Canon PowerShot G15 Digital Camera Review

Shooting Modes

The PowerShot G15's crowded mode dial has options for everyone's personal tastes, from traditional PASM modes (Program, Aperture & Shutter Priority, and Manual) to full Automatic, Scene modes, and Creative Filters. Users can also create two custom shooting modes to suit the environments they most often shoot in.

Manual Controls

We've already mentioned that the G15's dedicated exposure compensation dial is a very nice touch, but beyond that there aren't really any manual controls. The lens area looks like it might have a mechanical ring to adjust aperture or focus, but sadly it's just a cover for the conversion lens mount attachment.

Focus

In good light, the G15's focusing is fast and accurate. We rarely found a subject it couldn't lock onto, and those it did fail on were typically of incredibly low contrast. Being a contrast-detect camera (as are all compacts), the G15 simply needs some contrast in a scene in order to autofocus properly. In low light, the G15 is quick to use its powerful AF assist beam in order to find focus, and it works exceedingly well, even in the darkest conditions.

Recording Options

The G15 can record JPEG, RAW, or RAW+JPEG, and you can choose from five different aspect ratios. The default is 4:3, but other options include 16:9, 3:2, 1:1 and the oddball 4:5 in portrait orientation. Each aspect ratio has four resolution settings, meaning that there are a total of 20 different resolution options.

On top of that, you can also choose between Fine and SuperFine JPEG compression. For some reason, the G15 defaults to Fine, and in Automatic shooting modes, it's even impossible to select the SuperFine option. We're not certain why Canon wants to deny their users the choice of getting the best possible image quality out of their camera, but there you go.