# Canon G9 & A650



## James (Jul 17, 2006)

Anyone paid any attention to the new units coming out this fall?

After spending much time viewing the many picture samples out of the 2 mentioned here, all I see in full size viewing is a lot of color fringing, I mean a lot, that I would call unusable IMO. Mind you, in outdoor pics, where I spend most the time with the camera. I would compare it within the point & shoot category similar to the S5 in quality. While you still see color fringing on fixed focal lens, it usually appears exaggerated on wide ranging zooms even more. Shall have to wait for the full tests on these but my initial impressions of high res 4-5 meg pics left a poor after taste. Anti-shake is good, bigger sensor is good, 12mp now. I tend to like the super zoom P&S's, nice toys like the S5 but the picture quality vs. toy factor is not worth it, goes for all brands! Reason I always look at the point & shoot cameras is simply you can and actually do take them anywhere, where as the Mamiya 645 system I use you do not and are for different usage requiring the hauling of bulk and most times is on a tripod.


----------



## andythebrave (Sep 6, 2005)

James said:


> Anyone paid any attention to the new units coming out this fall?
> 
> After spending much time viewing the many picture samples out of the 2 mentioned here, all I see in full size viewing is a lot of color fringing, I mean a lot, that I would call unusable IMO. Mind you, in outdoor pics, where I spend most the time with the camera. I would compare it within the point & shoot category similar to the S5 in quality. While you still see color fringing on fixed focal lens, it usually appears exaggerated on wide ranging zooms even more. Shall have to wait for the full tests on these but my initial impressions of high res 4-5 meg pics left a poor after taste. Anti-shake is good, bigger sensor is good, 12mp now. I tend to like the super zoom P&S's, nice toys like the S5 but the picture quality vs. toy factor is not worth it, goes for all brands! Reason I always look at the point & shoot cameras is simply you can and actually do take them anywhere, where as the Mamiya 645 system I use you do not and are for different usage requiring the hauling of bulk and most times is on a tripod.


I think it's about time that the megapixel race was seen for what it is which is irrelevant to those to whom image quality is number one. The number of pixels exceeded the maximum resolving power of most lenses some time ago and there are those who will tell you that anything over 5/6 MP is a waste of time (there are even some who say that 3 MP is ample) and now we're in the ridiculous position of manufacturers developing ever more complicated software to reduce image noise that has been created by their putting too many pixels on to too small a sensor.

Anyway, I guess for now the 'image conscious' in the literal sense will look for those models that do not top the megapixel range but are new or almost new. TBH compacts and bridge cameras struggle because of their necessarily small sensor size but you can still find some pearls out there such as the Canon S3. Sure, chromatic aberrations will be apparent in contre jour shots or, for example, tree leaves against a bright sky, but good results are possible. The unwelcome artifacts that besiege the small sensor cameras are largely lost when using DSLRs, especially at the lower ISO settings. I recently changed from a bridge camera to an Olympus 4/3 system SLR and the difference is like chalk and cheese and that's with a 18-180 superzoom on the end of it. But, and it's a big but, however well intentioned you are there is no way you are going to take an SLR everywhere with you so I guess compromise is the order of the day, at least until current research into new sensor technology makes the next step forward and we have small sensors without noise problems.

In the meantime I'd strongly suggest seeking out compacts and bridge cameras from up to about 18 months ago as providing the best compromise for a do it all take it everywhere tool.


----------



## James (Jul 17, 2006)

Interesting. Don't know where the problem lays with these 2 new ones, at least in what I viewed. They did increase the sensor size well enough. The tried and true lens in the A620/A640 was increased in focal length now, still using aspherical elements but the results in anything from many building shots, bridges, various statues and yes foliage in full view the fringing was very noticeable. The larger MP will give them more detail in the file but at what expense? They need to work on the lens and processing in the new v3 chips perhaps.

Have a look here and enlarge the pics (click to download orig), for me its unacceptable. While not a full test I look forward to seeing a full review on this lens for the 2 of them.

/http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/canong9_samples/

compare that to the older A series lens which seems a lot cleaner. for those not knowing what I mean always look where light meets dark or areas of high contrast for pinks, reds, color fringing

/http://www.dpreview.com/gallery/canon_a640_samples/


----------

