canon left out such an important highlight, which this model really could have benefited from. The (non-rotating) screen itself was ok and we were quite impressed by the fact that it is very visible in low light as it automatically brightens. | | What's In The Box? | | PowerShot G7 IS camera, 32MB SD card, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, Battery charger, Neck strap, USB cable, A/V cable, CD-ROM, manual | | Overall Opinion | | Quite a disappointing show here from the Canon Powershot G7 digital camera . We were expecting great things from this upgrade, but unfortunately we struggled to find any improvements. It is a nice camera which produced some stunning images and does have many features of new digital technology, but it is quite expensive and we would advise that you shop around and find something more thoughtfully manufactured or try and get hold of the G6 instead. | | | By Hayley Malyon |
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