New King of the Prosumer Hill

Author's Rating:

Pros: Larger LCD, Sharper Photos, Faster AF, but they kept the terrific lens

Cons: 7MP files go through CF cards quick

The Bottom Line: 
The best prosumer camera of 2004, and a significant upgrade for G3 and G5 owners.

Author's Review
I was very interested in reviewing the new PowerShot G6 when I heard of its release. As the owner of a G3 and an S50, I skipped the release of the G5 as I already had the higher resolution sensor on my S50 while the G3 offered the same creative features as the G5 with lower noise at medium ISO settings (all compact digital cameras produce horribly noisy images at high ISOs).

First a quick recap of the G3 and G5. These are serious “prosumer” models, equipped with 35-140mm f2.0-3.0 lens (35mm film equivalent), a hot shoe for use of external flash and an articulated 1.8” camcorder-style LCD screen. The G3 and G5 also have a bayonet mount lens shroud which can be quickly swapped with close up, wideangle and telephoto lenses, making for an extremely versatile package that is smaller and more convenient than an SLR, though also slower and more limited.

The G5 was an incremental upgrade to the G3, with only minor software changes and the switch from a 4MP to a 5MP sensor. The new G6, however, is a more significant upgrade, not only adding the 7MP sensor, but a new form factor that is smaller and lighter but also better handling and with significantly faster performance (both autofocus and autoexposure). I do not shoot on burst mode, so I did not compare the buffer and write speed of the G6 to that of the G3, however based on other improvements and Canon’s spec charts, this should be improved as well despite the considerably larger image files.

Of course, the G3 and G5 were already top of their class, and Canon engineers were very smart to leave the good bits intact. The menu system is almost unchanged, the control layout is similar and most importantly, the outstanding lens of the older cameras carries over to the new G6. Despite the smaller size, the G6 shows more information on the top-mounted LCD data display, and the LCD monitor is now a larger and brighter 2” unit on the same tilt/swivel mechanism. Now the best part, the G6 is actually the same price as the older models, despite its higher resolution and improved performance.

Okay, so now to the meat of the review, how does the G6 compare to the G3 and G5 in the one area that matters, image quality? Well, as a 7 megapixel camera, the image files themselves are considerably larger, averaging about 4MB compared to the 2.5MB of the G5 and 2MB of G3 images. I took pictures of a street scene and a rose under ambient light using both Canon’s old and new cameras (with the much-appreciated cooperation of my favorite local camera shop). We set up a tripod and kept all cameras on ISO 50 (street shot) and ISO 100 (macro shot), set to aperture priority and allowing the cameras’ metering to select the correct shutter speed to match an aperture of F8.0 on all cameras. Cameras compared were the old S50 (same sensor as the G5) and G3, then the new S60, S70 and G6 (see my review of the S70). We then plugged a Canon i960 printer into my Apple PowerBook and using theG6 as a card reader (all images were recorded on the same card) we printed one 8X10 of each image from each camera.

To compare the 7MP S70 against the 5MP S60/S50 and the 7MP G6 against the5MP G5 (S50 images used) and 4MP G3, we cropped the central 20% of the street shots and printed at 8X10, simulating a much larger print (don’t ask me to do the math, I was a history major).

The results were pretty much what I expected them to be, with two surprises. First off, the 5 megapixel images were all equally sharp and even blown up showed very little grain. Likewise, the 7MP images were sharper still, and examining them under a 3X loupe, which revealed pixilation in the 5MP images, remained clean and natural-looking at 7MP. Now I’ve made beautiful 16”X20” enlargements from my 5MP S50 and many beautiful 11”X14” enlargements from the 4MP G3 and grain was never a problem. To get that sort of image size, however, I had keep cropping to an absolute minimum. The 7MP cameras will allow considerably large prints, or perhaps more importantly, give far more freedom to crop at the common 11X14 and 16X20 sizes.

So what were the surprises? Well, the new 7MP sensor is the same size as the old 4MP and 5MP sensors. When the 5MP S50 and G5 were released, many users complained about increased noise in their pictures. I don’t know if it was the sensor itself, or the processing in the camera, but the new 7MP cameras have less noise than the 5MP models from last year (or this year’s S60). In fact, the 7MP S70 and G6 images appeared a bit snappier than those from the 4MP G3, which is widely regarded as one of the best digital cameras of any resolution. Comparisons for noise were made on the macro shots at 8X10, which were shot against a black background that emphasizes sensor noise. The G3 shots had extremely low noise even in the ISO 100 macro shots, but the S50 and S60 images revealed noticeable noise (grain) in the black background. The S70 and G6 were clean and natural, with the background even revealing the texture of the construction paper, something the G3, S50 and S60 failed to do.

In short, I consider the 7MP sensor of the new S70 and G6 to be a significant upgraded to last year’s 5MP sensors. In fact, I was so impressed with the image quality, that the question isn’t whether or not to buy a 7MP digital camera , but rather WHICH one to buy as I cannot afford to replace both my G3 and S50.

The 7MP sensor makes a lot of sense in the larger G-series camera with its advanced controls and fast lens, however the compact S-series are more likely to be with you, and thus will probably see more use. In the end, it is a difficult decision that I’ve not yet made. Even the economics aren’t significantly different as both the S50 and G3 are valued within $100 of each other on the used market, while the S70 and G6 sell new for within $100 of each other. Either upgrade will cost about $150-$200 after selling the old one.

In the end, I give the new G6 my highest recommendation for a camera of this type. It is fast, easy to use, extremely versatile, and produces images of such spectacular quality that you will be simply amazed. If you want an advanced prosumer camera for creative photography and don’t need to stuff it into a pocket, the G6 is simply the top of its class.