Canon PowerShot G7 & WP-DC11

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0609/06091405_canon_g7.asp

This must be one the higher quality compacts that has been released with an underwater housing (from the camera manufacturer) in a long time.

It's definitely a cool looking camera. Great styling.

Cheers

James

Looks like one of a few with a hot shoe. I wonder if the WP-DC11 will have a bulkhead.

The first underwater case by Canon for a G Series camera I believe. Can anyone find a picture of what it looks like?

The lens only goes to 35 mm. Can you use an auxiliary wide angle lens with the housing?

That depends entirely on if Inon, Sea&Sea or Epoque will make an adapter. I'm guessing some of them will - most likely Inon.

Haven't seen the housing. Maybe it comes with Nikons strobe socket and 67mm lens thread on the housing.

/Anders

Look at this!

What I've always wanted!!!

If you click around you can also see a picture of the underwater houising - no strobe socket or 67mm port thread.

But Canon dropped the RAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is a link to the housing about 2/5 of the way down

http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/uwphoto/page/16-e.html

I have prices for the housing at around $170

I see a HUGE problem with this housing. Like the housing for the A620, this one too has a rectangular-shaped port. Considering that there is no wide angle/macro support for that housing, I doubt there will be for the G7. However, I'd bet that Ikelite will come through with a housing featuring a strobe bulkhed. How much more expensive it will be is another guess.

I always wondered why Olympus is the only brand with port threads on the housings. None of the other manufacturers offer any kinds of solution for add on lenses. They leave that to third party manufacturers to solve and, as you noted, they’re making it difficult for them to do that.

Why not have a bulkhead on it and make a housing for the 580 flash as well??? Canon seems to be able to make the least expensive, yet reliable housings and having a powerful flash with this seems ideal.

Is it possible to get decent results with NO RAW?

I have not believed so, but maybe it is time to rethink?

I'm not looking for publishing quality, just high end snapshot equivalents.

But without RAW, the color adjustments seem onerous...

Do we know if Ikelite are planning on making a housing for this, with eTTL?

Ikelite is certainly planning on such an animal...............

Is it possible to get decent results with NO RAW?

 

I have not believed so, but maybe it is time to rethink?

 

I'm not looking for publishing quality, just high end snapshot equivalents.

 

But without RAW, the color adjustments seem onerous...

So I don't know what you consider decent, but I've been pretty happy with my old S400 in Canon case with no external strobe. I white balance frequently and know better than to try to shoot too deep( and considerably less so when it's overcast).

It's definately not as nice as what you'd get out of a dSLR shooting raw either with or without strobes, but it's good enough to put together into a slideshow for friends and divers on the trip.

I've got some examples up on flickr here:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=73426581%4...cuba&m=tags

or just skip to these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeywobble/174160361/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeywobble/174161838/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeywobble/174190193/

I've been thinking about upgrading to the g7 before my next trip although after viewing the price for the g7 with enclosure it's pretty tempting to buy the Fantasea case for my Canon Rebel XT(350d) for just a tad bit more.

I see a HUGE problem with this housing. Like the housing for the A620, this one too has a rectangular-shaped port. Considering that there is no wide angle/macro support for that housing, I doubt there will be for the G7.

While at DEMA I asked the folks INON about this... no support because of the rectangular port. So folks with have to see what other housing come out if they want WA and macro.

While at DEMA I asked the folks INON about this... no support because of the rectangular port. So folks with have to see what other housing come out if they want WA and macro.

Alas, the G7 is a big step backwards for the Canon G series, at least where UW photogs are concerned.

The review is out at dpreview:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong7/page5.asp

"The G7's autofocus is actually quite slow in low light or macro mode. Shutter lag when using the LCD is also a little disappointing (though to be fair I didn't personally notice any problems when out shooting; I don't really 'do' action). This is down to the lag in the live view itself (which is around 0.07 secs) - the time between pressing the shutter and taking the picture is a very short 0.05 seconds (approx) - so if you need to use the G7 on a 'hair trigger' - don't use the LCD screen."

The high pixel count leads to poor image quality, relative to all the previous Gs. The lens gives up the f2.0 -f3.0 wide end, and of course the extra tele range is useless to us underwater.

And no raw, on top of this!

I had such high hopes.

Sigh.

Forget this. Forget canon. Might go back and buy a used G6, or a pro1.

Sheesh!

Read this early today.......And have to disagree somewhat....

Yesterday I "Googled" Canon G7 and read some reviews by photographers who actually went out and used the new Canon G7. Overall, it can produce great results and is a nice option for those not wanting a dSLR system.

In short, here's the take I've seen from a Luminous Landscape and a few user's summaries in the forums at www.dpreview.com :

1) AF is fine. It ain't a dSLR, but is certainly faster than previous digicams we've all seen people shooting great photos with underwater. Think Olympus C5050, Fuji E900 to name a couple that aren't "blazing AF speed"

2) Detail at ISO 200 or below is good enough for prints up to 13" X 19". Many users are dialing in -2 for in camera sharpness and applying Noise Ninja or Neat Image with spectacular results.

3) No RAW? Who cares.......I see so many photos taken with RAW that were exposed improperly that RAW ain't going to save them. Learn to get a half way decent exposure.....

4) eTTL2 and DIGIC III works great with external hot shoe fired flash units above or below. Ikelite already has the code circuitry built into their housing and it works as seamlessly as shooting with a Canon 430EX or 580EX above water.

5) No swivel screen? Climb up on a chair, hold it above or get down low for a better angle like you'd do with your dSLR. I don't see why peope whine about this.....Become a dang photographer......

6) F2.0 versus 2.8? The Canon G7 has IS (image stabilization) built in to the camera! Like one f-stop is going to make a difference when most users still stop down to maximize depth of field....IS allows you to shoot at lower ISO settings, too.

I have shot and sold editorial photos with a Canon G6, a nice compact addition to a dSLR. One was a double page shot! The G6 AF wasn't stellar, but with practice can also be used to shoot moving critters. The G7 AF is even faster.....

One trick for wide angle use (an external mounted WA lens) is to select manual focus and pre-set your focus at like 20 inches. Depth of field at f5.0 or smaller will be fine and you essentially have NO shutter lag....Many friends shooting the "old" Olympus C5050 use this technique for WA shooting.....With sharks, dolphins, etc.

I DO think the camera is priced on the high side at $550+, but I've seen many folks saying they bought it for under $500.00 lately. To have a choice and carry one compact camera, I think with practice it can produce photos you'd be shocked at.

I'm likely going to buy one

YMMV

dhaas

Hi David.

I never mentioned the swivel lcd, that obviously is irrelevant to uw use. As is IS, I suspect.

The thing I love about RAW is not exposure but after the fact white balance. To me, getting the colors right with raw is easy, and getting it right with jpgs is hard.

Must just be me though..??

Do you just shoot daylight WB? Or flash WB? Or do you manual WB underwater?

Thanks!

Don

Hey Don,

I thought IS wasn't that good to use underwater, too, but this summer a fellow Canon shooter showed me some pics where he used a IS lens on his dSLR and they definitely improved his results in situations where you might give up shooting (low light at low ISO.)

As far as RAW and tweeking photos.....I am a very, very simple computer adjustment shooter. I use a 20" iMac, calibrated to whatever Apple has as the standard. Shooting Fine / Large JPEG files I tend to do all color, contrast, etc. by eye. I don't obsess over whites looking white at the expenses of colors or tones I want to pop. It's more the overall look of my photos I want to achieve when taking the time to enhance a photo.

Getting a good exposure as I mentioned is the first key before trying to use any program for adjustments. That said, I have been tweeking 90% of my photos in iPhoto's adjustment palette for over a year. It has so much of what I would have to open up my Adobe Elements 3.0 program and is so much quicker for me. If I start shooting RAW (after some coaching from shooters I admire and trust to not fill my head with mumbo jumbo you'll never see in a photo) I might buy Apple's Aperture. Shooters I know who use it love it....

I have also used Elements 3.0 with all my Fine Large JPEGs to create big files for prints up to 16 X 20, etc. and create digital art as shown in one of my galleries. They look fine to my eye and people who have bought prints seem to like them My local photo store makes me 11 X 14 on film type paper, which you can sign with a sharpie and not smear. For $9.95......I can't print it for practically that much in my home office. I have a Canon Inkjet printer for up to 8 X 10s, but tend to print very little enlargements myself. Maybe towards the holidays I'll try some more....

Also, being a lazy shooter I simply set my camera to AWB. Never white balance underwater except when I've shot the Magic Filter and then did it off the sand or whatever coral was the typical gradient I was going to include in my image.

Not sure if this helps you, but on my monitor (and files sent to art directors) so far all have been used with no complaints. I'm sure others who shoot RAW all the time will disagree......A great choice in the good old USA!

dhaas

www.haasimages.com