Canon PowerShot G5

I have owned this 5MP camera for my second year now. It is one that I have always had with me whenever I feel like going out for photos. The photo quality is good, both on PC and when printed. I never complain because it has no complications when it comes to its operation. The battery is reliable too and this is a camera that I don't plan to change anytime soon because I have not yet found any reason to do that. I hope you consider it the next time you go shopping for a camera.

Really good camera. "Fast lens, great macro, good detail and colors"

Canon Powershot G5 introduced about 9 years ago. Camera has some retro range finder styling. It has built in grip for comfortable holding of this camera and optical viewfinder additionally to LCD screen.

LCD screen is small for today - less than 2" and the resolution is low, but allows you to tilt and swivel it. Internal flash is reasonably powerful for its size, but flash metering is not good for reflective surfaces and causes seriously over exposed images.

As the owner of many of Bob Dorr's books, I have come to expect that antyhing he produces will be well-researched, well-presented, and very well-written. Hell Hawks! is right up there not only with Dorr's other works but with the best in Be There combat writing. Here's an example: The German pilot ran flat-out low threading the needle between a church steeple and tall brick smokestack. Narrow streets raced under the wings of Kraman's P-47 as he engaged the throttle button triggering emergency water injection. His Pratt & Whitney surged as Kraman squeezed off short bursts at his quarry, the enemy banking abruptly left and right to throw off the American's aim. Across the Rhine, farther into Germany, the pair raced east Dorr and co-author Thomas D. Jones (USAF Academy grad, ex-B-52 driver, veteran of four NASA space shuttle flights) also rightly recognize the guys who weren't strapping into the 365th Fighter Group's P-47s: The men with stripes on their arms didn't pilot Jugs, but they made warfare in the Jug possible. We tend to forget that the aircraft of WW II, after all, were just 15 years removed from Lindbergh's Ryan NYP of 1927 but were very complex machines. The authors salute the men with the stripes well. The results of close to 200 interviews of 365th FG veteans, other combat vets, family members, and more, plus four years of research, Hell Hawks! is loaded with the day-to-day details of fighting a tenaciously fierce enemy, demonstrating throughout the book that ground attack combat was a deadly way to earn your flight pay. The authors bring the personalities of the young pilots alive as well as provide a big picture of Allied strategy and the pace of war from D-Day to victory. This is an excellent book not only for military historians but for anyone who enjoys aviation writers at the top of their game. Splendid!

Canon Powershot G5 introduced about 9 years ago. Camera has some retro range finder styling. It has built in grip for comfortable holding of this camera and optical viewfinder additionally to LCD screen.

LCD screen is small for today - less than 2" and the resolution is low, but allows you to tilt and swivel it, this feature do not have many cameras even today.

Unlike many compact cameras, it has status LCD screen like professional cameras do. Also it has hot shoe - option to attach an external flash.

5MP sensor resolution may seem not much by today's standards, some mobile phones have more. However race after pixels count is not the main parameter of image quality. For its time image it produces is pretty detailed and colors are great. The only problem is sensitivity, anything above 50ISO is noisy and costs in details reduction. But for many needs 50ISO which may seem not much is sensitive enough.

Colors are good, best results obtained in daylight.

Internal flash is reasonably powerful for its size, but flash metering is not good for reflective surfaces and causes seriously over exposed images.

The real pearl is a lens, it is bright and provides very nice macro capabilities. On big focal lengths macro focusing is painful slow, but after it focused you can take picture of a spider. One of best macros I saw on compact cameras. Lens has bayonet that allows to attach external conversion lenses.

Camera uses CF cards and same batteries like some SLRs. Shutter lag after focus lock is good, it is not a DSLR but better than even some modern compact cameras.

Summary: Canon G5 is a very good camera for its time. By some parameters it is even good also today. Sensitivity is a bit low, but still useful in many situations. Fantastic lens with exceptional macro capabilities but slow AF performance. Flash metering is problematic in some situations. It is very well built, durable, metal front panel. I still use it and get pretty good images.

Really good camera, I would recommend to add couple bucks for next versions with higher sensitivity and better flash performance, but for the used price it costs today still maybe a good option for some limited usage.

My Canon Powershot G5 is robust, very reliable, excellent results combined with a tremendous battery life. Still going strong after 5 years of regular use. The fact that you remove the lens surround and replace it with additonal lens and or filter housing is an added bonus. Works well with a dedicated flash unit too - on the hot shoe.

It's a little slow by 2009 standards and the rotating screen is also smaller than you'd get now, but after 5 years of of total reliability it has showed the value of paying that little bit more in the first instance

This is my grab and go camera, I shoot with a big rig Nikon D100 for serious stuff. This little powerhouse can sometimes put the D100 to shame. The Canon PowerShot G5 is compact, rugged, and trustworthy - it won't let you down. The battery seems to go on and on. The colors are really nice, the camera has a bit of sharpening and some enhancement of saturation built in (adjstable) and the color are warm. White balance seems to work on auto pretty well. Comes with a pitifully small 32 MB CF card - which is not a big deal since CF cards are so cheap now.

BTW - I recommend CF based cameras over SM, memory stick and others, CF is more widely available, seems as cheap or cheaper per MB than all other formats, and is supported by the largest number of readers and peripherals.

If you move up to a bigger, more serious camera, chances are it will be a CF based machine, and presto, you already have a bunch of memory cards that work in it, no new ones to buy. Unless you have a really tiny digicam, CF is the way to go(IMO).

USE - casual social snaps, adventure holiday landscapes, nature photography

I've had the Canon PowerShot G5 Digital Camera for about 8 months now and have generally been delighted with it. It's flexible with a really useful range of program / custom modes as well as a reliable auto mode. The build quality is reassuringly solid (apart from the lens cap which falls off at the drop of a hat)and the multi-positionable TFT is very readable under most conditions. The controls are sensibly placed and easy navigation through logical menus is the rule.

In use the exposure, white balance, image contrast / colour rendition / sharpness are all as good as one's going to get with this kind of camera and start up times are short. Focussing in lowish light conditions is a somewhat prolonged experience but the results are usually spot on. Chromatic abberation is, I've found, a major (if infrequent) problem. Many pictures taken of high contrast / bright on black subjects seem to be affected - some so badly as to render them effectively ruined. The flash has also been a moot point - at least in auto mode. In this mode the output can't be varied from a fixed value and i've found it to be just far too bright. The movie mode is easy to access and give results that are just about acceptable but then this is a camera not a camcorder.

On a more positive note the battery life is excellent and not degraded by liberal use of the flash. The USB (?1.1) connection and software (Zoom Browser EX with my purchase) worked faultlessly out of the box

With the recent falls in the street price I think it represents excellent value for money and a nice stepping stone between point and shoot digicams and full blown digital SLRs

The Canon PowerShot G5 is my second digital camera. Like a lot of people I bought a simple 2Mp camera first to see how I would use it.

Many fun snap shots and disappointing prints later I knew I needed a 'real' digital camera.

I chose Canon because I have found their products to be robust and high quality - if not the best features / price balance.

The G5 doesn't disappoint. In average conditions the photos are excellent. Most of the time I use it as point and shoot. When things get trickier, the various controls allow good shots to be captured where an 'instamatic' would flounder.

BUT ... the purple fringing problem is real. Bright areas in low light will have a purple splodge around them. And while on minor gripes, the video option isn't as good as other cameras in the same market (thinking of my brother's Sony here) - but I didn't get it for video!

Overall though I love my G5 - I like to think of it as a Leica for the digital age. Since getting the camera I have invested in the optional wide angle and telephoto adaptor lenses and my SLR is now gathering dust at the back of the cupboard.

The Canon PowerShot G5 is a solid Digital Camera that looks great and takes very sharp photos with well balanced colours.

This camera is critisized for having chromatic abberations (purple fringing around bright white parts) but I have not found this to be noticable so far.

The G5 is also critisized for the being able to see the lens through the viewfinder. I expect this is a deliberate attempt by canon to reduce parralax by moving the viewfinder closer to the lens.

Takes amazing photographs.